On 15th October Jeevika Trust’s annual ‘Walking for Water’ event took place. This fundraising walk raises vital money for our water and sanitation projects in India and has become a real highlight of our events programme.

by Melissa Hicks, Marketing Manager at Jeevika Trust

As the festive season draws ever closer, many of us find ourselves helping our little ones write their letters to Santa with a never-ending list of the latest toys, gizmos and gadgets that they want to wake up to on Christmas morning. It’s easy to forget how lucky we are in comparison to other people living in absolute poverty.

People like the 60 million people in rural India living without access to safe, clean water to drink, cook and clean with. As a mother myself who spent her early parenting days endlessly sterilising bottles, dummies, rattles etc I can’t imagine the anguish mothers in rural India must feel knowing that their only option is to allow their precious children to drink unsafe water. Water that accounts for 21% of all diseases and deaths in India… it’s every parents’ worst nightmare. Sadly for villagers in India this nightmare is their reality, a completely unacceptable reality.