The Raincoat Foundation was founded in 2015 by Mikaela and Peter Granström. Clean water is a non-issue to most swedes as it flows on demand from every tap around our cities, villages and homes. To some 650 million people on this earth it just doesn’t happen that way. We didn´t start Raincoat with a clear idea or game changing innovation but what we can do is to give to those individuals and organisations that have a plan. Our policy is simple – We support initiative that will create awareness and knowledge where it is low and we support solution-oriented water projects where our actions will make a real difference.

Raincoat launches digital presentation screens at Stockholm Junior Water Prize

September 6th 2018

Each year, the Stockholm Junior Water Prize (SJWP) congregates young scientists and innovators from around the world who have created new solutions to the planet’s growing water challenges.

All these brilliant young minds see opportunity and hope where others find only challenges and despair. This year 48 finalists gathered to present their cost-efficient and immediate solutions, applicable the world over.

For three years in a row The Raincoat Foundation has been hosting the SJWP Welcome dinner. This year, for the first time, the foundation also sponsored digital iPosters enabling the finalists to present their projects according to a set framework which not only gives a more vivid experience but also lets the projects live on for eternity on SJWP platforms such as Water Tank.

-It was wonderful to see the change that the iPosters did. They were very appreciated both by the jury and the finalists and made it easy for everyone to discover what the projects where all about. These are fantastic young kids with great
ideas and we are so happy to be able to contribute by sponsoring the iPosters, says Mikaela and Peter Granström, both founders of the Raincoat Foundation.

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Presentation jury

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Raincoat dwell in Ethiopia is in place

April 10th 2018

In 2016, The Raincoat Foundation made a substantial investment to support Charity Water and their mission in Ethiopia as an official Water Project Sponsor. Finally the dwell is in place.

Constructing clean water points is a time-consuming business, and over the past 21-months the Charity Water team has been dedicated to the high-quality implementation of the drilled well project that was funded by Raincoat Foundation.

We are now happy to report that our dwell in Ethiopia is in place in a community called Mukuiam-Atekna and that it serves 255 people in that community.

Over the last 30 years, people in Ethiopia have suffered greatly due to both political unrest, and increasingly unpredictable climate change. And, as often happens in developing countries, the people who are hit the hardest live in the poorest, most isolated regions—places where securing the basic necessities of life is a daily struggle for more than 82 million people.

Charity Water had a milestone year 2017, serving over 1.2 million people.

The Raincoat Foundation are happy to have been able to support their work and we are confident they will continue their great mission to solve the water crisis in our lifetime.

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Raincoats sponsors coralproject

March 14th 2018

Coral bleaching is an increasing problem and has a negative impact on coral and fish communities. The Raincoat Foundation has sponsored the Marine Savers in the Maldives with a project that hopefully will help the coral grow again.

– We are excited to sponsor this project and hope to see the colours returning to the reefs in the Maldives, says Mikaela Granström one of the founders of Raincoat Foundation.

Read more at: Marinesavers.com

The coral frames are being photographed every 6 months.
The coral frames are being photographed every 6 months.

With passion for water


February 6th 2018

Despite having participated in numerous science fairs, the
 Stockholm Junior Water Prize (SJWP) 2017 remains one the most
 memorable experiences for Krtin Nithiyanandam who participated last year.

Krtin Nithiyanandam is a 17-year student from London. This is his story from his SJWP experience 2017.

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With one clear goal in mind – to identify
 student innovation within water research – the SJWP enhances
 a common interest present within each of the finalists and
 provides an opportunity for students to showcase their water
 research to an active and interested global community.

My passion for water-research stems from my desire to be 
able to advance global health. I believe that democratizing
 access to basic humanitarian resources, such as water, will
 allow humanity to combat disease, famine and malnutrition. 
I see sustainable, and accessible, water-purification as a 
means of accomplishing this goal and it was this realization 
that inspired my entry to the SJWP – which was a cellulose-based
 bioplastic capable of cheaply removing several water pollutants.

The SJWP international jury was comprised of experts from 
all areas of water research, from civil engineering to science 
communication. Their intuitiveness and ability to constructively 
scrutinize our research from professional perspectives 
was particularly outstanding; the international jury rapidly 
picked up on the intricate details mentioned in our oral
 presentations and ascertained their applications. For example, 
Professor Yoshihisa Shimizu explored the potential use of my
water-purifying bioplastic to clear the radioactive water pollutants 
around the Fukushima coast in his native Japan, and 
Ms. Fabienne Bertrand was particularly interested how my 
research was socially sustainable so it could be effectively implemented
 in countries like Haiti, where she is predominantly 
based.

Although a competition with a singular focus on water,
the SJWP encourages projects spanning several disciplines,
from bio-engineering to social policy; I hadn’t realised how 
diverse a field water-research truly was.

We were fortunate enough to attend some of the World Water 
Week seminars, during which we heard world leaders and water advocates describe their unparalleled work in democratizing 
water access and ensuring water security for future
 generations. A particularly insightful presentation was that by 
Professor Stephen McCaffrey: he highlighted how water was a
 powerful resource that had implications from political diplomacy 
to advancing global public health. Professor McCaffrey
 described his inspirational role in consolidating the Cooperative
 Framework Agreement between the Nile riparian states, thus 
opening numerous possibilities for sustainable socio-economic
development – all thanks to the fair partitioning of vital water
 resources in the Nile Basin.

The week in Stockholm certainly motivated me to further 
pursue my water research in the endeavour of addressing 
public health. The SJWP cultivated an atmosphere of collaboration instead of competition, and has gifted me with lifelong friends from a diverse,
international community, with whom I hope I will someday be
 able to collaborate with to solve some of the world’s greatest
 water challenges.

The Raincoats in Ethiopia

October 9th 2017

As earlier reported the Raincoat Foundation have dedicated funds to the charity organisation Charity Water and their initiative to help the people across Tigray, Ethiopia with fresh water from new drills.

So far Charity Water has raised $62,448,628. Money which they hope will serve approximately 102,753 more people across Tigray, Ethiopia through 485 water projects in this grant.

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Photo: Charity: water.

The Raincoat Foundation investment, which is part of grant number 222, is currently working to bring life’s most basic need to an entire community of over 200 people in Tigray, Ethiopia which we find is fantastic news. We are excited to help and we are looking forward to the first update of our sponsored project during the summer of 2018.

This is what the Raincoat and other donors are founding:

  • 100% goes to water project costs on the ground.
  • 50% for materials: cement, pipes, pumps, construction supplies, training materials.
  • 20% for local staff costs: drillers, welders, well technicians and hydrogeologists.
  • 10% for mobilization: fuel, vehicles, lodging for drill crews in remote areas.
  • 20% for in-country program support: accountants, drivers, computers, internet.

Award-winning invention could change drinking water treatment

September 5th 2017

Ryan Thorpe and Rachel Chang have known each other since preschool. Now 17 years old, they recently won the Stockholm Junior Water Prize for a system that uses biosensors to detect individual colonies of four of the most common pathogenic bacteria found in water.

Thorpe and Chang are now seniors at Manhasset Secondary School on Long Island, New York. Impeller interviewed them during World Water Week in Stockholm just after they won their prize.

How does it feel to win?
Thorpe: It was such an amazing week, it was so fun and chock full of experiences that I will remember throughout my life. I couldn’t have imagined it ending any better.

Could you explain what your system does?
Chang: We created a system to detect and purify water contaminated with bacteria. We worked with e. coli, shigella, cholera, salmonella, some of the most common waterborne diseases today. We created graphene biosensors that generate an electric signal when bacteria come into contact with them. By reading the current on a screen, we can tell when bacteria are present.

How quickly does this work?
Chang: The detection occurs instantaneously. As soon as you put the sample on the biosensor, the current will begin changing if bacteria are present. That happens instantly. The purification takes about ten seconds to eliminate bacteria.

How could your system be used in different applications?

Thorpe: This device can be used for identification and immediate purification processes. It really has a wide range of applications in terms of both the developing and the developed worlds. It can be placed on site in a drinking water source in the developing world, and it can also be placed in piping systems in the developed world.

How did you get interested in water treatment?
Chang: I’d always been really interested and passionate about the environment. Then I was reading a journal article about the standard methods of detection for bacteria, which can take one to two days, and even up to a week. These methods also have detection limits of up to 1,000 colonies of bacteria, but the World Health Organization states that even one colony of bacteria in 100 ml of water is unsafe for consumption. So I really wanted to create a system that would improve upon these methods, and be able to reach the standards of the World Health Organization and expand clean water access.

Thorpe: I was really interested in water scarcity, and how a lot of articles point out that water scarcity is going to be the next source of global conflict. I came across this specific interest because every year our high school creates a quasi-journal where people submit their research abstracts. I was looking at very old ones, and I saw this word biosensor, and the newer journals didn’t have this word, so I looked it up. Basically, what a biosensor does is it takes something that we can’t see and converts it into a stimulus that we can see, and I really like that idea.

Do you have anything else you would like to add?
Chang: I guess that everyone really can make a difference. Even if it is just shutting off a faucet and making sure it doesn’t drip, that would save millions of gallons of water if everyone did that. Everyone together united can make a difference with water.

Thorpe: The solutions are out there, if you really try. If you just sit down and write down a list of all the different possible solutions to a problem, and you try to find out which one is the best, you are going to be able to solve it.

Chang: Hard work and perseverance definitely pay off.

By Chad Henderson, Impeller Magazine. Water News from Xylem.

Passionate teens from USA wins honourable waterprize

September 5th 2017

Two students from the USA, are the happy winners of the 2017 Stockholm Junior Water Prize.

The prize winners Ryan Thorpe and Rachel Chang received the prize for their novel approach to detect and purify water contaminated with Shigella, E. coli, Salmonella, and Cholera. H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden presented the prize at an award ceremony at Grand Hotel on the 29th of August.
The winner’s motivation is to eliminate millions of human deaths each year. The project developed a unique, rapid, and sensitive method to identify, quantify and control water contaminants.

Rachel Chang was overwhelmed with feelings and emotions when it stood clear that his team has won the prize.
“All the projects here are absolutely amazing, truly of the highest quality. So, to be able to win such an achievement, it feels incredible”, he said.
The Jury was impressed by the winners, in particular their “exceptional intelligence, enthusiasm and true passion for water and human health.”

A Diploma of Excellence was awarded to the students Aniruddah Chowdhury, Arnab Chakraborty, and Rituraj Das Gupta from Bangladesh. Their project researched more efficient ways to remove dyes from textile industry discharges, using a composite of titanium dioxide and cheap, locally sourced chemicals.

“By innovative use of existing technology, they show new possibilities to cost effectively and efficiently treat harmful waste water from textile industry”, the Jury said.

Raincoat Foundation are proud to have been given the opportunity to play a significant part at the Stockholm Junior Water Prize 2017. We are full of admiration for all the young passionate and curious teens that have been participating this year. They are all the winners and we are looking forward to following their future steps and take part of their coming innovative ideas towards a world where water issues are no longer a problem.
Read more about the winning project here.

http://www.siwi.org/latest/ryan-thorpe-rachel-chang-usa-win-2017-stockholm-junior-water-prize/

 

We are looking forward to meet all the finalists at the Stockholm Junior Water Prize Welcome Dinner 2017

September 5th 2017

The Raincoat Foundation are proud to be hosting the Stockholm Junior Water Price Welcome Dinner for the second year in a row. This year the welcome dinner will be held on August 26 and the event will take place at the Scandic Klara Hotel. The event will mark the start of a fantastic week when 64 finalists from 33 countries comes to Stockholm to present their bright ideas and innovations for water solutions.

Hannah Bassek from Falun will represent Sweden with her project “Knowledge and Feeling” which is a strategy and a model for increasing climate consciousness.

We are looking forward to meet Hannah and her fellow companions on the welcome dinner and we wish all these young bright minds all the best of luck with their water projects.

The Raincoat Foundation supports proactive research, innovation and wisdom. The Stockholm Junior Water Prize and World Water Week is the perfect forum for young talent to share and spread great ideas for our future!

Stockholm Junior Water Price is part of World Water Week that is hosted by SIWI (Stockholm International Water Institute). Each year thousands of young participants in over 30 countries all around the globe join national competitions in hopes of earning the chance to represent their nation at the international final held during the World Water Week in Stockholm.

The Raincoat Foundation commits to charity: water project in Ethiopia.

September 6th 2016

We act in favour of projects that have the ability and management to close successfully. We have decided to dedicate funds to charity: water and their initiative to drill for a fresh water well in Ethiopia.
Even though Ethiopia has proven to be a leader in development much of the country still remains extremely impoverished and 42 million people still lack access to safe water.

drilling
Photo: Charity: water.

Charity: water and local partner Relief Society of Tigray (REST) help communities develop locally appropriate solutions to water access, sanitation and hygiene. The community is heavily involved in the construction process which instills a strong sense of ownership over these projects.

Thanks to this initiative The Raincoat Foundation has now found a way to be of help on the spot! Our initial support will serve  a community of 200 people and makes The Raincoat Foundation an official water project sponsor.

The Stockholm Junior Water Prize of 2016 was a success!

August 28th 2016

Finalists from 29 countries came to Stockholm and conquered our attention with their ideas and innovations.

The finalist´s week kick-started on Saturday 27th with a welcome dinner hosted by The Raincoat Foundation. The dinner took place at the Haymarket hotel where the contestants had the opportunity to meet and dine. After our presentation of The Raincoat Foundation, 2003 SJWP winner Claire Reid spoke about her journey and how she brought her winning project to the market. Claire´s Reel Gardening is truly a schoolbook example of how a self experienced water related challenge can be solved with simplicity, creativity and determination.

On Sunday and Monday the finalists presented their projects to the jurors at The Stockholm City Conference Centre. It was impressive to see these young people prepare for the most important presentation of their lives.

The Stockholm Junior Water Prize winner ceremony was held at Vinterträdgården Grand Hotel on Tuesday 30 and was attended by H.R.H. Prince Carl Philip of Sweden who also presented the winning team from Thailand. Learn about their project here.  

The Stockholm Junior Water Prize of 2016 was a success and at The Raincoat Foundation we are proud to have been given the opportunity to play a significant part at the event. We are full of admiration for the young masterminds and look forward to follow this next generation of innovators and policy makers on the global challenges regarding secure water.

Stockholm Junior Water Price is part of World Water Week that is hosted by SIWI (Stockholm International Water Institute). Each year thousands of young participants in over 30 countries all around the globe join national competitions in hopes of earning the chance to represent their nation at the international final held during the World Water Week in Stockholm.

H.R.H. Prince Carl Philip and the winning team from Thailand. Photo: Jonas Borg

H.R.H. Prince Carl Philip and the winning team from Thailand. Photo: Jonas Borg

The SJWP award ceremony at The Grand Hotel. Photo: Jonas Borg

H.R.H. Prince Carl Philip and the winning team from Thailand. Photo: Jonas Borg

The SJWP award ceremony at The Grand Hotel. Photo: Jonas Borg

The SJWP award ceremony at The Grand Hotel. Photo: Jonas Borg

The welcome dinner at The Haymarket Hotel. Photo: Peter Tvärberg

The welcome dinner at The Haymarket Hotel. Photo: Peter Tvärberg

The welcome dinner at The Haymarket Hotel. Photo: Peter Tvärberg

Pre-dinner photo-op with Sponsor, Organizer and Keynote Speaker. Photo: Peter Tvärberg

Post award ceremony euphoria. Photo: TRF

The Raincoat Foundation welcomes all finalists in Stockholm Junior Water Prize!

August 9th 2016

We are proud to be hosting the Stockholm Junior Water Price welcome dinner on August 26! The event takes place at the Haymarket Hotel and will mark the start of a fantastic five day experience for all finalists in the Stockholm Junior Water Prize category.

We are also thrilled to have the inspiring Claire Reid as keynote speaker. Claire won the Junior Water Prize in 2003. She will tell her story of how she put her winning project into real practice.

The Raincoat Foundation supports proactive research, innovation and wisdom. The Stockholm Junior Water Prize and World Water Week is the perfect forum for young talent to share and spread great ideas for our future!

Stockholm Junior Water Price is part of World Water Week that is hosted by SIWI (Stockholm International Water Institute). Each year thousands of young participants in over 30 countries all around the globe join national competitions in hopes of earning the chance to represent their nation at the international final held during the World Water Week in Stockholm.