In 1992, the UN designated March 22 of each year as World Water Day. Although Heifer International’s focus is on ending hunger and poverty, clean water (for people and livestock) is absolutely essential for our project families and communities to thrive. In observance of this year’s World Water Day, we thought we would shine a light on how water plays an important part of our work all over the world and give you a few ways you can help bring safe drinking water to the world’s poor.
In this video you’ll see Fatou Dione walking in oven-hot wind churning with dust to fetch water for her husband and four children. It’s the dry season in her village of Diarrere in Senegal, and both water and food are running low. At the time this video was shot, they were eagerly anticipating the rains the following month.
These really make sense when running water isn’t available. Much better than a bucket, that’s for certain. We all know hand washing is a key way to stop the spread of many diseases. In a country like Uganda, which has a life expectancy of 52.98 years (yes, in large part a result of HIV/AIDS), avoiding disease like bacterial diarrhea is of the utmost importance.
The Tippy Tap is a cheap device made of locally available materials. It was initiated by Heifer Uganda at this farm and others as one way of ensuring that family members and their visitors wash their hands with soap each time they use the pit latrine. In so doing, the possibility of spreading disease is minimized.
- Help fund our Building a Sustainable Way of Life Project in Peru, which will improve community wells to ensure the availability and quality of water in wet years and dry.
- Team up with US-based groups who are calling for increased commitments by the US government to help increase access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation for millions around the world.
- Find and attend an event near you.
- Visit a local restaurant participating this week in UNICEF’s Tap Project, and pay a $1 (or more!) donation for otherwise free tap water.
For more information about World Water Day please visit http://www.worldwaterday.org/ and http://oneweekforwater.org/.
A powerful video promoting handwashing with a simple tippy tap has won the 2011 DoGooder Nonprofit Video Award for Best Thrifty Video. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdpd3roZjYw and visit tippytap.org for more info.
Keep up the great work!
After learning more about what Heifer International has done before, it is beyond question to ensure that the organization and its staffs are admirable. Although the major goal for the organization is to help people over the world to fight hunger in a sustainable way, it also try to improve the live environment for those people at the same time. Changes are needed for improving, and every small changes maybe the first step of success. Therefore, I am grad that the organization can think outside the box and be innovative.
As a student at Temple University, we have a group which is holding events and raising money for Heifer to achieve its goal. We also believe people should Realize that it is more important to give people ways generate wealth sustainably instead of providing financial support in short-term. Go Heifer!!
Thank you for your comments. And thanks, Anonymous Temple University student for helping raise money for our work!