World Water Day: FFTP Challenges Donors, Volunteers to Save Water, Help Families in Need
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (March 16, 2023) Food For The Poor (FFTP) is challenging everyone to take positive actions, big or small, to help make a difference as the charity commemorates World Water Day on March 22.
Finding a safe water source is no easy task for families living in extreme poverty, with many in the countries served by FFTP relying on collecting rainwater or making daily trips to bring back buckets or cans of water.
Donors and volunteers are invited to join FFTP team members on the charity’s Instagram page to take the World Water Day Challenge and share water saving tips. They also can provide water to impoverished communities that for too long have watched their children suffer due to a lack of life’s most basic necessity.
Much like similar filters which have gone viral, such as finding your true Disney character, FFTP’s Instagram filter will suggest 10 ways to save water.
When an Instagram user takes a selfie video using the filter, a multitude of water saving tips from “don’t take a shower today” to “turning off the water while your brush your teeth” will whiz by in an oval above their head before settling on one.
Users can then take a screenshot and share it to their Instagram feed and stories, tagging Food For The Poor.
To learn more about the challenge or to make a donation to support FFTP water projects visit FoodForThePoor.org/worldwaterdaychallenge.
World Water Day has been observed on March 22 every year since 1993 as a way of drawing attention to the importance of treated water and advocating for the long-term management of freshwater resources.
Access to safe drinking water and sanitation is one of the objectives of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. FFTP is committed to meeting that goal by providing access to treated water and adequate sanitation to promote good hygiene for children and families living in vulnerable communities.
“This virtual challenge on Instagram is a fun way to draw attention to a serious problem and raise awareness about the need for safe water,” FFTP President/CEO Ed Raine said. “Most of us would never collect water from a canal or pond to drink and give to our children. For many families in poverty in the Caribbean and Latin America, this is the only water available to them. Proper sanitation and access to clean drinking water should be available for everyone. Food For The Poor is committed to providing the families we serve with this precious resource.”
Here’s how the charity is addressing access to water in the countries it serves:
- In Jamaica, hot pepper farmers in Newhall are benefiting from a new irrigation system provided by FFTP that is increasing their crop production during the drier months of the year.
- In Colombia, two water projects are benefiting more than 1,100 families in Charco Trace and La Guajira living in vulnerable conditions, thanks to FFTP and its partnerships with Minuto de Dios and The Order of Malta. In addition to providing treated water, the projects will improve the living conditions of families and will improve the hygiene, health, and well-being of the 4,117 people who make up these communities.
- In Honduras, FFTP has worked with Water Mission to provide a permanent solution for treated water in three vulnerable communities after back-to-back hurricanes devastated water systems. Discussions in those communities resulted in plans to build permanent enclosures to protect the new water treatment system and an agreement with each community to collect a small monthly fee to help maintain them. Residents also are receiving training to instill good hygiene practices.
- In Ecuador, FFTP is working with partner Legado Foundation to diminish chronic childhood malnutrition by providing consistent water for the inhabitants of the community of Visote-Nueva Esperanza. Members of that community participated in the work to install the water system, digging the trenches, carrying the materials to the site and burying the pipes that finally would bring water to them and their families. Watch a video here: https://youtu.be/yogG87dO4rc
- In The Bahamas, Water Mission, one of the charity’s partners, installed two reverse osmosis units in Green Turtle Cay and Treasure Cay in the Abaco Islands, and two in Pelican Point and McLean’s Town on Grand Bahama after Hurricane Dorian flooded well fields with salt water. The units are providing relief and purifying as much as 4,000 gallons of clean water a day each.
Food For The Poor, one of the largest international relief and development organizations in the nation, does much more than feed millions of hungry children and families living in poverty in 21 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, water, medicine, educational materials, homes, support for vulnerable children, care for the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.
Michael Turnbell
Communications
954-471-0928
[email protected]
