The Clanfield Hyden WI March meeting had an illustrated presentation given by Linda and Dave Shurlock from the charity WaterAid entitled Changing the World the WaterAid Way.
It was thought provoking to discover that 663 million people in the world (about one in ten) have no safe water, and 2.4 billion (about three in ten) have no safe place to go to the toilet. We were shown illustrations of how people in Burko Faso, West Africa, are facing the problem themselves the with help of WaterAid. It works through local partner organisations not governments to help communities identify and solve their own problems.
The target is that by the year 2030 everyone in the world will have ‘safe water’. WaterAid also works to persuade local and national governments the importance of water and sanitation in relieving poverty, it will mean less disease which in turn people will be able to work and children will be able to go to school without fear of sickness due to lack of sanitation and clean water. £127 was raised which will be enough to provide the initial access to a safe water supply for eight people