Just a Drop
Just a Drop is an international development organisation working to bring sustainable safe water, sanitation, and hygiene projects to communities around the world, transforming lives.
Current Focus Areas
Just a Drop’s project work is currently focused in Cambodia, India, Kenya, Nicaragua, Uganda and Zambia. We have reached nearly two million people in 33 countries since we began in 1998.We work with communities to implement solutions which best suit their needs, such as rainwater harvesting systems, wells, sand dams, biosand filters, latrines, and sanitation and hygiene training. We’ve also developed food security, menstrual health and micro-finance programmes, which further support community development and economic growth.
The Importance of Safe Water
There is nothing more important than safe water. Safe water changes everything. It improves health, education, women’s rights, leads to secure food sources, economic growth and brighter futures. It completely transforms lives, especially those of women and children.
With safe water, the area will achieve long-term, positive benefits, improving lives. A broken borehole in an area where safe water is scarce is a tragedy for communities.
Fundraising needs
The funds raised from David and Ioana’s Mount
Toubkal Challenge will be invaluable to us at Just a Drop and the communities
that we work with.
The support from their epic journey will
help us to further our work in the arid and remote Mumbwa District in the
Central Province of Zambia where people experience true poverty caused by a
lack of safe water. Communities are forced to collect water from a hand dug
well and streams that are shared with livestock and ponds that appear during
the rainy season.
Women and girls endure long treks to
collect water and face dangerous obstacles including attacks from elephants who
frequent the region. On the way back, the journey is even worse, as on top of
these dangers, they are forced carry a heavy jerry can with them.
The situation causes a huge gender
imbalance where girls are often forced to drop out of school with a need to
prioritise household chores, and women are unable to contribute to family
finances; keeping them in a devastating cycle of poverty.
The International Institute for Environment
and Development estimates that 50,000 boreholes across rural Africa are broken
down and no longer in use. In Mumbwa District alone, there are 342
non-functioning boreholes. These were constructed some years ago and crucially
at that point, the local community weren’t involved in the process. Over the
years, as the boreholes stopped working, there was nobody able to do the
repairs and the community couldn’t afford to have them fixed.
Thanks to David and Ioana, this will no
longer be the case. Just a Drop will work directly with communities in the
district to teach them how to repair and then maintain these broken boreholes. With these skills, the communities will be
able to access a sustainable source of safe water for years to come.