WaterAid: How our gift was used
12 Feb 2015
As part of the 2013 Staff Survey campaign, the University gave £1 for each response to three charities chosen by our staff, including a donation of £1,673 to WaterAid
In July 2013, WaterAid's representative, Dave Boughen, came to campus to collect the cheque:
We knew that our donation would allow WaterAid to continue providing some of the poorest communities in the world with clean water and a safe place to go to the toilet, but we were curious to know exactly how our money had been used and asked WaterAid for more information.
In response, WaterAid told us that they don’t link donations to specified items, such as a wells or pumps, because this requires higher administration costs.
Instead, the charity prefers to direct donations to their work in general: a resource of unallocated money allows them to respond quickly to changing situations, as well as giving them the security to plan future projects.
To fund a whole project requires a donation of £50,000 or more, while donations of £3,000 and more can be directed to work conducted by one of WaterAid’s country programmes.
Nevertheless, smaller sums can play a vital part in transforming people’s lives and these are examples of how our donation might have been used:
- £802 could pay to rehabilitate a protected spring in Uganda, giving the community a safe, local water source. As a result, women and children will no longer have to walk for miles across unsafe terrain multiple times a day to collect dirty water.
- £1,125 could pay to construct a double school latrine in Zambia. This would mean a clean, safe space for all pupils and is especially beneficial for girls, who often have to miss out on school during their periods as there are no sanitation facilities.
So you can be sure that, by responding to the 2013 Staff Survey, you not only took action to improve your working life, but also helped to change the lives of people in some of the worlds most marginalised communities.
Further information