1. The 4th International Faecal Sludge Management Conference to take place in Chennai, India in February 2017
2. Register now! 22nd SuSanA meeting to take place in Stockholm, Sweden on August 27, 2016
3. SuSanA events during the Stockholm World Water Week, 28 August-2 September, 2016
4. Kampala WASH Symposium: 21st SuSanA Meeting focused on whole system approaches
5. The SuSanA Forum hosted two new Thematic Discussion Series on WASH and Nutrition and on Behaviour Change
6. SuSanA hosted three webinars as part of its new series
7. SuSanA launches new partner profiles
8. News from the SuSanA Indian Chapter
9. New phase of SFD Promotion Initiative will provide support for the production of SFDs
10. New SuSanA Featured User: Chen Xiangyang (Scott)
11. SuSanA welcomes six new partners
12. SuSanA Discussion Forum Digest: what has been discussed?
13. Sharing knowledge: Recently uploaded publications in the SuSanA library
14. Upcoming events and training courses

1. The 4th International Faecal Sludge Management Conference to take place in Chennai, India in February 2017

The FSM4 will address the challenge of how to create a faecal sludge management infrastructure that keeps faecal sludge from onsite sanitation out of the environment. The conference convened by the FSM Conference Advisory Board composed of organisations and individual experts including the Asian Development Bank, the Water Research Commission, the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance and the World Bank, among others, aims to bring together professionals working in the sector in order to disseminate practical, innovative and sustainable solutions for FSM that can be scaled up.

In particular, FSM4 will provide a space for learning about

• new research results that are applicable for low- and middle-income countries
• case studies and lessons learned from practical experiences of providing and managing FSM services and infrastructure
• relevant products and services across the entire FSM chain.

The exact date will be announced soon as will a call for papers along with information about registration. The SuSanA platform, being the digital home of the FSM4, will provide further information as the event draws nearer: www.fsm4.susana.org
Should you be interested in supporting and sponsoring the event, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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2. Register now! 22nd SuSanA meeting to take place in Stockholm, Sweden on August 27, 2016

We are happy to announce that the 22nd SuSanA meeting, hosted by the Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI), will take place in Stockholm, Sweden on August 27, 2016. A live stream is planned for SuSanA members who are unable to make it to Stockholm. To ensure active participation from online participants we also intend to have a twitter chat. If you have further ideas on how to get online participants actively involved, please share your ideas with us (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). For further details on the 22nd SuSanA meeting as well as working group meetings that will be taking place during the week of the Stockholm World Water Week please visit the meeting page here. Registration is open!

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3. SuSanA events during the Stockholm World Water Week, 28 August-2 September, 2016

This year’s Stockholm World Water Week, taking place from 28 August to 2 September, will feature a number of interesting side events in which SuSanA is involved in. The events are listed here in the order in which they will take place:

City-wide sanitation services: recent thinking and experiences
This workshop, convened by GIZ, SuSanA, UNDP-SIWI Water Governance Facility, Water Global Practice of the World Bank Group and WaterAid will take place on Sunday, August 28 from 9:00 to 10:30.

Equitable access to water and sanitation: sustainable growth for all
This workshop, convened by GIZ, Mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health of France, SuSanA, SDC, UNECE, WaterLex, WHO will take place on Sunday, August 28 from 11:00 to 12:30.

WASHoholic Anonymous - Confessions of Failure and how to Reform
This workshop convened by Aguaconsult, GIZ, Directorate-General for International Cooperation The Netherlands, GTO, IRC, Rural Water Supply Network and SuSanA will take place on Monday, August 29 from 14:00 to 15:30.

Opportunities & Limitations of Market-based Programming to Address Humanitarian WASH Needs
This workshop convened by GIZ, European Commission Directorate General for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs Germany, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs Switzerland, German WASH Network, Oxfam-Great Britain and SuSanA will take place on Monday, August 29 from 16:00 to 17:30.

Upscaling the WASH-Nutrition Nexus for Sustainable (Body) Growth
This workshop, convened by ACF, GIZ, BMZ, German WASH Network, Sanitation and Water for All, SuSanA, WaterAid and WHO will take place on Tuesday, August 30 from 9:00 to 10:30.

Understanding sanitation as the cornerstone of sustainable development
This workshop convened by Sanergy, SEI, Water Research Commission and SuSanA will take place on Thursday, September 1 from 11:00 to 12:30.


In addition, we would like to draw your attention to the following SuSanA events:

• SFD-it’s use and potential in the sanitation sector (working title) on Friday, August 26 (14:00-18:00h)
• SuSanA WG 1 (Capacity Development) Meeting linked to the session "Attracting, engaging and developing the capacity of water professionals" on Tuesday, August 30 (14:00-15:30h)
• SuSanA WG 2 (Market Development) Meeting on Sunday, August 28 (14:00-15:30h)
• SuSanA WG 7 (WASH in Schools) Meeting on Tuesday, August 30 (9:00-10:30h)
• SuSanA WG 8 (Emergency and Reconstruction situation) Meeting linked to the session “Opportunities & Limitations of Market-based Programming to Address Humanitarian WASH Needs”, August 30 (11:00-12:30h)
• SuSanA WG 12 (WASH & Nutrition) Meeting linked to the session “Upscaling the WASH-Nutrition Nexus for Sustainable (Body) Growth” on Tuesday August 30 (14:00-15:30h)

Last but not least, please note that SuSanA will have a stand during the World Water Week.  Please drop by - We hope to meet you in Stockholm!

Please find more information on the SuSanA meeting page here (The page will be updated regularly as the World Water Week draws nearer).

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4. Kampala WASH Symposium: 21st SuSanA Meeting focused on whole system approaches

From June 20- 23 the Kampala WASH Symposium took place in Uganda. For the first timeever, the SuSanA secretariat and the organisers of the WASH Sustainability Forum were joining forces to hold this joint conference. The 21st SuSanA meeting was integrated in the Symposium which was attend by more than 200 experts from governments, development partners, civil society, and academic institutions around the world.
Recognising the critical need for WASH projects to engage the broader system beyond a single project, with governments at the core of that system, the focus of the Symposium was “From Projects to Services: WASH Sustainability through Whole System Approaches”. This built on SuSanA’s longstanding experience in initiating discussions around sustainability in sanitation and its network of more than 6,500 individual members and 270partner organisations working in sustainable sanitation.
The Symposium started on June 20 with a series of open house sessions in various locations throughout Kampala. Kampala-based organisations, amongst them SuSanA partners WaterAid, NETWAS, Whave and Sanitation Solutions, opened their offices for the Symposiums’s participants and presented their work. As part of the open house sessions, ARUWE (Action for Rural Women Empowerment) hosted the SuSanA WG 7 (rural, gender, schools) meeting in which more than 25 participants brainstormed gender sensitive indicators for the monitoring of the SDGs.
On day two of the conference, participants explored in two different tracks – water and sanitation –key bottlenecks and stakeholders in service delivery and developed a framework for the WASH Sector. In the evening, the SuSanA WG 6 (Cities) convened to discuss “hot topics” with regard to urban sanitation.
The third day of the conference was focused on four case studies (Zambia, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda) that highlighted how different aspects of whole system change were accomplished in different contexts.
The sanitation field trip, on the last day of the conference, provided practical examples of innovation throughout the sanitation chain by visiting an emptying session with a manual gulper, the Lubigi Sewage Treatment plant and a faecal sludge briquette production plant. On the same day two SFD side events took place: In the first side event the Kampala SFD was presented and discussed with various stakeholders of the city, while participants of the second SFD workshop got a first-hand understanding of how SFDs can be developed and used in a city-wide context.

The presentations and outcome report of the Kampala WASH Symposium as well as the presentation and minutes of the WG meetings will be available here soon.
If you want to give feedback or read what others think about the Symposium, visit the SuSanA Forum
 
For more information about “Whole System Approaches” read the background paper of the Symposium.
The presentation of the SFD workshop is available here.
 

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5. The SuSanA Forum hosted two new Thematic Discussion Series on WASH and Nutrition and on Behaviour Change

From 30 March to 15 April 2016, a thematic discussion series on “Linking WASH & nutrition – A roadmap towards better health” was hosted on the SuSanA Forum by ACF and GIZ. The discussion built on the conversation started at the Bonn WASH and Nutrition Forum 2015 which brought together the WASH sector and the nutrition sector to identify opportunities for better sector collaboration. The focus was on three areas in particular:

1. “Making the link between theory and practice – where do you stand?”
2. “Learning from Experiences – How does integration take place?” and
3. “Progressing the Agenda – What do we want to achieve?”

You can access the discussion here. Please note that brief summaries are available for each of the three sub-themes in the respective discussion threads.

From 14 to 22 April 2016, a thematic discussion series on “Working with Community Leaders to Change WASH Behaviors” was hosted on the SuSanA Forum by Results for Development Institute, the Millennium Water Alliance, and Dasra. The discussion centred around the guiding question of how we can do a better job of leveraging the influence of community leaders to change some of the social and cultural norms that prevent uptake of healthy WASH behaviours. You can access the discussion as well as a summary here.

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6. SuSanA hosted three webinars as part of its new series

Since our last newsmail, SuSanA has hosted three webinars as part of our new webinar series. Recordings are available for all three.  “Opportunities and challenges of achieving WASH behaviour change” took place on April 28 and was hosted by Erin Swearing of Results for Development Institute, and Hanna Woodburn of Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing. Learn more about how we can do a better job of leveraging the influence of community leaders to change some of the social and cultural norms that prevent uptake of healthy WASH behaviours by clicking here.

On May 26 “Collaborative monitoring, a prerequisite to achieve universal access to WASH” provided an opportunity to look into some of the main obstacles to effective monitoring (i.e. lack of transparency, inclusion and accountability) and how collaborative monitoring can bring a partial response. Starting out with a presentation by Elisa Dehove from WaterAid, the webinar addressed experiences from different WaterAid offices and provided a space for participants to share their views. The video is available here.

Finally, a webinar on WASH Psychology named “Of Faeces and Icebergs – Sanitation, Organizational Neurosis and Change” took place on Wednesday, June 22. The presenter Thomas Rieger from Como Consult addressed the need to deal in a meaningful way with what is perceived as „resistance to change“, in order to sustainably strengthen the capacity to adapt to challenges emerging from the environment. In case you missed the webinar, you can access it here.

All webinars were hosted by the SEI and the SuSanA secretariat as part of a grant to SEI funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The next webinar of the SuSanA webinar series is scheduled for August 2016. We will keep you updated!

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7. SuSanA launches new partner profiles

Are you looking for an international platform to present your organisation’s work and activities in sustainable sanitation? Do you want to share your project activities, publications and news with an expert community like no other in the field of sustainable sanitation? Do you want to find information about other organisations working on the same topic?
The new SuSanA partner pages give all SuSanA partners the opportunity to present their organisation in a multidimensional way by sharing project information and results, advertising events, job vacancies, posting news, and many more options. All SuSanA partners can easily set up and work on their profiles on www.susana.org by logging in and going to the edit partner pages option.
The interface is very easy to use and it should not take longer than 15 minutes to set up a complete profile including pictures, media, documents, projects, news, job vacancies, etc.

To get an overview about the work of other organisations, the partner pages offer new maps that show the geographic location of all SuSanA partners and the location of projects that are shared by SuSanA partners.
Project descriptions that are created by SuSanA partners show the location of the project, can be filled with detailed descriptions and enriched with media files and documents. See this example provided by SuSanA partner ACF.  
All projects entered by SuSanA partners will automatically appear in the SuSanA project database which currently contains more than 260 projects. 

To get a first hand impression of how the new partner profile works and how it can be set up, please download the SuSanA partner profile guideline. If you prefer a more interactive way of learning about it, simply watch the tutorial videos created for every section of the profile in the SuSanA YouTube channel.
Furthermore, a series of webinars will be offered to show you how to set up your organisation’s profile on 18 July 2016, 20 July 2016 and 22 July 2016. If you are interested in attending one of these webinars, please send an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. stating your preferred date and your skype ID. The same e-mail address will be available for any inquiries regarding the partner profile, so feel free to contact us at any time.

Organisations that complete their profiles will be featured on the next round of newsletters and the different SuSanA channels, so if you enjoy visibility and being on the limelight, then this is your organisation’s opportunity to be the first one to be featured in the new category “first mover award”!
Not a SuSanA partner yet? Join our community here.

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8. News from the SuSanA Indian Chapter

During the International Conference on Sustainable Water and Waste Water Treatment Systems (ISWATS), that took place from 21-23 April 2016, in Pune, India, the SuSanA Secretariat together with the India Sanitation Coalition (ISC) jointly presented the Indian Chapter of SuSanA. The SuSanA Indian chapter was introduced to the conference participants as an open and inclusive contribution to activities in India towards more sustainable and accelerated sanitation provision aiming to stimulate knowledge exchange, networking and cooperation within the region. Hosted by the SuSanA partner EcoSan Services Foundation and supported by i.a. the Department of Science and Technology India and the European Commission, more than 150 participants came together to discuss the research results shared by four projects conducted under the Indo-European partnership for research and innovation: NaWaTech, EcoIndia, Saraswati and Swings.

Further activities planned under the umbrella of the SuSanA India Chapter are a thematic online discussion about the Swachh Bharat Mission (the Indian Governments “Clean India Mission”). The discussion is organised by the India Sanitation Coalition and to be held in July 2016 on the SuSanA Forum. We will keep you updated!

If you want to stay informed about the SuSanA Indian Chapter and receive updates regarding the planned thematic online discussion, please subscribe to our mailing list: http://www.susana.org/mailinglist-indian-chapter (only registered SuSanA members can subscribe to the mailing list. If you are not yet a SuSanA member, please register here: http://www.susana.org/en/register).

The conference materials of the ISWATS conference are available here: http://www.susana.org/en/resources/library/details/2587
More information about the SuSanA Indian Chapter can be found here: http://www.susana.org/en/regional-chapters/indian-chapter

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9. New phase of SFD Promotion Initiative will provide support for the production of SFDs

Since the launch of the SFD approach (so called Shit Flow Diagrams) in 2015, SFDs are increasingly being used by local and national governments and by development partners worldwide. The SFD Promotion Initiative has developed a suite of tools and instruments to facilitate an analysis of urban sanitation challenges. The tools were applied by project partners and the results are available on the SFD online portal which is part of the SuSanA platform. A key objective of the next phase of the project (2015 – 2018) is to encourage and facilitate the use of SFDs as part of the urban sanitation advocacy and planning process. For this, partners of the initiative will concentrate efforts in three directions: supporting stakeholders in preparing their own SFDs; technical refinement of the tools, including usability and promotion of meaningful uses of SFDs for sector-wide learning and local decision support. This will comprise an ongoing series of activities like the workshop ‘Go with the Flow’ held at the Kampala WASH Symposium and the upcoming full-day capacity development workshop to be held at the 39th WEDC Conference in Kumasi Ghana, 11-15 July 2016. Furthermore the SFD initiative will continue to use the SuSanA platform for dissemination of SFDs worldwide and for knowledge exchange.

If you consider producing an SFD, have questions or want to share with us an SFD produced by you, get in contact with us via: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and find more information about SFDs here: http://sfd.susana.org/

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10. New SuSanA Featured User: Chen Xiangyang (Scott)

Our featured user of the month is Scott - a very active and motivated member of our community. He joined in December 2013 and since then has made 67 posts, mostly about his passion: Ecosan Projects.
In 2010, Scott decided to set up the “1st profitable Ecosan project sample in the world, turning waste into money”, by growing vegetables and fruits (mostly apples) with human urine. Using urine from the UDDTs of more than 30 schools, his success story is impressive: he reduces the usage of chemical fertilizers by 60% and spreads the importance of circular economy in China by having more than 25,000 fans of his social media channels.

Scott’s next target focuses on pig farms. Since pig farms pollute the environment to a high extend but few people deal with it, he is planning to cooperate with a French company which invented a system to separate the pigs’ urine and faeces.

Read more about Scott, his work as an apple grower and his visions about sanitation in China here.

Thank you for sharing your experiences with us, Scott. We are very excited to read about the progress of your next target!

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11. SuSanA welcomes six new partners

We welcome the following new partners who have recently joined SuSanA, bringing the total number to 271 partners. SuSanA members can apply online to have their organisation become a partner here (see also our selection criteria).

The Indian Social Service Institute's (ISSI) purpose is to promote social, economic and cultural advancement of the rural and urban weaker sections through education, research and field action programs.

Caritas Switzerland (CACH) works for a world governed by solidarity, equity and peace, in which the rights and dignity of every human being is respected. Accordingly, Caritas Switzerland is committed to the human rights, the Sustainable Development Goals and to ensuring that all people have access to food, water, shelter, health, education and work. Caritas Switzerland works both in Switzerland and abroad in support of the deprived, poor and most vulnerable people, providing emergency relief as well as long-term development support.

World Vision International (WVI) is a global Christian relief, development and advocacy organisation dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice. We work in many sectors, including health; nutrition; education; livelihoods; water, sanitation and hygiene; food programming; disaster risk reduction; peacebuilding; disability; gender; and child protection.

Swasti Health Resource Centre is a health resource centre established in 2002 with a focus on achieving public health outcomes for those who are socially excluded and poor. They are a niche service provider in the public health sector, delivering end-to-end solutions as well as short and long term support and facilitation, combining research and practice.

The Coalition Nationale de la Campagne Internationale pour l'Eau Potable et l'Assainissement Mali (CN-CIEPA/WASH) is the national coalition and umbrella organization of twelve civil society organisations-networks working on access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Mali. Among them labor unions, women's associations, a journalist's network and water user boards. Major activities are e.g. lobbying for the prioritization of WASH in the national budget and promoting the human right to water and sanitation.

Toilet Revolution (TR) is a distributor of Sun Mar, Separett, Wostman and Biolan waterless toilets, composting bins and greywater filters. They have supplied hundreds of toilets into a variety of applications including allotments, boats, churches, campsites, garden rooms and family homes.

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12. SuSanA Discussion Forum Digest: what has been discussed?

Thematic Discussion: Working with Community Leaders to Change WASH Behaviors (14-22 April)
(31 replies, 3785 Views)

WASH and Nutrition, WASH in Nutrition, Nutrition and WASH; How can we effectively implement actions on Nutrition and WASH in development projects?
(16 replies, 1541 Views)

Evolution of the EarthAuger UDDT (a hybrid composting and urine diverting dry toilet) - in-field demonstrations in India, Ghana, South Africa and other countries
(27 replies, 2103 Views)

Is our approach to instituting sanitation programs broken? How efficient have the NGOs been so far?
(13 replies, 966 Views)

Any successful experience with siphon system?
(21 replies, 1248 Views)

New strategy stops pollution and saves the plant nutrients for future recovery (new Smart Toilet from Sweden, a new type of composting toilet)
(16 replies, 1276 Views)

Announcement: Kampala WASH Symposium with integrated 21st SuSanA Meeting - in Kampala, Uganda, 20-23 June 2016 
(2476 Views, 19 Replies)

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13. Sharing knowledge: Recently uploaded publications in the SuSanA library

Several new publications have been added to SuSanA Library summing to 2.129 entries till date. We would like to highlight the following publications to you (click here for the complete library):

• Roeder, L. (2016). SFD Report - Kochi, India - SFD Promotion Initiative. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
   
• WHO (2016). Sanitation safety planning: manual for safe use and disposal of wastewater, greywater and excreta. World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva, Switzerland, ISBN 9789241549240
   
• Dreibelbis, R., Kroeger, A., Hossain, K., Venkatesh, M., Ram, P. K. (2016). Behavior change without behavior change communication: Nudging handwashing among primary school students in Bangladesh. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2016, 13
   
• Velleman, Y., Pugh, I. (2015). Under-nutrition and water, sanitation and hygiene. WaterAid and SHARE (Sanitation and Applied Research for Equity consortium), United Kingdom
   
• Buckley, C. (2015). Data Acquisition and Field Support for Sanitation Projects (Phase 2: 2013-2015) - Various documents on results from research grant. University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (and partners)
   
• Kapur, A., Choudhury, P.R., Srinivas, V. (2016). Budget briefs: Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin (SBM). The Accountability Initiative (AI), Centre for Policy Research, India
   
• Dasgupta, S. et al. (2015). Scaling up urban sanitation infrastructure and services in India - Various documents on results from research grant. Centre for Policy Research
   
• Roenitzsch, S. (2015). Dropping out of school because of Menstruation? - An analysis of factors of success for Menstrual Hygiene Management-projects in low and lower-middle income countries. Masterarbeit, Philipps-Universität Marburg

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14. Upcoming events and training courses

Have a look at the highlights on upcoming conferences, sanitation events and courses in this section. 

 

18th SanCoP meeting
26.09.2016 • 10:00 - 16:00 (WEDC, Loughborough University, United Kingdom)

The 18th SanCoP meeting will be responding to the recent launch of the Global Challenge Research Fund (GCRF). There is a great opportunity at present to influence the research agenda as the GCRF strategy is developed. This event will provide an opportunity for the SanCoP community to identify what the sanitation research priorities should be.

IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition 2016
09.10.2016 - 13.10.2016 (Brisbane, Australia)

Australia will cover 5 programme themes: Cities, Utilities and Industries Leading Change; Re-Charting the Course of Water Resources; Enabling Progress with Good Governance, Sustainable Finance and ICT; Water Quality, Safety and Human Health and Water and Wastewater Processes and Treatments.

 

Habitat III - United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development
17.10.2016 - 20.10.2016 (Quito, Ecuador)

Habitat III is the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development to take place in Quito, Ecuador, from 17 – 20 October 2016. The United Nations General Assembly decided to convene, the Habitat III Conference to reinvigorate the global commitment to sustainable urbanization, to focus on the implementation of a “New Urban Agenda”, building on the Habitat Agenda of Istanbul in 1996.

 

7th Rural Water Supply Network (RWSN) Forum
29.11.2016 - 01.12.2016 (Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire)

The RWSN Forum is the foremost global event on rural water services and takes place every 5 years. 650 participants are anticipated from all over the world at the 2016 event which is in English and French. The 7th RWSN Forum will explore how we are going to reach Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in rural areas and small towns? What has worked well in the past? What needs to be done differently in the future? Come and share your experiences of success and failure and learn from others.

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Arne Panesar, Annkathrin Tempel, Cecila Rodrigues, Shrutha Sivakumar and Raphaela Andres
on behalf of the SuSanA secretariat
Website: www.susana.org
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Skype: susana.secretariat
Follow us on facebook: www.facebook.com/susana.org
Twitter: @susana_org
Discussion forum: www.forum.susana.org