Changing
lives in
communities
worldwide

Our course in Water Sanitation and Health Engineering (WASH) is Europe’s only MSc focused on delivering effective water supplies in Africa, Asia and Central and South America.

Your support enables professionals from around the world to come to Leeds, learn alongside other international students, and return home armed with the skills to face the issues of their own communities. This work exemplifies the University's strategic commitment to addressing global inequalities.

Enock Chitakwa, an Environmental Health Officer at Zambia's Ministry of Health, was one of several students who took up this award with the support of a Treadgold Award. The awards, open to applicants from Africa and Asia, were established by the family of the late Matthew Treadgold, a former WASH student who was passionate about using engineering for social good.

Says Enock: “I am so grateful for this funding which will hopefully see me contributing at a level that can impact on many more lives.”

WASH students also benefit from the expertise of alumni whose inspirational stories show the difference this work can make in some of the poorest communities in the world. For Edoardo Bono, the lightbulb moment that changed his life – and the lives of countless others – came during a family holiday to Madagascar in 2011.

Italian-born Edoardo (MSc Water, Sanitation and Health Engineering 2017), then in his early 20s, saw first-hand the desperate lack of bathroom and toilet facilities available to people living in some of the island’s most impoverished villages. He left determined to make a difference – and he is now doing exactly that, both in Madagascar and by giving back to the University.

Edoardo founded not-for-profit organisation Help For Optimism (H4O) which aims to ensure that vulnerable people in disadvantaged parts of the world enjoy basic human rights, including clean water, sanitation and hygiene.

“One milestone at Leeds was reconsidering the meaning of the word ‘innovation’ as it applies to WASH engineering. An innovation is not just the latest high-tech advancement that optimises life in western countries; real innovation is bringing basic facilities to those places where those human rights are not yet guaranteed.”

Now with 20 staff, H4O has constructed dozens of sanitation facilities in Madagascar, built new toilets for schools and healthcare sites, launched a social enterprise producing toothpaste and soap, and run hygiene promotion workshops.

And Edoardo is a keen believer in maintaining links with his old university and recently gave a talk on campus explaining how the course had directly influenced the nature of the projects carried out by H4O. Three engineering students have also travelled to Madagascar for stints assisting the H4O team. He also volunteers as a member of the advisory board for the Treadgold Awards.

“When I talk to current students, I tell them, if you’ve an idea and passion, develop it,” he says. “Gain specialist knowledge and you can turn it into reality.