Friday, May 11, 2018

Feel Good Friday - Wine to Water

I learned about Wine to Water at a volunteer event at work this week and they're a perfect organization for Feel Good Friday!

As explained by their mission statement, "Wine to Water is a nonprofit committed to serving in community to provide water to those in need."

What does that mean? Volunteers work with the communities and available, local resources to provide access to water, methods of filtration to clean it and education on sanitation and hygiene.

Founded in 2004 by Doc Hendley, he learned about the world's water crisis while working as a bartender in North Carolina. Wanting to take action, he had a party with his friends, pouring wine, beer and spirits and collecting money to travel to Darfur and provide clean water for people in the midst of war. Upon his return to the U.S. in 2007, Wine to Water became an official nonprofit organization. You can read more about Doc in his book "Wine to Water: How One Man Saved Himself While Trying to Save the World".

For insight into the work of Wine to Water, you can watch this video which tells the story of a recently completed project in Dahakhani, Nepal. Volunteers worked with the community to dig a trench from a natural spring, to a reservoir closer to the village. The reservoir now provides clean water to 160 houses, 1800 people, and a school with 500 students.

There are other projects taking place in the Amazon, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Uganda and Ethiopia. A great way to learn about the details and the impact is by reading the field notes written by Wine to Water volunteers.

To date, Wine to Water has helped provide clean water to over 500,000 people! If you want to support this work, you can fundraise at a lemonade stand like 8-year old Kara or follow a more traditional path: host a corporate filter build (which is what my company did) volunteer in the field or join the community of monthly donors called The Tap. As always, share the social media love by liking their Facebook page and following them on Twitter @winetowater.

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