The global motto of Soroptimist International is “inspiring action, transforming lives” so when SI Lichfield & District were asked to assist with WaterAid’s campaign “to be a Girl” they readily agreed. The aim of the campaign is to transform the lives of 130,000 girls by bringing clean water and sanitation to their communities. One of their poster girls was Solo from a village in Madagascar. This young girl walked miles every day, carrying twice her body weight in water for her family. To make matters worse the water was dirty and dangerous to health.
Our club responded to the appeal by issuing Smartie tubes to all its members to be filled with 20p coins over our summer recess. We knew that any monies we raised by the 9th September would be match funded by the UK Government.
We raised just over £300.00 which when doubled contributed £600 to this
project. If like me you are curious to
know what difference such a sum of money can make, go to the WaterAid website
and read about the water point installed just 15 metres from Solo’s community.
The elders of the village allowed Solo to operate the hand pump and see the clean water flow from it. The cost of the water pump – £598.00! Spare a couple of minutes to see the installation by visiting the WaterAid site and watching “when the tap was turned on”.