By Tom Webber | US Development Director
BRIDGIT WATER FOUNDATION'S YEAR-END 2018 MATCHING PROGRAM IS NOW LIVE. Contributions through GlobalGiving up to US$5,000 will be matched by an anonymous donor! Please consider doubling your impact by contributing to this fundraising campaign now: goto.gg/30669
The all-volunteer BridgIT Water Foundation continues to build clean, safe water systems in Andhra Pradesh. So far in 2018, 12 wells have been completed and turned over to the village Water User Committees. The provision of safe, clean water from these wells has greatly improved the quality of life for over 16,500 people. Health benefits are the most notable improvement because fewer people are suffering from dysentery, cholera, and diarrhea. In addition, the women in these villages have much more time to pursue their entrepreneurial businesses because they don't have to fetch contaminated water for hours daily, helping them to pull their families out of extreme poverty.
BridgIT's 2018 Andhra Pradesh program was funded by a number of groups, including the generous US supporters through GlobalGiving. Thank you so much. In addition, the Kent Family (Australia) continued its generosity by funding 5 more wells this year, the Dwan Family underwrote the Bayareddypalli well, Unified People Denmark supported the Korrapatipalli SC Colony well, Westpac Matching Funds covered the cost of the Gopavaram Dalit Colony wells, and Walk4Water 100 supported the Venkatapuram borehole. (Please see the last report to learn about Richard Guarnuccio's amazing 5,000 km Walk 4 Water earlier this year.)
BridgIT Water Foundation had hoped to raise enough money to build 40 wells this year in Andhra Pradesh, but so far has fallen short of its fundraising goals. Nevertheless, it hopes that a year end fundraising push will allow it to build many more of these cost-effective wells. Money goes farther in India, and the average cost for a well is less than US$2,000. Each well impacts an average of about 1,400 people, amazingly at a capital cost of less than $1.50/person.
Please consider partially or fully funding one or more village wells by December 31, 2018, and take advantage of the matching program. Also, please share this fundraising campaign with your friends, family, and social networks so the all-volunteer BridgIT Water Foundation can continue its valuable economic development work. Thank you.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
