I recently supported the Unicef and Domestos campaign to raise awareness of and find solutions to the global sanitation crisis and this is definitely another campaign in a similar vein.
I have just been reading up on the facts and I am really shocked that diarrhoea kills more 4500 children a day, now the most it does here in our families, is make us poorly, feel a bit under the weather lasts a day or two.That is hundreds of schools here wiped out!
I cannot imagine seeing my child die of a preventable infection. Its unheard of in my own life in the UK, this should not and cannot be right.
The World Health authority says of the staggering 2 million deaths, 94 % are preventable and charities are working on to beat this terrible state.
Clean water goes further than just preventing disease, its mainly women and children who collect the water, so girls miss out on education, women are vulnerable from attack and rape.
I remember being told as a child that water is the source of life, its high time it was a cause of death!
UK hot water expert Megaflo has teamed up with Pump Aid, the charity dedicated to providing clean water and good sanitation to sub-Saharan Africa, to support a phenomenal Malawi Schools project.
The £62k project, co-funded by Megaflo, will provide pupils and staff across 21 schools in the Mchinji District, Central Region of Malawi, with access to clean water and basic sanitation through the installation of 80 toilets and 10 pumps.
More than 95% of the rural population in the areas of Malawi where Pump Aid works has no access to a clean toilet or latrine, let alone a flushing hygienic toilet. Because of this poor availability of clean water and sanitation, water-related diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid are rife, causing hundreds of children to lose their lives each year.
As well as installing the pumps, Pump Aid staff will also train school teachers in pump operation and maintenance. This will enable the school to make simple repairs, such as replacing a rope, ensuring that the new water source will be working for many years to come. Pump Aid will also carry out health and hygiene workshops educating the students about the dangers of drinking contaminated water and how to practise safe hygiene activities and effective sanitation.
Work on the schools project has commenced while further fundraising is underway and Pump Aid hopes that with the support of many people, organisations and companies the work can be completed by the end of the year. So far, £32,000 has been raised of the total £62,332.
Jon Cockburn, head of marketing at Megaflo commented, “As hot water experts here in the UK, we felt it was important that we give something back to those less fortunate, who don’t have the luxury of access to clean water on a daily basis. Managed by a brilliant charity, this is a fantastic scheme which we are proud to be a part of and we hope the funding target is soon achieved so the project can be completed quickly. ”
Pump Aid has been bringing appropriate, affordable and sustainable water and sanitation solutions to rural Africa since 1998. To date, Pump Aid has built more than 7,700 Elephant pumps and over 2,200 toilets.
Megaflo is celebrating 25 years of manufacturing eco-efficient unvented hot water cylinders in the UK this year.
For more information on Megaflo, please go to www.megaflo.com. To hear more about the Malawi schools project or to get involved, please visit www.pumpaid.org.
No comments:
Post a Comment