WaterAid is a leading independent organisation which enables the world's poorest people to gain access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education.
WaterAid's vision is of a world where everyone has access to safe water and sanitation.
We aim to help one million people gain access to water and one million gain access to sanitation every year.
In Jan 2009, to mark the end of the International Year of Sanitation, the End Water Poverty campaign (which WaterAid is a founding member of) staged a mass "Flash squat" near the Houses of Parliament in London, to highlight that the need for safe sanitation (clean toilets) hasn't gone away.
Check out the pic's from The London Paper here.
Click on the link above to send a postcard to Gordon Brown and demand that he becomes a sanitation champion in 2010!
Water, sanitation and hygiene education are the building blocks for all development, but the international effort on water and sanitation is in disarray even though:
- 40% of the world’s population live without sanitation (that means no toilet!)
- One in eight people worldwide live without access to safe, clean water
- At anyone time half the hospital beds in developing countries are filled with people suffering from diarrhoea
With these basic rights, diseases are drastically reduced, more children attend school and adults have time to earn a living:
- 11% more girls attend school when sanitation is available
- Hand-washing with soap at critical times can reduce the incidence of diarrhoea by up to 47%
- 40 billion working hours are spent carrying water each year in Africa
Take action now! WORLD TOILET DAY is COMING SOON (19 Nov 2009). Gordon Brown must prioritise water and sanitation, which are fundamental humanrights, alongside health and education and talk taps and toilets with world leaders throughout 2009: www.wateraid.org/wtd
End Water Poverty
2008 is the UN International Year of Sanitation and 22 Nov 2008 is World Toilet Day. The End Water Poverty campaign is calling on the leaders of the developed world to come together and end the global crisis in sanitation and water.
Head over to www.endwaterpoverty.org/ to find out more!
Watch this film about sanitation to find out what it's like if you have nowhere to go when you need to go...
WaterAid is an international charity. Our mission is to overcome poverty by enabling the world’s poorest people to gain access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education.
Working in 17 countries in Africa and Asia, WaterAid aims to help people take the first steps out of poverty.
WaterAid's vision is of a world where everyone has access to safe water and effective sanitation.
Under 14? If so, we've got a special site just for you called Splash Out, it's all about making a splash for WaterAid! Use the cool new Calculator of Change to find out what the money you raise for WaterAid could buy... Check it out today!
After you've finished here, you may like to hear this poem sung on myspace...
Poem 162 of 230, WalkaboutsVerse (please see my blog): TEES TO TYNE: FIRST IMPRESSIONS - SUMMER 2001
Where traditions are not so rare; Sea, country and works scent the air; A multitude of monuments, Planted tubs and patterned pavements.
The longish pedestrian malls; The remnants of defensive walls; Historic buildings are a gauge Of the respect for heritage.
Wheat, rape and pines in the fields; Estuaries guarded by shields; Long sandy beaches and wide scenes; Romantic-ruin go-betweens.
Rivers in parts licked by trees, Or fringed by boat clubs, wharfs, gantries, And crossed by practical delights - Varied spans, forming pleasing sights.
Fine churches headed at Durham; Football kits ad infinitum; Kept castles - one for study; Masonry behind masonry.
And, with moulding-works out that way, It’s somewhere for a longer stay..?
After you've finished here, you may like to hear this poem sung on myspace...
Poem 2 of 230, WalkaboutsVerse (please see my blog): WALKABOUT WITH MY PEN
Once drove an old sedan, up north, From a place in Sydney to Cairns; Then to Kuranda I went forth, By train, to look without set plans.
I browsed through the trendy market, With fresh fruits of tropical kind; Walked to the creek through lush thicket - Nature’s hand giving peace of mind.
I dined in a scenic cafe; Then, outside, as I wrote for yen, Some passing Kooris called-out: “Hey, You go walkabout with your pen.”
Request or question, I don’t know - Assured voices, elderly men. That’s now several years ago, And I’ve seen the world - with my pen.
After you've finished here, you may like to hear this poem sung on myspace...
Poem 2 of 230, WalkaboutsVerse (please see my blog): WALKABOUT WITH MY PEN
Once drove an old sedan, up north, From a place in Sydney to Cairns; Then to Kuranda I went forth, By train, to look without set plans.
I browsed through the trendy market, With fresh fruits of tropical kind; Walked to the creek through lush thicket - Nature’s hand giving peace of mind.
I dined in a scenic cafe; Then, outside, as I wrote for yen, Some passing Kooris called-out: “Hey, You go walkabout with your pen. ”
Request or question, I don’t know - Assured voices, elderly men.
That’s now several years ago, And I’ve seen the world - with my pen.
Keep up the great work! There's nothing better than a glass of clean water when you have to put up with some of the worlds worst water conditions. Best of luck for 2009!
I hope you are having a beautiful day!!! We are just about to take the first step into the unknown on the next part of our incredible journey. Our goal is to promote children to think for themselves and to give them strength, support, self-confidence and love so that they can grow up into adulthood without fear, doubt and with the belief that they can achieve anything and that there is nothing out of their reach. We want to give them the tools to bring those things to life, the knowing that they can do anything they set their minds too, absolutely anything. We need to allow children to be who they are without imposing our own beliefs onto them.
When we unleash our own creativity, our own passion, free from external sources, that is when we can to begin to find our own original ideas that could create the possibility of a better world. This project will be in the hands of children and it will be them that will create that possibility.
There is nothing more amazing as a child than to have encouragement to go beyond your boundaries and create something unexpected, we want to give children the ability to feel the unexpected but at their own hands, in their control, without doubt and with complete freedom. We will go on that journey with them through our photography and film to bring fun and joy into their hearts to show them what passion and a love of life can truly feel like.
Please subscribe to our site www. theopenmind. org/subscribe to help raise awareness and to enable us to take this journey to as many children in the world as possible. Xxxx Anne & Lisa
