Last year Elinat Jonathan, 28, used to collect all the water needed for herself, her husband, her four sons, her daughter and two of her sister’s children, every day, from an open well using just a rope and bucket. Elinat told Pump Aid that not only was this hard work but there was also a serious health issue during the rainy season when dirty runoff water would fall into the open well.

As a family we doubted about safety of water from this well as it had an offensive smell and looked cloudy

Elinat also told Pump Aid that last year there had been three incidences of children falling into the well.

Now Elinat and the rest of Eliamu village have got safe access to clean water, through the installation of an Elephant Pump. The villagers also received sanitation and health training from Pump Aid, helping the village households to better understand hygiene and sanitation practices. Elinat and her husband Joseph also managed to convince 2 other households to help build a toilet, to help ensure a clean environment surrounding the pump.

Pump Aid’s mission is to enable as many people, families and villages with safe access to clean water. If you would like to join us on our mission, please donate, sign up to our newsletter or social media networks  today. Together we can make a difference.

This Valentine’s Day we want people to use Facebook and Twitter to #showthelove by donating to Pump Aid.

On Tuesday 14^th February, Pump Aid is doing a Twitter and Facebook campaign called #showthelove. The idea is that supporters will donate to Pump Aid on Valentine’s Day and their chosen Valentine will receive a ‘tweet’ from Pump Aid or a message on our Facebook page.

“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water”. W.H. Auden

Want to #showthelove to a special someone this year by doing something bit different?

This Valentine’s Day you can give the gift of clean water……

The mechanism of this campaign is simple.

1)     Make an online donation to Pump Aid between now and the 14^th February

2)     Then Tweet @PumpAid or direct message Pump Aid’s Facebook with the name of your special someone and their Twitter handle if they have one.

3)     On the 14^th February, Pump Aid will then send your Valentine a tweet. e.g. “@MrPumpAid a secret admirer wants to #showthelove to you today by supporting @PumpAid on your behalf. Happy Valentine’s day!” Or we can post a message on our Facebook page.

With this donation, you are helping Pump Aid to provide clean water for rural communities in Africa.

Valentine Challenge

To help Pump Aid #showthelove to as many people as possible this Valentine’s Day we’d LOVE it if you could get other people with lots of followers (for example celebrities) to share this campaign by re-tweeting or sharing Pump Aid’s posts and messages.

Also, one lucky couple, chosen at random, will receive a little Valentine token courtesy of Pump Aid!

Thank you for your support and have a great Valentine’s!

To learn more about Pump Aid’s work sign up to our e-newsletter and join us on our social media networks

Wednesday 8th February 2012

170,000 people have now signed up to take part in the World Walks for Water and Sanitation in March! They will be calling on their Development and Finance Ministers to attend the Sanitation and Water for All (SWA) High-Level Meeting on the 20th April in Washington DC and take action to end the water and sanitation crisis.

Currently the EU is not a member of the Sanitation and Water for All partnership (SWA), although several EU members states are. But with a big Europe Aid budget we all think they should join. Their budget for WASH should be much bigger, and they should coordinate their aid far more.

They do have a budget for water and sanitation, and we’d like them to show more global leadership, and to take part in this major event. The results could be that the High Level Meeting is more successful in achieving change, that aid is better targetted for the countries and communities that need it most, and that the EU take an active part in the national SWA partnerships – and as a result, that millions more people have access to water and sanitation

It would be a real coup if the EU changed its mind and joined the SWA and attended the High Level Meeting in Washington in April – this is where you come in!

Can you help End Water Poverty put the pressure on the key man – European Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs?

This week Pump Aid’s Chief Executive, Gwen Vaughan, co-signed a letter  from 17 European organisations to the Commissioner. You can download and read the letter from here.

Here are two suggested actions:

1. Could you, or your organisation, also write a short letter to the Commissioner?

2. Could you Tweet the Commissioner on Wednesday 8th February, and encourage others to tweet too? It doesn’t matter if you are not based in the EU! All tweets will help!

We’re aiming for a thousand tweets during the day! Can you help us achieve this target and make sure that the Commissioner knows we are serious about ending the water and sanitation crisis?!

Suggested tweets (with your/your organisation’s @name added) are:

@APiebalgsEU Will you be attending the Sanitation and Water for All High Level Meeting in Washington in April?

@APiebalgsEU Please take action on the global water crisis and attend the April SWA High Level Meeting. Thanks!

@APiebalgsEU 884 million people don’t have clean water – can the EU take the lead on tackling this global crisis? #waterwednesday

You can also use #walkforwater to tell us and the Commissioner why you are taking part in the World Walks for Water and Sanitation next month and what you are calling for!

Two volunteer opportunities at Pump Aid are available from now. We need two volunteers to help us with our Walking for Water campaign between now and March 2012.

If you are interested please email a copy of your CV to fundraising@pumpaid.org.

Over 800 million people (usually women and children) must walk an average of 6 km (4 miles) every day to get access to water, often at the expense of working or going to school. An estimated two million people die every year from diseases often brought on by poor sanitation. Access to clean water and adequate sanitation substantially decreases the mortality rates among children. Without it, people simply can’t improve their lives.

Clean water is something many of us take for granted because it’s always been available, just open the tap. But you can do something to help. Are you a school teacher or student? Are you a member of a Rotary Club? This year Pump Aid has been introduced to the awareness and fundraising initiative ‘Walking for Water’ by Dutch NGOs Aqua for All and Akvo, and now we would like to introduce you too.

To find out more information on ‘Walking for Water’ 2012 please click here to learn more about getting involved.

Marpu Doe, 67, told Pump Aid that before she had an Elephant Toilet installed near her household, her and her grandchildren “used to dig small holes around my house to ease ourselves and cover them after. Those were difficult and dangerous times for our health.” Marpu explained the impact that access to an Elephant Toilet has made; “I now have my own toilet. That is in fact a big and important difference to my life and that of the neighbourhood. The Elephant Toilet has helped me safe my surroundings. I can cook safely, I don’t have any worry of stepping on rotten faeces around here anymore”.

Marpu Doe lives in Blackton village, Careysburg District, Liberia. Marpu is one of the lucky ones, as only  14% of Liberians have adequate access to a toilet.14%.

Keep in touch with our work by signing up to our newsletter, and follow our updates on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Together we can do more. Donate to Pump Aid today.

World Toilet Day, 19th November, as it was declared by the World Toilet Organisation, is a day used to highlight the 2.5 billion people who are living without a toilet. Pump Aid and campaigners across the globe have used this day to bring the issue of poor sanitation in developing counties onto peoples agenda’s, and to put this issue into the international development spotlight – which it sometimes fails to receive.

This year get involved in World Toilet Day with Poop Creative who are a not-for-profit organisation working to promote the importance of sanitation and hygiene through comedy. Poo is still a taboo and comedy is a powerful way to deliver a message and to initiate behaviour change.

‘Basketball Bonanza’, ‘Name the Pig’ and ‘Ping-pong Pandemonium’ are just some of the many competitions that helped students from Tettenhall College, Wolverhampton raise £500 towards Pump Aid’s work this year. Lower School students held a cake and sweet sale alongside these competitions whilst the Tettenhall Upper School students held a non-uniform day. A presentation on Pump Aid was made by some of the students at the school assembly, along with bottles of dirty water complete with fake snakes in them to highlight how lucky the students are to have instant access to clean water.

A big thank you to all of the students and staff at Tettenhall College who were involved in this fantastic fundraising event.

If you are organising a fundraising event for Pump Aid, do let us know. Contact us on fundraising@pumpaid.org and your event could feature in our quarterly e-newsletter or even on our website.

Pump Aid has served over one million of the poorest people in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Liberia during the past decade. So what about the next ten years? Well, quite simply, we want to do so much more.

We’re delighted then to announce that we’ve joined forces with the Meanwhile team. Meanwhile helps organisations grow; become more effective; communicate in more compelling ways. But the first thing any of us at Pump Aid and Meanwhile would say is that the most important member of our team remains you!

We can’t do it without you, and with your continued support we’ll find more people just like you. We’ll raise more money to put to good work providing clean drinking water, water for irrigation and hygienic toilets. We’ll help more people lead healthy, dignified, and fulfilling lives.