After two near death experiences, while on a silent retreat, a song came to her. A song so powerful, she gave away all her belongings and traveled the world to convince one million people to sing the song "We Rise" together with her! You can click here to have Gemma tell you the story herself.
But that's not where it ended. With the philosophy that it takes a single drop of water to start a wave, Gemma founded A Single Drop. As explained on the website, it was "a non-profit organization to raise awareness of the global water crisis using "We Rise" and the Million Voice Choir as the catalyst for action. Gemma and her ASDSW co-Founder Kevin Lee developed an innovative program that created village community-led water and sanitation organizations. ASDSW offered trainings so local communities could identify, design, plan, build and maintain their own water and sanitation solutions."
Why stop there? When you're an improviser, like Gemma is, the number one rule is to say "yes". So when it came time for A Single Drop to join forces with Crabgrass and Women's Earth Alliance, in 2007 to create the Global Women’s Water Initiative, saying yes is exactly what Gemma did. Now she's the director of the program.
As they explain on their website, "The GWWI collaborators came together because they believed that women were not properly represented in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector, despite their central role as water stewards. By engaging and supporting professional local women with expertise in construction, advocacy, leadership andWASH who could train and build capacity of their local grassroots counterparts, GWWI could become a network of women technicians and educators equipped to bring sustainable solutions to their communities."
In 2012 GWWI trained 16 teams of women in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to learn and implement solutions to issues of water and sanitation.
So the next time you talk yourself out of an idea, remember you could be the drop of water to start the next wave.
Want to get more involved? The Women's Earth Alliance is having a gala in San Francisco on September 19th, "From Ripple to Wave". You can find out more about it here. And as always, you can follow GWWI on their Facebook page and Inspiration Safari on our Facebook page. We'll be meeting with Gemma this fall to find out what she's up to next.
Why stop there? When you're an improviser, like Gemma is, the number one rule is to say "yes". So when it came time for A Single Drop to join forces with Crabgrass and Women's Earth Alliance, in 2007 to create the Global Women’s Water Initiative, saying yes is exactly what Gemma did. Now she's the director of the program.
As they explain on their website, "The GWWI collaborators came together because they believed that women were not properly represented in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector, despite their central role as water stewards. By engaging and supporting professional local women with expertise in construction, advocacy, leadership andWASH who could train and build capacity of their local grassroots counterparts, GWWI could become a network of women technicians and educators equipped to bring sustainable solutions to their communities."
In 2012 GWWI trained 16 teams of women in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to learn and implement solutions to issues of water and sanitation.
So the next time you talk yourself out of an idea, remember you could be the drop of water to start the next wave.
Want to get more involved? The Women's Earth Alliance is having a gala in San Francisco on September 19th, "From Ripple to Wave". You can find out more about it here. And as always, you can follow GWWI on their Facebook page and Inspiration Safari on our Facebook page. We'll be meeting with Gemma this fall to find out what she's up to next.
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