 Good afternoon. I would like to welcome everybody, but I think there are also some special welcomes in order here. Mike's, yes, this works better. So what I said is that I wanted everybody to join me and leave the room. I'm kidding. I hope you stay for a little while, but later on I would like you to join us for a very nice reception, I think. But what I wanted to do is I would like to welcome you and I think a special welcome is in place for some special guests that we have here. And I think I'm quite happy to have a number of representatives of different countries where we are working together for a long, long time. And I even think that maybe I can call them a founding father. That's East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. So I'm very happy that people like that are here and have trust also in the Institute and show their willingness to collaborate. And I hope we can do that. I also would like to welcome my colleagues sitting here up front. Some of them will be your lecturer later this year. So I think in first getting to know each other, I think also quite important. I also would like to very welcome everybody who's online there, but I think the real, real special guests for today are all the new students that we have received. So I really would like to welcome you and I would like to start with an applause. I think that this is the first day of a journey that we will do together. And I think such a journey also deserves a good starting point. So I hope that we stay. We have this starting point here. You're already here for a couple of days, have had the first experience. I think we were quite happy that we also managed to influence the Dutch weather a little bit. So at least you also have not too bad an impression of how the weather looks like here. And that we have a quite nice sunny day, a bit fresh, but still good. Time to come. I think it's something where you will learn a lot of different things. And I think one of the things that you will learn is how you can say absorb knowledge here. But I also hope that you have time to enjoy what you're doing, that you enjoy the learning, that you enjoy the content that you have here, but also the living here together. I hope that you will enjoy the meeting students coming from other countries, that you will get impressions from other cultures, that you also get an impression from the Dutch culture. And I am quite happy to see also two representatives that are organizing the Dutch friends here or meet the Dutch that will also help you to find your way a little bit here in Netherlands, but also get to know how and habits are here in the Netherlands. Also quite happy to see some representatives that made it financially possible for you to be here. Also I think always very important. So I think there's all those people here together. I hope that we can reach out to you together, hold our hands and see how we can make a big success of this journey for the coming year. But I also would like to stress that for us that don't end after this year. So I also hope that this journey is the start of a lifelong journey and that we would like to keep in touch with you, like to walk the path of your life together with you and see how together we can make a success. And I think we need you. We need you very urgently as well. This year is also for the people interested in water, a special year. You probably know that next year there will be a conference in New York. There's a general assembly of the United Nations taking place in March during World Water Day, the 22nd of March, where they will talk about water. That's the second time ever that they will discuss the topic of water. And this is so special because it's a general assembly of the United Nations and normally they talk about all these difficult problems that we see in wars and other crises. But this time they will discuss water. That's not only for the ministers of water. It's also for the presidents, the kings, the queens, all the representatives of the countries to be there. And I do hope that you will help us, not only in sharing this knowledge, but after that I do hope that there will be commitments and that you will help us to fulfill those commitments. So I'm really counting on you that you will join us in this commitment to the water sector and buy water also to achieve all the sustainable development goals that we think are depending on water. So with that I would like to actually give you a little bit of a flavor on what you may expect in the year to come. And for that I would like to ask Hector Casilla to say a few words about I think what interests him in being involved in the water sector. And I hope that that will also be an inspiration to you to listen to more what he has to offer. Hector, the floor is yours. So I'm not that tall so I need to accommodate this. So good afternoon and thank you very much. So I would like first to thank the organizing committee for inviting me today to deliver this speech. And particularly I would like to welcome all the new students to this new academy program at the HEDL. So when I was told when I was invited to give this talk the first thing that came to my mind was that moment when I myself also as a student at some point initiated that very same journey that most of you are studying today. So then I was thinking and I was absolutely sure that I have a picture somewhere of my very first day abroad. And yes, so what I needed to look for that picture I was searching all my hard drives. I find out that I was not very organized with my pictures. It took me an entire Saturday afternoon to look for that my wife and the kids were not that happy with the way that I was spending my weekend. But I have a good news and the good news is that I found it and here it is. This is almost 2005. So if you don't notice I'm the guy on the left side of the picture and of course I gained a little kilos in the in these last 20 years. That was in the airport in Austin, Texas. I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. Well and that was my first day abroad. I was just leaving my home country Uruguay and it was the first time I was leaving my place. I was leaving my family, my friends. So and it's probably the situation with many of you today. So I guess now you are going through similar feelings and emotions I was experiencing those days and that is normal. So I wanted to share something with you that may help and that you probably see this before and probably you're still in what is called the honeymoon phase right. Everything is new so you're meeting new people. Everything is very exciting so far. But let me tell you something things may change a little bit in a few days. First the weather here is it will change the winter is coming is getting cold and dark or dark and cold in that order and the workload at the IT will start to be little demanding. So I'm pretty sure you will find things a little bit more difficult than usual. However I will tell you something that you will adapt you will adjust and at the end this experience is totally worth it. I promise that. So there are many other universities and institutions worldwide that you could have selected to pursue your graduate education. There are hundreds of institutions universities research centers and all of them are great and they offer excellent graduate programs. However none of them have what IT they offer and that is what I see is the opportunity for development is from international partnership and you can see here there are people from everywhere in the planet. At the IT you will be exposed to a very international group of people. IT staff we all come from some work, students, project partners working together in practical and applied research and projects. So you will get a unique opportunity to get exposed to real life projects and real life situations and so you will take that knowledge experience and network back home with you and that is indeed what I think it makes IT quite unique and quite amazing. So through this talk I want to give you some examples of that. I would like to emphasize that even though and of course all these examples of projects that I will show you that I experience they all have some technical challenges of course but I would say that the most important intervention in all of them in all of these projects that I'm going to share with you was to set a strong and collaborative group of people working together to achieve the same goal. The stronger the partnership the better the chances of success in these projects and I'm pretty sure that here at the IT you will have an opportunity to experience that at some point. All right so first this is the first project that I would like to show you so whether it's different in Cuba so we call it the Cuba project. So as you may have heard food security is a big issue in Cuba and that was the main topic of this particular project. Cuba is a great place to work but things are a little challenging over there for instance well the system is different compared to other experiences that I have before. Just a little example everything that we needed for this project we needed to procure to buy it here in Europe and then ship it to Cuba go through all these importation processes there that is not easy to get the equipment there up and running. So if you don't have if you don't work and if you don't develop that strong partnership forget it the project you're done the project is totally over as we experience other projects there. So in this project I will show you two innovations that we were working. So first we were transferring an intensive urban aquaculture system it's called RAS. RAS means Resipulation Aquaculture System. So food security is a big issue there so enhancing the fish production it's something that they they would like. So here you can see in the pictures at the left side this is the drawing the schematic of the Resipulation Aquaculture System that we were building there we just we were growing fish in these tanks and then we were recirculating the water through the biological filters and physical chemical treatment we're not going the types into that but in that way we were saving two very important resources one that you're here it's water of course and the other is energy. So on the right side you see our partners that in Cuba working hard building the systems and getting ready for for the installation of the system and operation. So under what you see is the first fishing event that we have in Cuba we produce six tons of catfish. So the big thing that we achieve through training transferring the technology working together learning together is that we were able to increase the fish density and we were able to produce 125 kilos of catfish per cubic meter of water. In Cuba they were used to get two kilos per cubic meter so that was you know great achieving it's amazing transformation we were able to produce more fish with less resources we were able to recycle water and recycle energy so that was a great achievement but nothing of this could have been achieved if we don't have a strong partnership with our local partners there and that also helped in the institute that we speak Spanish and there are stuff from everywhere so that also helps a little bit. So on the right side of the picture you can see our beauty there I mean the beauty of the catfish that is ugly but it's very tasty it's an ugly fish but you can eat it trust me. All right so that was the first innovation the second it's related to wastewater treatment so in Cuba there are many food processes industries but there is not much wastewater treatment so that we transfer a second technology that is called a membrane bioreactor I will not go into details of that technology but you can see the performance of that technology on the top left figure you can see from left to right the quality of the influent wastewater that we were treating that blackish thing and then the second water shows the quality of the treated water so as you can see it's super nice from just from the eye so and then you can see also that the system produced a sludge what we call a sludge in biological systems and that sludge we are in Cuba that is very sunny it's hot so we put it in a sludge drying box as you see in the picture below left we let it dry and then we got that dry material that is very rich in nutrients in nitrogen and phosphorus and so it's ideal to use as fertilizer so we have water so we have fertilizer so we say why don't we build a greenhouse so we found some nice lettuce and chard and let's say let's do it and that is what we did so and we have a very nice a production again so and again food security is an issue in Cuba so together with our partners we develop a strategy for recovering water for recovering resources and apply that into the food production and again partnership none of this could have been done if we don't set before a strong partnership with our Cuban friends nothing of this could have been done all right the second project I want to show you a second innovation it's in the context of the Syrian refugee crisis in Jordan so we were not working this is a picture of the satari refugee camp in Jordan we were not working in the camp I just put it there to set the the context so in a refugee camp there and probably you heard about that there are high chances of outbreaks of disease like call it outbreaks are probably the most popular if proper sanitation is not provided so in that context and to help to solve this program we developed a technology based on microwaves same microwaves as we have at home for treating a fecal sludge right and by treating fecal sludge I mean sanitizing killing all the pathogens and at the same time dehydrating the sludge removing the water from the sludge so we built this pilot that you can see at the left side of the picture they have some pretreatment systems and microwave systems and we ship it to Jordan I would say I developed a strong expertise shipping equipment on top of the technical issues it is hard to ship it there it's hard to get the importation into Cuba into Jordan in this case all right this is the system so we got a fecal or septic sludge so then we find out that it came from a hospital so very nice it was one week before this crazy COVID started and then at the right you can see again partnership we collaborated with the German Jordanian University and they are our project partners in the site helping us setting up the system so they were conditioning the sludge and at the bottom of the figure so you can see what what what you think is you're thinking is right is that in the number two in the in the bucket so this system we first have a preliminary the water filter press so at the left you see the starting material that is the fecal sludge the septic sludge then that was concentrated that means the water was taking out so you see the sludge that is a little bit more concentrated and blackish and then at the right you see the water that was extracted from that filter so that water at the left side of the figure is treated into some filtration process ultrafiltration then reverse osmosis and we were able to produce a water that the super nice quality water for many different reuse applications irrigation whatever and even if we keep a tree in that water even for drinking water applications and if you build all these social things related to that and at the right you see the the sludge we put in the microwaves and we were able to dry that up to an 80% by solid content and we produce a second product that is that that also has many applications it's very dry it has a very high calorific value that can be used as a few energy that can be incinerated but also it has a rich content in nitrogen phosphorus organic matter that also could be used as a fertilizer so in this project again we convert septic sludge into two valuable resources that are scared in that area and again we were able to do that we were able to do this project by developing first strong partnership mostly in this case with the german jordanian university in jordan and all the water related organizations there and third and the final example that i wanted to to show you and with this i promise i finished is the this project that i think is the best project ever and the only reason is because it's in uruguay but i'm from but it's not the best project ever so and that started is an example of capacity building so it started with the picture you see at the at the left side of the screen so we sign a collaboration with the uruguayan government there in the middle you can see the woman that was the general director of mesco at that time was visiting montevideo where we signed the agreement so we were able to train or we have been training so far 40 water professionals from uruguay that they come to ag as you are here today to get their education at master and phd level but also we find out that not everybody could get a scholarship so you were lucky that you get one but none of your colleagues could get the same scholarship as you got so we were thinking on how can we improve the number of people or how can we expand our outreach and the idea was to take the programs there and that is what we were doing simultaneously around 2011-2012 our research group got a project financed by the bill melinda gates foundation to to build a sanitation master program of one year master program here in delt and then to transfer that program to southeast asia and to sub-saharan afric so those were the reasons where the gates foundation they have interest but also we were able to convince our partners from uruguay to uptake to adopt that program and that is what we did so this year in may 20 may of this year so we started a master program we were taking 10 courses for two different specializations here in delt and we were able to build that program in uruguay that started in may this year so what was nice of that program so we don't know if we will get enough people we get 40 participants on the on the first year of the program so you can see people doing research in the lab and the group picture below but not only we were able to put the students from uruguay but also students from from the region there so that shows that you know there is a high interest on that and there's a way of expanding our outreach so the take on message i want to tell you that if i was able to build in this program in my home country in uruguay i think also most likely you also can play a key role in your home country when you finish your education here contributing to strengthening the water sector there in your country all right so by this i finish but i talk a lot about partnership but i also want to acknowledge all our partners that were able to contribute to this project and our partners in cuba the agency there our partner in jordan in uruguay in eslovenia our phd participant working in this project and of course our team in in our research group dami was fundamental to get most of this project carlos helped and got the cuba projects tinega the on the jordan project and the other colleagues tina claire francisco alex and she is helping with the project in uruguay beren is not in our research group but we like him and we adopt him in the in the group well with this i would like to finish with my intervention i want to thank you all for your attention and i wish you all the best and much success in your study thank you thank you hector continue with a surprise interlude at ight she dealt we find social and cultural i verify the president of the social student association board uh mr among may not the first was how many of you knows what that street is miriam webster defines it as a meal or other entertainment for which each person pays his or her own away and in this memorable occasion let me share with you some of the learnings for me to deserve my place at the reception later but first i have a question what do the dutch and the rest of the world need for kissing yeah we need tulips tulips giving aside tulips the flowers are best during spring and while we're in autumn think that each one of you who signed up for this ight she dealt journey from africa the americas asia and europe are just like these tulips that the world expects to bloom in jew time with the right amount of nurturing with less sunshine so how do you bloom first share a meal with someone in the short run each one of you will become master chefs in the making so devour in the rich coma flavors of filipina dobo and chinese soup and dumplings of columbian arepa and ecuadorian colada morada italian pasta american burger with german beer of course and kenya nubalia or zimbabwean uh sadzah with a little bit of ganasito you may even find yourself at the lunch table with eddie or charlotte or ih e leaders and in the shared experiences like this you will find comfort to start continue and end your day second share moments to play whenever you can my idea of play in this context is to travel and see the old world my first international trip with the ih e family was during the last year's christmas holidays we closed the bars in prog and budapest had the experience of covid 19 restrictions going to sofia and welcome the new year with southeast asians afghan brothers and indian families and they suffered that most of the nina residents actually had covid so for most of you this will also be the first time to celebrate christmas and the holidays away from home so if you suddenly miss the andes mountains in peru caribbean beaches in jamaica goyana or the latin american parties in argentina nexico or nicaragua plan ahead your visit to switzerland france spain or the nordic countries and we hope that the visit to the dutch sand dunes organized by our lovely social cultural office ladies by the end of the week can make up for your southern longing of the moroccan and egyptian deserts third share your knowledge and wisdom at ish edav each one of us is trained to be a techno manager meaning the modules are designed to find the interplay between the soft and the hard sciences and prepare us to contribute to the aims of sustainable development with a holistic and pragmatic lens we come from different educational and professional backgrounds for me who had been in the public sector for a decade i found myself sharing space with private sector practitioners from lebanon burkina faso yemen laibiria zambia for example this year we will have colleagues from malawi shere leon niger somalia shilanka lidia eritaya cameroon mali among others so sharing your local knowledge and wisdom to others can provide an avenue for you to find solutions to local and regional concerns from the watershed of exchanges at ish edav and beyond this practice of sharing led me to partner with awad on a project related to urban water flows in a nation context or share your time to listen intently as an educator myself teaching economics to genzy learners i find time to listen more to students at ish edav a similar strategy is done by listening to life stories that each one of you has to offer and is willing to share indeed it is also value adding to listen may it be about the recent brazilian elections the issues concerning the great ethiopin renaissance done the climate related challenges in the mekong delta bangladesh maldives or infigi or all the price dynamics of the opi countries in iran so the arabia ua e nigeria and congo through this intentional listening each one of you will grow your perspective of the world with water as dependent variables to these stories to sum it up to share is to care we are all here because we care for the future of water we are here because at one point in our lives we believe that we can nurture the flow of what needs to be done towards the achievement of sustainable development and in june time we as tulips will bloom thank you and let us continue to live in winnie thank you for your brave words we now continue with the next issue in a program it's the olumni awarding and for that i asked my dear colleague mariella thank you ani distinguished guests alumni yeah colleague and students my name is maria laura sorrentino i'm a alumni officer at tai chi delf and i would like to congratulate all new students on this commencement of their studies at tai chi delf congratulations and good luck and all the best but today we also celebrate the alumni day why because many professionals our alumni also have started their studies at the institute one day in october november before for you and i chi has more than 23 000 alumni worldwide and they form the biggest water professional network in the world they are our best ambassadors the best ambassadors at tai chi has and we are very very proud of them in this ceremony we have the pleasure of awarding one of our exceptional alumni this year we will have the eighth alumni award at tai chi delf the award is given annually to an alumna or alumnus who has proven to be a role model for other water professionals 38 nominations were received this year and the jury members were very impressed and with the overall quality of the work and their proposals good i would like to invite to the podium our rector eddie morse to announce the alumni award winner of this year at tai chi delf so thank you maria laura and i also think that this is always a very special moment and maybe this this is a double special one and that has to do with the fact that besides being somebody who did a lot of work i think our alumni winner of this year took a little bit of time to do a bit of her last studies and the last studies is a PhD degree she had a good reason to do that but one of the reasons was also that and was covid and that was not the only reason but i come back to that later on but i am now in the happy position that because of covid we were not allowed to give physical appreciation on what she did that is finishing her PhD that we can do that now so i would like to call on stage uh joy so not all our aluminum winners also have this sort of treatment here so joy this is a special one i was the vice chair of your opposition so you had to defend the work that you did your thesis and you all congratulated you virtually which is really not the same as doing that in person and the thing that we did not manage to push through the screen was this and i know that if you don't get this in a physical way people at home will ask yeah okay you said you did your PhD degree but can you prove that no i can't because i i have nothing to prove um so i i would like to congratulate you and now i need a little bit uh my my notes there because i like a short title and joy did not manage to give a short title for a PhD thesis so i need a piece of paper to read out the title and the title is offsite enhanced by goss production with concomitant pathogen removal from facial matter and that's a little bit in line with what hector was showing before but i do think that that joy managed to do different things with it and i'm first going to congratulate you with your PhD and then i will say a few words why we think you are such a huge award-winning deserving alumina thank you and as you all know when when you do your PhD degree and you do your exam there you have to um have one hour in which you have to answer all the questions that people pose to you and i think that joy did that in an excellent way and when um she then was also put forward as one of our alumni uh excellencies we have a big number of them i always think that we just pick out one um but there's a little bit like choice as well because a lot of our alumina are doing great work what struck me myself quite a lot and um joy i think you're now working at the the middle university in in Kenya uh you're doing of course a lot of work that is also asked from you being academic working at university but what struck me the most was actually that you have such a big drive not to only do this but also to take um youngsters and also some elderly people but especially youngsters and then females by the hand and try to push them actually on the part of development and as you may know sanitation is is a big issue in that in a lot of countries sanitation is thought that it's a given thing but in a large number of countries it's not like that and often um women are more suffering from the lack of sanitation than men are doing in a lot of different ways so i also think that uh i choose in one to do this uh getting women there but also being a role model because that's another issue being a role model for um yeah female students to follow the part in technical science like sanitation is actually i think deserves a big big big big applause and that's what i would like to give to you and uh like you have a proven thing for your PhD degree you also would like to give you something to show that you are our award winner so mariela so with that i would like to give the floor to joy because i think she can be an inspiration to also all of you here she used to me and uh joy to my precious thank you very much for the invitation without protocols observed good evening actually today i'm lost for words completely lost for words this is indeed a special honor and what i can say i'm really grateful to all my seniors and mentors for helping me come this far it's really a great honor i feel i have no words to express how i'm feeling now there were a lot that have gotten today to remain an inspiration to me an inspiration to keep being focused an inspiration to always achieve more in the future a constant reminder of my commitment that i remember when i was leaving i g in the earth that i'll live to serve humanity i said i'll live to serve humanity because was it not for humanity i would never have studied it was through the scholarships that i got that i managed to be here i came to serve a purpose i knew the challenges in kenyan so when i was coming here i knew i had to get a solution i was helped to study and meet these challenges when i left i knew i had to get this solution for my people and this award will always remind me that i am on the right track and i'll achieve first i want to recognize the immense contribution and the achievements from all alumni across the world i know i'm not the best we are doing a lot to promote the name of ii the name of ii across all the countries is burning we are there actually we are all winners that's what i can say today i'm serving my second year i graduated in january last year 20th of january that's when i joined the alumni network so actually i'm serving my second year since that time i've been involved in quite a number of activities since the time i left here my journey in my activities started when i left this particular institution to work on my basis that was in the year 2016 the year 2016 i was done with my field work and i was feeling that i could do my research my dissertation and publications from my country that is where my family was so i left but when i was going i had this this skills i had could make a change that was my installation when i reported to my place of duty i worked with my university of science and technology i've been serving there since 2012 when i was recruited as an assistant lecturer so when i received duty in my mind there were two things to change the situation of my country to get solutions and to write to work on my publications work on my versus and graduate when i went back more news awaited me i was given an appointment as the dean school of engineering and architecture that was in december of 2016 i felt this is maybe too much i may not be able to but i decided to take on the challenge i successfully served two terms i was in charge of great teaching departments civil engineering electrical and mechanical engineering but when i was still doing this i was still working on my research i was still thinking about sanitation programs and research in my university we didn't have anything like this in Kenya we didn't have that and i was how do i get in to do this so when i'm still serving as the dean i decided to initiate i worked on a proposal to my management and said i have something to offer to the community i'm seeking to establish sanitation research and programs in my university of science and technology initially it was not easy but in detail it was possible so in september of 2019 a center was formed sanitation research center that was in september of 2019 i am there with all the technologies i know about fecal waste management in my culture we don't talk about human waste for me coming to itch had given me that exposure to change my mind i wasn't attached to those beliefs but then this is a community i needed to show them it is possible so the next thing i worked on is establishing a treatment unit within the university managing waste from sanitation from our education complex there was resistance about why are you taking these human waste where will you do that but the issue is university we have a huge chunk of land 650 acres so i was given the farthest corner to put up my plant initially people are not willing to join me there but i assured them it was okay i was using only one technology the black soldier play because it's very easy to establish and learn so with the time they came on board they started to come to buy protein for their chicken i had the people now in my pocket i was very happy within this time that i'm proving that it is possible we can change being done i'm still thinking about programs i'm the only one who knows this what do i do one person can't change so i'm thinking how do i now get these programs i started short courses three-course lunch two weeks these same people don't want to come because it's it's shit but with the time i got some people to train i started training the short courses then when i'm still doing this i'm still wondering about how do i get people to study so lack came in 2019 when we got a grant by ij delft transfer of sanitation programs to universities in africa and asia that was a dream come true i got this particular project and launched the program in january 2020 i was very happy that i now had people who could afford that program in africa coming here you only get one but in africa the tuition and everything is not as high as here so i got my first bunch of 45 students girls and men being a woman and knowing what the challenges which are there i started you know running after the university exploring possibilities of partial funding to girls please fund these people i succeeded my girls got partial scholarship this was another milestone that i got so i can say that up to date across the programs that you have master of science in sanitation graduate professional diploma and short courses i have 284 students who are in class and i'm very proud of them when i got this it was still raining in my mind that it's not complete when these students are done with masters where do they go career progression will they go to europe for their phd i said no so i immobilized to my team again we did a phd curriculum phd in sanitation i already have applications the students are coming in january and i feel i did good on that after that i looked back bachelor's i developed a curriculum for bachelor of science in sanitation the curriculum is complete we are expecting the first batch government sponsored students in may of next year so when i'm that i see my vision of having sanitation programs in kenya is in line it is complete like now the students you're getting for sanitation are drawn from across the field so the the curriculum is heavy because you have to bring all of them to board but now when i have this line complete from the bachelor's it will be very easy to have the students being trained when i was still doing this i was still pursuing the university i was not comfortable with the center because it was nowhere within the university statutes i pushed them a bit further in april of last year a direct toilet was started direct toilet of sanitation research institutes that was in april of 2021 i was given now that to lead as the director that's why i say i'm the director sanitation research institute that's my baby a baby that i want to help walk around 2020 i realized students have issues especially research sanitation when you go to labs people don't want you to bring this shit in their lab my students were suffering and then i said no i have to do something i searched for some funds and built a structure a set of that free course launch management lab it is complete the project i have now is equipping already i have equipments will facilitate some studies but it's not complete so the project i'm working on now is to ensure that that lab will be able to accommodate students from across the region because you'll be having all that it will take for all the samples to be analyzed in that particular lab then at the at the country level we have issues about sanitation i had a lecture in the morning and i was being asked how do you get to talk to the government people i got an entry point we now have created a lab called i'm able to be invited in forums when they're having their breakfast meetings i'm called to present inside of key importance is when we're doing the national sanitation management policy my input was very key that policy is just a way thing to be signed once it is signed i'm sure whatever it takes to promote sanitation to enhance sanitation has been captured there once it's implemented i'm hopeful that the sanitation space will start taking shape then for also for the students that i'm dealing with most of them may accommodate them in my ongoing projects after coursework the students are supposed to go for research and that is the point you normally lose students in kenya because you have the students after coursework they're supposed to get to their research so that when they go for research issues of money they just disappear so i have projects so i invite the students to come and work on research in projects actually addressing the issues on the ground then at the community level i'm smart and i'm seriously focusing on girls and women empowerment we have an association in kenya that is called women in water and sanitation this was started in the year 2016 this particular forum focuses on raising awareness on issues of gender equality women empowerment and inclusivity in the water and sanitation sector this forum is a voice for sanitation we want to make the invisible visible in this particular forum i am the chair research and capacity building committee additionally last year 2021 i started initiative that is called women build science women build science because i am a woman i have grown through the process i know the challenges i want to reach out to the girls in primary and secondary school i want to empower them so that as a group they are prepared to take up the challenges and also take up the leadership roles i want them to know who they are and appreciate who they are so while doing all that i'm still a mother to two boys at the peak of everything in 2019 i got a baby i was multi-tasking nothing failed so now that is what i've done but what did it take to be there my journey is something that is very difficult to talk about actually i'm just here to tell the new students everything is possible and and everything is possible as long as you have the focus and commitment to make it happen it doesn't matter what you have but you know where you are going as a young girl i grew up in a very remote village peace at parents a very humble when i was growing up we had all the challenges i'm from a family of eight five girls and the three boys my mother was a housewife we know the rope mother spray in their upbringing so she had all the challenges there was trouble for everything water and sanitation is something you don't even want to remember about by that time i remember we had a very poor peak latrine that was 100 meters from the house and the mango trees that's where our toilet was within that compound there were three homestays the children and the adults were about 40 that's what you are sharing so today when i get publications talking about open defecation i relate i know that i've done it that is where it was then and then that particular time when i was growing up we were supposed to take care of our brothers as we were shown fresh water your that is shit go and draw that shit in the toilet that is the type of life that i passed through when i could remember about and think about getting married and getting babies and seeing how what my mother passed through reading about gender based violence have seen it with my eyes so i really never wanted to imagine that my kids would go through that i was wondering how can i change the life of these kids how can i change this community in particular i was so much focused on water and sanitation within the village getting ascares the the worms themselves you find open defecation but it's not shit it's a heap of worms that could hurt my feelings the good thing is my parents though at that level devalued education i went through primary school and secondary school though almost always at home because of fee there's no fee i was focused i did well in train the public university that's it at one university and that government sponsorship that is when there was lights that's when that's the first the time i spent a semester in school without going home and that was done i did my my degree and completed the five year program then after that i was interested in passing a masters when do i get to this masters under that particular moment there was this issue with women in engineering this something had also been instilled in us you don't have that confidence to talk about what you can be able to do yes you have it but you don't have the confidence even to talk about what you have which was a very big challenge so it took me seven years after my first degree to think about my masters and then that was in the year 2008 i really didn't have money but i felt i had to do this i felt this was the only way that could set me free i went to jamaica university of science and technology and joined a masters in environmental engineering and management when i was going there between me and puberty i had seven hundred u.s dollars that is what i had i was i just said i have to get this thing i went and registered fortunately there was no issue of being sent home for fee so i did coursework and did extremely well there was an exchange program between jacquardt and the university in finland la pelanta university being the best student i got that i went to finland going to finland i did my work i prepared my dissertation and came back when coming back i'm rich i was paid i have stipend so i came and paid my fee and i graduated record the time of two years after graduating i got a party time job at kenya water institute i started one year 2012 i got the appointment now for meru university of science and technology as a assistant lecturer the same year there was the call and i called for p to the students 20 p to the students on on resource oriented sanitation this is where my heart was and i said why not try i tried this was in april in around the main i received a call from my prof yaban lia he have given you this position i was very happy and from there the rest i can say his history i joined it very good supervision team very nice environment very nice stuff and by the year 2016 my coursework my project my research work was like done that's when now i traveled to kenya to start doing what i had learned because i had that particular call so like like you hear that story was not easy it's only that i knew what i wanted i had no connections but i had the focus and i believed i could make it so for the newcomers don't worry about where you came from or how you got that opportunity to be here have the focus have the commitment and push forward just know what you want to do what do you want to acquire it will be able to give you all that for the award that i have here i can only dedicate it to all professionals in the water and sanitation field let us push to serve humanity and to my ministry of water and sanitation kenya visiting serves as an assurance that small steps in the right direction will ultimately make a change in what you have in kenya so it doesn't need to be abolished it just needs to start small and we'll be able to get there so what we can be able to say there's nobody who is safe we are not safe here if people out there are not safe nobody is safe until we are all safe i can say that i am and will continue being a sanitation ambassador my efforts may be few they may look insignificant owing to the magnitude of the challenges that are there but just like our famous Nobel Peace Prize winner professor let professor longari madai said i will be a hand in that i will do the best i can thank you so much thank you for your inspirational words we now continue with the vice rector of iq delt shall look at the you know what shall i say after such an address like this i mean i i feel that thank you joy for this incredibly inspiring story and and if uh if you want more want me to hear more from joy there is a lunch seminar uh tomorrow it's called the water practice container based sanitation and it's uh quarter to one 1245 in b1 so it's a small auditorium so um as as we said my name is charlotte the fit here i'm a vice rector and as such a responsible for the for the education i'm probably as excited as you are about this day for me it's it's really personally also a great day because we started a new master program the master in water and sustainable development we have been working hard and thinking deep on on how to make this a good interesting and and really worthwhile program and and so i would like to to say a few words on on what you may expect and uh that we put a lot of emphasis more than we did in previous years on active learning and active learning is is an active process and for you the new students that already started a few before you came here we asked you what do you want to learn in delft while being here think of what what are your learning goals what what do you want to do with that knowledge what where we want to use it for and so that's we asked you to write some uh learning objectives and also the program is flexible or as flexible as possible to accommodate that and you can choose your own uh uh topics and your own learning trajectory and and of course uh we we uh um um we we assigned you a coach for supporting that in that in in kind of creating that learning uh learning trajectory so i hope you and i think you met them all the coaches by now uh and and so i i hope that you could also already uh get to know other uh some of our staff our coaching staff and teaching and as well as the teaching staff um there you go uh active learning is is also about applying the new knowledge so we took an effort just to make sure that that the courses are designed such that you get the opportunity also to apply your newly learned uh knowledge and uh active learning is also not a lot not only about uh knowledge but also about skills so there will be a lot of emphasis on research skills presentation skills critical reading academic writing working in multidisciplinary groups and debating and also communication of science science communication the another aspect that's the multidisciplinary so as we already heard now and the water is by its definition is a multifaceted and multidisciplinary disciplinary uh uh issue a challenge right so you cannot solve any water related problems with your own discipline with one discipline uh so if you look around in this room here we have a lot of disciplines we have a lot of backgrounds we have a lot of uh different perspectives not only in this room but also if you leave this room and you go in your classroom in the canteen in the emina in the way you will live or where you already live there's a lot of different people and different i think hector also mentioned it and about the many disciplines and internationalities that that are here so this is basically an ideal environment to look at water challenges from the different perspectives and from the different angles ecologists they have a very different perspective on water than say diplomats or social scientists or biologists or a chemist so and i hope you can be open to these different viewpoints and that you will look learn to look differently at water you of course you are a very diverse group and of course it's very tempting to you know choosing your own discipline to be in your own little bubble with your own country um people from your own country however i i hope i really sincerely hope that you take this truly unique opportunity to get out of your own comfort zone and basically reach over to other country other people from other countries but also from other disciplines and i hope you really can disagree with each other and and have a good debate on and really bring out those different perspectives and that's only where the creativity comes from that we need for addressing these water challenges so we have a very small institute so you will get to learn us as the sub chair was already saying that you'll see us at the lunch table you see each other at the lunch table um and i hope sincerely hope that you gain a lot of new friends here from the teaching staff but of course also from your from from your roommates your classmates and because basically that's what we all need right for now i mean if you read the newspaper you really need uh well the for for addressing the water challenges and you really need you basically we really need inspired passionate and bright water professionals so i i hope that you will enjoy your time here in this in in ihe but also thereafter um finally to get you to here to delve there were a lot of hard work and preparation to get you through the admission process the flight tickets visa etc etc so i also would like to um say the people who made this possible to get you here where you are now um and one more before i finish and we go because did you manage this did you notice the smell the nice sweet smell that came from okay yeah but it's it's we need to go there but before we go there right uh we would like to facilitate a meet and greet between our new students and the representative of the embassy uh and and also some people from the rotary also in here so right after we leave this uh the auditorium the cortege leaves the auditorium the auditorium uh we would like to invite the people the special guests from the embassies to go just outside here look for the flag of your country uh and that i would the rotary i think also has a has a small table with a flag or a banner uh then i would like to ask the students here to look up uh the flag of your country if if there is if it's a representative here and and basically meet up with the with the staff of your embassies here um then after you found each other and hopefully had a quick chat please join us downstairs for the festivities and enjoy the touch treats and well you gave a different definition i will give the the the treats you will you will taste downstairs here so with that i would like to close the ceremony and i wish you a wonderful wonderful wonderful time at iq delt thank you