- A summary….
Age and Team
- More than 15 years of existence! (Formally registered as a charity Trust in 2006 under the Indian Trust Act 1882)
- 9 core members; 6 active in Village Rural Lab; 3 active in Centre for Circular Economy.
- Student interns – normally 3 – 8 at any time
Innovations created by the FIN community (professional volunteers, students, Rural lab staff and Kameswaram village artisans)
– click to go to the corresponding video or document
- Low cost climate resilient ecosan sanitation system with or without bathroom (frugal innovation)
- Rainwater harvesting on toilets (frugal innovation)
- User friendly public waste bins that serve as street signs (social/frugal innovation)
- COVID – Glocalised Hygiene behaviour campaign (humanitarian innovation)
- Calendars featuring emergency numbers and bus transport timings (social innovation)
- Refurbished and beautified bus-stops giving relevant information – again emergency numbers and bus-transport as well as advocating for good hygiene behaviour through innovative art with the participation of the community (social innovation)
- Toilet Beauty contests (incentivizing grassroots innovation)
- Masons innovation contests (incentivizing grassroots innovation)
Sanitation & Waste management in Kameswaram village
- 384 Ecosan toilets for individual households
- 30 Toilets with septic tanks
- 2 Community toilet complexes
- 1 bathroom
- 1 community washbasin system
- 21 Rural Masons Trained
- 2 Toilet Beauty Contests
- 1 Masons Innovation Contest
- 34 Public waste bins constructed and distributed
- 200 Household waste tins
- Had door to door collection system in village before government took over
Community Engagement in village 
- 3 Bus-stops beautified – with public waste bins, motivational messages, art and emergency telephone numbers.
- Trees planted in three anganwadis in Kameswaram
- Gardens planted in two primary schools in Kameswaram
- Beach Trash Walks (On average 2 to 3 times every year)
- Normally one workshop per month – also focussing on vulnerable groups – elderly, disabled in the village;
Awards and Recognitions
- FIN received the Green Champion Award 2024, from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board on August 15, 2025, during the 79th Independence Day celebrations in Nagapattinam. The award recognized the NGO’s exemplary contribution to environmental protection.
- FIN was recognised as an outstanding organization in the field of Environmental Education, Awareness, Protection and Management- Second Prize Tamil Nadu Environment Awards for NGOs – Ministry of Environment, Government of Tamil Nadu (November 7, 2017).
COVID Responses
- 10,000 masks distributed via ration shops
- Education campaigns for observation of hygiene behaviour
- Education campaigns for vaccination
Training 
- 262 Internships (154 international students and 108 Indian students) – as of December 2025
- 72 students who have taken our computer skilling programme in Kameswaram.
- 113 women who have taken our tailoring programmes in Kameswaram
- Employability Skilling Programmes with two corporates
- 5 student dissertations in collaboration with the academic institute
- International training for 9 quiz masters from 4 countries for World Toilet Day
Events outside of Kameswaram village as of March 2025
- 10 International webinars
- 7 student webinars
- 2 onsite conferences
- 2 onsite workshops
Research & Advocacy as of December 2024
- International campaign for social distancing to contain COVID-19 contamination (2020) in 16 languages – English, 5 Indian and 10 other languages of Europe and Africa
- 7 Sponsored Research Projects on Sanitation and hygiene
- 7 Peer reviewed international publications; 2 book chapter on lessons and 11 articles published by institutes/agencies/international newspapers/international magazines on insights from the FIN experience
- 125 videos
- 9 event recordings as videos
Manuals
- Manuals for Digital Skill Training
- Building a toilet with an attached septic tank
- Building an ecosan toilet