Goodmorning dear followers and happy Saturday!

Hope you having a relax and easy Saturday in front of you. Did you watch my vlogs of Nepal yet? If so, you probably have seen me traveling around Kathmandu and wonderingly ascertain the trash in the rivers of the city. It’s so tragical, I would like to highlight the situation and Dopper who’s bringing change.

The situation

Plastic trash is such an intense and big problem in developing countries. There is simple an overkill of single-use plastics and the developments are not there (yet) to be able to recycle plastics or to re-use it for different purposes. Because of the lack of recycling options, separating and collecting plastics is not an option and plastics are thrown into the everyday trash. And the plastics are undegradable. This pollutes the streets, the rivers, the oceans and nature.

In Kathmandu I was able to face the problem myself. The rivers through the city of Kathmandu are full of trash. Simply because they have no good system to digest all the trash, it gets dropped into the rivers and on the riversides. But these same rivers are used to obtain drinking water, to bath, to wash clothes and to recreate. Kids play on the piles trash. It’s unbearable to think of the trash they drink from, bath and wash in or play with. This is an enormous health issue and spreads dangerous deceases.

I personally felt terrible seeing this enormous problem of thrashed rivers. I felt like bringing all my used plastics home with me. In that way, I could at least bring my used plastics to a place where plastic is recycled and reduce my ecological footprint here. Unfortunately, bringing a backpack home full of plastics wasn’t a realistic option but I took as much as I could (no joke).

The Sunshine Journey

What made me really happy, was the fact I brought my Dopper with me! This cute – pink – RVS bottle is perfect for traveling and to avoid single-use-plastics or paper cups. The RVS bottle is able to isolate cold and hot drinks. In Nepal, all hotels and most restaurants have drinking water taps which makes it possible to re-fill the Dopper with hot or cold water. This way, you save up to four plastic bottles a day. This runs quickly up to 52 plastic bottles in a two-week-stay.

The Dopper Foundation

Next to developing solutions to avoid single-use-plastics, Dopper is aware of the enormous problem of plastic trash in Nepal. Over 3 million people have no access to clean drinking water, and 20 million do not have access to a clean toilet. This is more than half the population! This situation can lead to the spread of dangerous diseases. Dopper therefore fully support Simavi’s water and sanitation projects and its local partners with The Dopper Foundation. This way they fight the lack of access to safe drinking water or proper sanitation, causing life-threatening diseases to spread easily. Dopper works together with good cause Simavi and its local partner NEWAH, (Nepal Water for Health) to support projects involving the installation of safe drinking water systems and toilets. Next to that, Dopper pays attention to the education of women in understanding the importance of clean water and learning to maintain the new systems themselves with the Changemaker Challenge and the Changemaker Challenge Junior. Because women play a key role in the health of their families and this makes it a sustainable solution.

By building wells and pumps and sanitation, and by establishing awareness of hygiene, diseases can be prevented. People will no longer have to walk for hours each day to fetch water, but will be able to devote this precious time to their work or education. This development will allow them to break the vicious circle of poverty.

Review & opinion

Facing the problem in Nepal gave me a stomach ache, because it’s terribly unhealthy. Seeing children playing and washing themselves gaves me shivers. Even though it’s impossible to change the problem alone, I was very happy to not support the problem and being able to re-use my Dopper drinking bottle. Buying this bottle, made me a donator of change and I can only encourage everyone to do the same.

Starting with the first sold bottle of Dopper, The Dopper Foundation has continuesly donated money to Nepal’s water projects. With the donations of Dopper, 18 watersystems have been installed, 473 water taps have been constructed and 2674 tiolets arranged. With these developments, 11.900 inhabitants of Nepal got excess to clean drinking water and another 33.000 Nepali people got educated about hygiene and clean drinking water.

Speaking with other volunteers in Kathmandu, we spoke about educating the children of Tiom Laura Marinka Home to avoid single-use-plastics. Like placing separate trashcans to collect plastics. It would be a perfect fit if each kid here could get a (sponsored) Dopper bottle to teach them the importance of re-use and the awareness of plastic trash. Because changing the mindset of the younger generation is the start of big change!

Which company would be up for the challenge? Let me know in a comment or email.

To find out all about Dopper, their collection and mission, please check: https://dopper.com/