Blacksmith Institute is highly effective in saving and improving the lives of impovrished people, especially children, at very low cost. Given the cost/benifit ratio, it is amazing and very unfortunate that more organizations are not involved in this type of work. Blacksmith has great success stories in numerous developing countries and are a leader in bringing the attention of governments and NGOs to this critical need.
I am concerned about industrial and toxic pollution in India. Blacksmith Institute is the only NGO with both expertise in remediation and international connections that is working on this issue. I particularly like the fact that Blacksmith works at all levels: it starts with a community that is affected with, say, hexavalent chromium resulting from tannery waste, and gets them organized. It works with the state pollution control board to ensure the toxic is safely removed. It works at the national level to assist the government in having appropriate policies in place. AND, it has the ear of multilateral institutions like the World Bank that have the wherewithal to fund large-scale pollution clean up. Blacksmith Institute is a relatively small organization that punches well above its weight.
