Alfred Pisani, Founder and Group Chairman of Corinthia Hotels and Corporate Patron of international water aid charity Just a Drop, has committed to a third Corinthia Hotels sponsored clean water project, this time in Uganda.
The first two projects took place in two villages near Dar es Salaam, in Tanzania. The third will benefit over 2,000 villagers in Kigunga in eastern Uganda.
The project is vital for several reasons: for years the majority of the Kigunga community has been dependent on shallow wells as their main sources of water for drinking and domestic use. This dirty water is guaranteed to cause sickness; in fact, much of the community has suffered from water-borne illnesses such as diarrhea worms, river blindness, skin infections and cholera, amongst others. Paying for medicine to resolve these health issues puts a significant burden on what are already very poor families.Furthermore, women and children were walking 15km a day to reach these sources, sometimes to find that they had run dry.
The new borehole will put a clean, local and sustainable source of water in close proximity to the village. It will also be positioned in a cattle corridor and will therefore also reach people passing through with their livestock. Overall, the project will bring a substantial change to the beneficiaries’ health and wellbeing.
“We are delighted that Corinthia Hotels, a Just a Drop Premier Partner, is supporting their third clean water project with the charity – their second this year,” said Fiona Jeffery OBE, Chairman and Founder, Just a Drop. Jeffery also noted that, “Currently, women and children are having to walk up to five hours per day. With Corinthia Hotels’ funding, Just a Drop, together with local partner BORCCH, will install a borehole and hand-pump in this village, and provide hygiene and sanitation training. This means the support given by Corinthia Hotels will genuinely change the lives of this community.
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Mr. Pisani, in announcing the Uganda project, noted “Corinthia Hotels is so pleased to be able to support our third Just a Drop project in Africa, a continent with so much potential. Such a basic necessity such as clean drinking water, which most of us take for granted, can be secured so simply for these villages. In 15 years, Just a Drop has provided life sustaining clean water and brighter futures for an estimated 1.5 million children and their families, across 30 countries worldwide.
We at Corinthia are proud to play a small part, through our on-going support of Just a Drop, in making a difference village by village.”
Corinthia Hotels, www.corinthia.com