Publicizing the overlooked:

Two and one-half billion people, more than a third of the world’s population, lack access to sanitation facilities and infrastructure, making them vulnerable to diseases from dysentery to cholera. Forty-five hundred children die each day from exposure to waste-borne bacteria and parasites, and yet the subject of sanitation is locked in a cultural privy, unmentioned, unmentionable, rarely rising above a dirty joke.

Acumen Fund, an organization dedicated to reducing global poverty, finds value in bringing overlooked subjects to light. Recently, it launched The Search for the Obvious by asking for photos of inventions so familiar they’ve fallen into the groove of modern existence. Among the printing presses, smoke alarms, folding chairs and lip balms that flooded the site, Acumen selected the picture of a sewer. “Okay, now you’re ready for a real challenge,” its website invited: “Sanitation is sexy. Make it obvious.”

“We had a hunch that the creative community was becoming more and more interested in our work,” said James Wu, business development associate at Acumen, which invests in social entrepreneurship in needy regions. Among the ventures it supports is Ecotact, a provider of sanitation services to low-income communities in Kenya.

Sixty participants responded to the challenge with videos, posters, public campaigns, and literary essays.

poster by Kofi Opoku

changeobserver.designobserver.com

The winners of Acumen’s Sexy Sanitation Challenge are posted here:

searchfortheobvious.com