SmartPhones4Water First Newsletter of 2018!

SmartPhones4Water (S4W) leverages the power of mobile technology and citizen science to improve lives by strengthening our understanding and management of water.  Work is currently underway on our first pilot project in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal (S4W-Nepal). We appreciate your interest and support! :)

Four Things You Should Know About!

1. We made a video about our mission as an organization and specifically about our project in Nepal and the problem we are seeking to address! If you're not into the idea of clicking on the link above to watch it, you can find it on Youtube here. Please watch it (at least once, but multiple viewings are encouraged) and please consider sharing it with your friends :)
2. We're in the midst of a fundraising campaign to raise $15,000 to continue our project in Nepal through 2019! If you donate, 100% of your donation will go to on-the-ground work in Nepal to support either citizen scientists, Nepali employees, or equipment and overhead costs (none will go to stateside expenses or involvement). You can donate through our fundraising page on CrowdRise here, or if you'd like to donate more than $100, please email us (info@smartphones4water.org) to find out how to donate directly to SmartPhones4Water (CrowdRise takes about 10% of every donation for their operations).
3. With the goal of sharing ideas and experience in water-related research with university students and faculty members, S4W-Nepal completed its first workshop with Kantipur Engineering College (KEC) on January 14th with the KEC Civil Club. The program was entitled 'Workshop on Water Science and Technology' and was a success with over 100 enthusiastic participants. Presenters included Anurag Gywawali (S4W-Nepal Staff), Mr. Kamal Katuwal (KEC Civil Engineering Department faculty), and Rararam Prajapati (S4W-Nepal President). A special thanks to all of the participants and the KEC family! Some photos from the event can be seen below.
4. The Cool Green Science blog by the Nature Conservancy recently published an article about our work in Nepal. You can find it at the link below:

• I Think I'm Going to Kathmandu: Citizen Science for Freshwater in Nepal

S4W-Nepal Stories!

In case you just can't get enough, here are some other stories about our work. Each month (or so) we publish either an interview with a citizen scientist or science story about what we're doing. Check them out below! :)

Photos from the KEC Workshop on 1/14!

Ways YOU Can Get Involved!

If you'd like to participate or invest in what we're doing in a small (or large) way, we are always looking for both old SmartPhone donations or monetary donations (especially with our focused fundraising effort mentioned above). With either type of donation, 100% of your donation will go directly to on-the-ground work in Nepal! You can find out more information about these opportunities below.

Cell Phone Donations
Do you have an old SmartPhone sitting on a shelf or in a drawer somewhere collecting dust? Well, we can use it! Immediately!  Many people living in the rural outskirts of the Kathmandu Valley are interested in becoming citizen scientists, but don't have a compatible GSM Android phone with working camera and GPS to perform the necessary measurements. Your old SmartPhone can make a difference by providing an educational or employment opportunity for a citizen scientist and by generating critical water data in the Kathmandu Valley!

Each citizen scientist records their data observations using a SmartPhone app developed using the ODK platform (read more about this here). As our team of citizen scientists continues to expand, we are looking for phone donations that can be used by our team to collect this important data. All phones that are able to be used in Nepal will be given to citizen scientists to record data observations; all other phones will be recycled and 100% of the funds generated will go towards continuing work in Nepal.

Phone donations from the USA or internationally can be shipped to the following address:

SmartPhones4Water
3881 Benatar Way, Suite G
Chico, CA 95928
USA

Monetary Donations
If you don't have an old cell phone, not to worry, you probably have some money and we're willing to take that too :)

We have a donation account set up through CrowdRise that you can find here. Apart from the percentage of every donation that CrowdRise takes for their operations, 100% of your donation will go directly to on-the-ground work in Nepal (i.e. S4W-Nepal salaries and expenses). No money will be used for western (i.e. USA) overhead, including salaries and expenses. If you'd like to donate more than $100, please email us (info@smartphones4water.org) to find out how to donate directly to SmartPhones4Water.

If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading our entire newsletter! Look for the next one in about three months! In the meantime, we'd love to hear from you :)