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Philanthropy News
Matt Damon and Water.org pledge $2Million to Haiti Water Initiative
Actor Matt Damon is making a big splash in the world of charity this week with his announcement that he and his co-founder Gary White of Water.org are pledging $2 million to provide 50,000 people in Haiti with safe water and sanitation. "The situation in Haiti is extreme - it's the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and nearly half of its people don't have access to clean water," said Water.org Co-Founder Gary White at the opening of the Clinton Global initiative Annual Meeting. "Expanding Water.org's programming to Haiti will help people break the cycle of disease and poverty." Examiner.com_9/24/09
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Biel, Timberlake to climb Kilimanjaro
Actress Jessica Biel will join her boyfriend Justin Timberlake to climb Mount Kilimanjaro this fall to raise money for charity.
The Blade: Trinity star has joined the team of celebrities recruited by Ethiopian-born singer Kenna to scale the 9,000-foot African peak as part of a fundraising and awareness effort for the worldwide water crisis. Chron_9/25/09
On Malaysia's island of Borneo, clean piped water thanks to a local and foreign partnership
About 200 children now have water from taps and in toilets at their remote primary school in northern Sabah. This is thanks to the hard work of local and foreign youths over the last six weeks to build a gravity-feed water system. The Raleigh Borneo team used a natural source to bring water to Sekolah Rendah Pinapak in Pitas, an effort which saw them building a dam, putting up two 400-litre tanks and installing two kilometres of pipes through the jungle. The project is a partnership involving Raleigh, local community organisation Pacos Trust and Sabah-based Asian Forestry Company (AFC). newstraitstimes_ 8/17/09
Fiji Water and Give Clean Water partner on home water filter program for Fiji
You wouldn't think Fiji, a country that exports its own bottled water, has a problem with contaminated drinking sources. But a big part of the South Pacific island's population can't afford the pristine water depicted on those fancy square bottles. Instead, the people drink from the same polluted rivers and wells where they wash their clothes and bathe. Drinking that kind of dirty water leads to digestive disease and even death. So far Give Clean Water volunteers have installed a little more than 1,000 home water filters. Fiji Water is helping with the costs. San Diego Union-Tribune_ 7/27/09
American Water announces environmental grants
American Water Works Co. Inc. said that it has awarded more than $114,000 through its Environmental Grant Program. The grant program, started in 2005, provides money for community-based projects enhancing watersheds, surface water and groundwater supplies in the company service areas. Philadelphia Inquirer_7/24/09
Matt Damon lends support to water charities
Matt Damon announced a merger of an organization he co-founded, H2O Africa, with the global group WaterPartners to form Water.org. Damon's role is largely ceremonial, with the former director of WaterPartners, Gary White, staying on to head up Water.org. SFGate_7/16/09
Charity: water's founder leads the way in successful fundraising
Armed with nothing but a natural gift for promotion, and for wheedling donations from people, Scott Harrison started his group, called charity: water — and it has been stunningly successful. In three years, he says, his group has raised $10 million (most of that last year alone) from 50,000 individual donors, providing clean water to nearly one million people in Africa and Asia. “Scott is an important marketing machine, lifting one of the most critical issues of our time in a way that is sexy and incredibly compelling — that’s his gift,” said Jacqueline Novogratz, head of the Acumen Fund, which invests in poor countries to overcome poverty. Mr. Harrison’s underlying idea is that giving should be joyous, an infectious pleasure at the capacity to bring about change. New York Times_ 7/11/09
LA Dodger pledges clean water worldwide
Russell Martin is tackling something even more daunting than his season-long offensive slump. The Dodgers catcher Thursday announced he will donate $600,000 over the next 10 years to the ONE DROP Foundation, whose mission is to fight poverty by supporting access to clean water. The foundation, Martin explained, also seeks to raise awareness of water-related issues and of the need to get involved to ensure that good quality water is accessible to all in sufficient quantity. MLB_6/19/09
Arizona American Water and Salvation Army offer aid on hottest days
Arizona American Water will supply water to emergency services providers from Sun City, Sun City West, and the Town of Youngtown as part of an organized effort by the Salvation Army to help prevent deaths this summer. “Temperatures here in the Arizona desert easily exceed 110 degrees in the summer months,” said Arizona American Water President Paul Townsley. “Dehydration poses a dangerous health risk, particularly for small children and seniors, and we hope to aid our emergency services providers as they work to save lives this summer." Emergency personnel will distribute the water to those who find themselves outside in an
emergency situation or in need of water. The Salvation Army will distribute the water to Sun City
and Sun City West Fire Departments, the Sheriff’s Posses’ and the Youngtown Police tomorrow
for distribution from their trucks and cruisers. These agencies are committed to assisting those
who become dangerously dehydrated. Arizona American Water, a wholly owned subsidiary of American Water, serves more than 200,000 in Arizona. News Release_ 6/1/09
Qatar Red Crescent digs more than 150 wells in Darfur
The wells will provide water to more than 40,000 people. The QRC said there was an urgent need for water in refugee camps. Gulf Times_ 5/2/09
North Carolina bottled water company uses profits to dig wells in Africa
A company based in Clemmons, North Carolina, sells Zao Water. Zao is a Greek word meaning "to live," and it's giving life to the people in countries throughout Africa. Matt Peterson said he wanted to help bring clean water to the people, so he started the company. The company sells bottled water and then uses any profits to drill wells in Africa. So far, the company has sold enough bottles to pay for 60 wells. WXII_ 5/1/09
Wyevale, Canada couple and 55 other Rotarians aid Dominican Republic with light-weight water filters
Rotarians Liz and Don Stewart recently returned from a week trip to Puerto Plata and Santiago, Dominican Republic as members of the Penetanguishene and Markdale Rotary Clubs. "We were down with the international water project in which they're placing bio sand water filters into homes to ensure these people have a chance to live. The water is so filthy there they're drinking raw sewage," Don Stewart said. The filters help cut down the parasites and bacteria in the water. The purpose of the trip was also to get more ideas on how international Rotarians could alleviate the Dominicans' hardships. Fifty-seven Rotarians from Canada and the United States went to the Dominican. Liz Stewart said Rotary has donated 18,000 water filters over that last five years, which are shipped by Rotary International and International Aid. Midland Free Press_ 3/6/09
UNICEF campaign for clean drinking water expands
The Tap Project gears up for World Water Week March 22
A project that originated at a boutique ad agency to help Unicef deliver clean drinking water to children in developing countries is expanding in its third year as more firms join to support the cause. The Tap Project, as the initiative is called, is adding cities and sponsors and is going bilingual with ads in Spanish as well as English. It takes place this year during World Water Week, which begins on March 22. The Tap Project was introduced in Esquire magazine in 2007 by David Droga, the creative chairman at Droga5 in New York. The program (www.tapproject.org) allows patrons at participating restaurants to donate $1 to Unicef each time they order free tap water with their meals rather than costly bottled alternatives. Since its inception, the Tap Project has raised almost $1 million to support Unicef water programs in countries like the Central African Republic, Guatemala, Haiti and Togo. The New York Times_3/6/09
PepsiCo gives $7.6 million toward UN water goals
Two new grants totaling $7.6 million will help promote access to safe water in South Asia and Africa, the PepsiCo Foundation announced. The funds will go toward helping the United Nations reach its goal of halving the number of people lacking access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015. The PepsiCo Foundation said WaterPartners, a non-profit organization, will receive $4.1 million for an initiative to establish a microfinance market to bring clean water to 120,000 people across India over the course of three years through micro loans. Safe Water Network, an organization that brings safe water to households and villages in India, Ghana and Bangladesh, will receive $3.5 million from the foundation over three years. AP_9/25/08
ITT Watermark and Water for People: Internet videos stress water and sanitation needs
WaterWebster.org Staff Report
September 18, 2008
Republish this article at no cost; click here for details
ITT Watermark, the new ITT corporate philanthropy program, is offering a series of Internet videos on projects to increase safe water, sanitation and hygiene at 300 schools in developing nations. The latest video features ITT CEO Steven R. Loranger in conversation with Water for People’s Ned Breslin and Dr. Darren Saywell of the International Water Association discussing ways to initiate successful school sanitation programs. During World Water Week in Sweden in August, ITT announced it is donating $3 million over three years to a partnership between ITT Watermark and Water for People for school projects in Asia and Latin America. Sanitation is a “fundamental and intrinsic area of economic development,” Loranger said in the Sept. 9 video discussion of school sanitation. “Just from a business standpoint, it’s absolutely imperative that we begin at the very root causes of what is creating poverty and try to address these.”
