Kathmandu: The End Water Poverty (EWP) Campaign, a coalition of civil society members working in the sector of water and sanitation has nominated actress Jharana Thapa as a sanitation brand ambassador for a year. She was nominated as the brand ambassador at the function organized in the capital on September 19 with the aim of raising awareness on sanitation.

Speaking at the program, actress Thapa assured that she is ready to raise awareness actively on sanitation sector. According to the organizers, the nomination of ambassador is a part of celebration of International Year of Sanitation (IYS) 2008, which was declared by the United Nation.
“Celebrities have played a crucial role throughout the world to make people aware of social issues,” said Anamika Singh Bhandari, coordinator of EWP Campaign.

Executive Director of Lumanti Support Group for Shelter Lajan Manadhar said, “We have selected actress Jharana Thapa as the sanitation brand ambassador due to her friendly nature and her commitment to work in this sector continuously.” She added that many public awareness and awareness programmes will be led by actress Thapa which will be launched by locals, government and non-government organizations. A statistics was made public in the programme that around 13,000 children below five years of age die of different diseases in Nepal due to lack of sanitation facility. In the programme, Certificates of Appreciation were also distributed to the volunteers of different organizations who contributed in different activities and programmes of the End Water Poverty Campaign in Nepal.

Source: The Kathmandu Post; The Himalayan Times; Naya Patrika; Nepal Samacharpatra; Annapurna Post; Rajdhani; Kantipur, September 20; Gorkhapatra, September 21, 2008