The Rotary theme for March, Water and Sanitation, asks us to focus on the life changing improvements that we can make through international projects to provide a more readily available and healthy supply of water to all people. Here is an excerpt from this month’s message by TRF Trustee Chair, Rotarian Ian H.S. Riseley, published in the March edition of "Rotary".
“Water is essential for life no matter where we live. Yet many of us take it for granted. Think of all the times today you turned on the tap. About 1 in 4 people in the world have quite a different experience when they do - if they have a tap at all. Today, 2 billion people lack access to safely managed drinking water, according to the United Nations. It is heartbreaking that each year, about 300,000 children under age 5 die from diarrheal diseases caused by poor sanitation, poor hygiene, or unsafe drinking water - all preventable circumstances.
This is where Rotary comes in. Through your support, The Rotary Foundation provides water and sanitation for countless communities around the globe. Foundational grants have ranged from providing toilets and hygiene education for villages in the Philippines to building infrastructure for year-round access to safe, affordable drinking water in Brazil. The water and sanitation problems that we face are too great for any of us to solve alone. But whether we work with global grant partner districts across the world or with large agencies such as USAID, we are making a difference.”
