But the reality is, we don’t. Here in California (plus much of the western half of the United States) we’re in the middle of a four-year drought cycle that is decimating local agriculture, turning America’s Salad Bowl into dust bowls, and even threatening to kill the mighty Giant Sequoia. But we still all have working faucets, and not everyone is that fortunate.
Life & Death
I know, that’s pretty heavy-handed but access to clean water is very much a life and death issue. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are as many as 780 million people without access to an improved water source. When nearly one billion people are without clean water, the results can be staggering.
Specifically-
- Over 800,000 children under the age of 5 perish each year due to diarrheal diseases attributed to unclean water
- 20% of young girls are not going to school in these areas during puberty as a result of no clean access hygienic sanitation (versus 15% of boys in the same areas/ages)
- The worst affected place in the world for unclean water is sub-Saharan Africa with 69% of inhabitants without access to clean water
But there is hope, and by carefully choosing our business partners, we’re doing our part.
AquaAid to the Rescue
Everybody needs water, our bodies are no exception. After reviewing our options, and through the lens of local and global water supply challenges, we’ve decided to invest in water dispensers from AquaAid. By purchasing our AquaAid Water Cooler for our office in San Jose, an automatic donation has been made to The Africa Trust. The Africa Trust is dedicated to building sustainable, accessible clean water pumps based off of traditional rope-pulley systems. By building these simple, clean, and effective wells all over the African continent, The Africa Trust is ensuring that Africans will always have a clean and manageable access to life-bringing water. So far, AquaAid has donated over $15 million to charity and have helped to build over 5,000 of these critical wells.
Leave the Right Marks on the World
We’ve been notified that a well is being built right now with funds from our partnership with AquaAid and that, when completed, the VirtualPBX name will be displayed on a dedication panel. Obviously, Clear Channel doesn’t sell a lot of advertising space in the area. We don’t even care if anyone outside of the villagers who use it ever see our name on that well. What is important to us, though, is that we make every effort that we can to give back to our communities; locally, commercially, and globally.
To support your communities and get your own AquaAid Water Cooler you can get in touch with them directly here. Of course, we’re always available to go over any of your business needs, as well, even if they are more about your office’s faucet than your office phone.