This spring, A Drink for Tomorrow launched a partnership with Chocomize, the first co-creation chocolate company in North America.  Coincidentally, one of its founders, Eric Heinbockel, is, like me, from Moorestown, NJ, and we both graduated college in 2008.  My mom saw a segment about Chocomize on The Today Show and, noting the similarities between Eric and me, urged me to reach out to him.

I read more about Chocomize online and was both inspired because Eric was a young entrepreneur like me, and impressed with Chocomize as a socially conscious business, so I went out on a limb and contacted him.  I was really excited when he agreed to meet – Chocomize has experienced rapid growth and I know the time constraints that come hand-in-hand with starting a business/organization.  Eric and I met for a drink and bonded over our shared experience of starting organizations at such a young age with little experience or capital – and our partnership was born!

Founded in November 2009, Chocomize allows customers to build their very own Belgian chocolate bar by choosing their chocolate flavor and then by adding their favorite toppings. It is a leader in the growing co-creation/mass customization movement and has been featured in O, The Oprah Magazine, CNN.com, The View, The New York Times, and many others.

Chocomize donates 1% of proceeds from each chocolate bar sold to one of three charities (designated by the customer), and A Drink for Tomorrow is proud to be one of these charities.  With The Michael J. Fox Foundation and Doctors Without Borders as the other charities Chocomize supports, I’d say we are certainly in good company!  Check out this awesome company (and customize your own chocolate bar!) at www.chocomize.com and visit them on Facebook to learn more!

Dear ADFT Supporters,

A Drink for Tomorrow is a small group of dedicated volunteers trying to change the world, one glass of water at a time. Your continued support makes our efforts possible. Shockingly, every day, people die because they lack access to clean drinking water and sanitation – basic necessities that many take for granted. With your support, A Drink for Tomorrow funds the construction of clean water and sanitation projects in the developing world. In only three years, our entirely volunteer-run organization has brought clean water and sanitation to people in seven different countries.

We select our projects based on need and long-term sustainability. This ensures that our projects both save lives and empower people. For example, at the Ajaya Girls School in the village of Bansguria, West Bengal, India, 235 girls and seven staff members from five villages were forced to rely upon a malfunctioning hand pump and a nearby pond for all of their water needs. In addition to the obvious health issues this presented, the lack of adequate water and sanitation led to high absenteeism among the students. A Drink for Tomorrow funded the construction of a 700 foot-deep well with a submersible pump that provided water to a drinking water station with multiple faucets, as well as to latrines throughout the school. The project additionally led to the creation of a Water/Sanitation leadership committee comprised of students and staff. The committee is responsible for collecting monthly fees from the students and staff for the maintenance of the system and for educating the students on hygiene and water conservation issues.

In addition to funding life-saving projects, A Drink for Tomorrow has seen incredible growth in our programming and fundraising efforts this year. Please take a few minutes to read the enclosed “Year-in-Review” to learn more about all of our community partnerships, business co-ventures, and annual events.

Lastly, please consider contributing to A Drink for Tomorrow by making a tax-deductible gift toward our 2011 annual appeal on our website. We have exciting plans for growth that will allow us to continue to impact greater numbers of people each year, but we cannot accomplish our goals without your help.  Together, we can help eradicate the global water crisis.  Thank you for your continued support.

Gratefully,

Stephanie Weaver

Founder & Executive Director

Year-in-Review

Our Projects

In February, our founder and Executive Director, Stephanie Weaver made her first trip to visit an A Drink for Tomorrow-funded water project.  She was able to meet the children and see how they now benefit from clean water at Little Angels Orphanage in Lesotho, Africa.

Guatemala

A Drink for Tomorrow partnered with Global Water to construct water projects (including latrines and hand-washing stations) at three schools in Guatemala. More than 360 students, plus teachers, families, and community members now have access to clean water and sanitation.

Nicaragua

ADFT funded a water project in Portrero Platanal in the San Lorenzo region of Nicaragua. Currently, there is not a source of water sufficient for the 250 people who live there.  The project includes latrines (which have been constructed) and a hand-dug well, which will be completed after the rainy season.

India

ADFT partnered with the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Arts and Sciences Sustainability student group to raise money for a clean water project at Ajaya Girls School in the village of Bansguria in India. Previously, the school (which serves 235 girls) had no running water system and no source of clean, safe water. The project includes a well and pump, a drinking water station, and water lines connected to the latrines for flushing.

In the next 2 months we anticipate funding additional projects in Honduras, Africa, & India. Be sure to check out our website for project updates, as well as our Facebook page for additional pictures.

Business Partnerships

We are proud and fortunate to have created business partnerships with Tria, WineMasters, Chocomize, Stephen Starr’s Alma de Cuba, PartyPal Drink Tags, and Epic Timepieces.  We thank these businesses for their dedication to our cause—every dollar raised through these promotions goes a long way in providing clean water and sanitation to those who lack these basic rights.

First College Chapter – UNC

ADFT welcomes its first college chapter, started by a former ADFT intern, at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  Through events and fundraisers, the UNC chapter of ADFT hopes to raise enough money this academic year to construct a clean water project in a developing country.

Raise a Drink for Tomorrow Fundraiser

On Saturday, June 4^th, over 200 supporters joined us for a wonderful evening of food and drinks and a presentation about ADFT’s work. We honored Triangle Tube as a Distinguished Business Partner, and announced their commitment to donate funds to construct an additional water project (they previously funded one in Botswana, Africa).  The event raised three times as much as our 2010 event.

Second Annual 6K Run for Clean Water

Our Second Annual 6K Run for Clean Water was held on September 25^th and brought participants together to run/walk in solidarity with the women and children who journey an average of 6K a day to fetch water for their families and to raise money for the cause.  The event, which this year included a time chip system, was featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Next year’s 6K Run will be held on September 30, 2012 at Moorestown High School.

Again, thank you to our supporters, who made all of this possible.  We are looking forward to continued success in 2012!

As I’m sure most of you recall, this past August, Drink for Tomorrow participated in P&G’s GIVE HEALTH Blogivation competition, in which I was a founding blogger. With your support, my blog led the competition for close to its full duration. We ended up in second place, but your diligent voting provided 6,101 days of clean water to those in need.

Though the prize money and trip to Africa has been awarded to another competitor, you can still vote daily to provide clean drinking water; P&G is challenging bloggers to provide 100K days-worth. Though it is no longer a competition, per say, ADFT hopes remain a leader, setting an example that taking a few seconds out of your day to perform a good deed is worthy of both doing and encouraging others to do. We hope we can count on your continued support. Please vote, and involve your family and friends by sending an e-mail and asking them to vote, and donate your online statuses to the cause. This is an easy way to bring clean drinking water to those in need–thank you for your support!

Photo taken by ADFT's implementing partner for this well rehabilitation, Living Water International www.livingwater.cc

In Sierra Leone, 70% of the population live under the poverty line, and the average life expectancy is 47 years of age. Almost half of the population, 47% lack access to clean water. In 1991 a Civil War broke out in Sierra Leone, marked by amputations and rapes of innocent victims.

Photo captured by ADFT's implementing partner, Living Water International www.livingwater.cc

In October of 2010, A Drink for Tomorrow funded a well rehabilitation in partnership with one of our implementing partners, Living Water International, that will bring long-term access to clean water to a community in Sierra Leone. What is unique about this project is that the operation trains ex-child soldiers and women who were victimized during the hostilities, equipping them to rehabilitate broken-down wells and educate villagers in basic health and hygiene practices. Not only will this project bring clean water to an entire community (the exact community is still being determined), but it is also engaging victims of the civil war in meaningful, employment.

We can’t wait to update you in a few months with more information about the community where the well rehabilitation is located and pictures and images of the people benefitting from the clean, safe water!

Image taken by ADFT's partner, Living Water International www.livingwater.cc

A Drink for the Holidays: Give the Gift of Clean Water

This Holiday season, skip the eggnog, and give the gift of clean water. Currently, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by people suffering from a water borne illness, and 6,000 lives are lost every day due to a lack of safe drinking water. For $30, someone can receive clean drinking water for life.

Your gift will help one less person suffer from a water-related disease and give them the hope of another tomorrow.

Also available are a limited number of $10 stocking stuffers, which will provide someone with clean water for ten years.

These would make great gifts for co-workers and friends!

With each purchase of a clean water gift, you will be mailed a beautiful holiday card (to be given to the gift recipient) with a message inside letting the gift recipient know that clean water is being given in their honor.

The inside text of the card will read:

A donation of $30 (or $10) has been made in your honor to A Drink for Tomorrow, a NJ nonprofit corporation. This donation will provide someone in great need with a drink of clean, safe water for life (or for ten years). Water projects are one of the most effective ways to save lives and one of the most cost-effective investments in disease prevention. Thank you for giving someone a drink for tomorrow.

To participate in A Drink for the Holidays, please send an e-mail to: holidaycampaign@adrinkfortomorrow.org
In your message, please include:

 

• Your name and phone number
• Number of gift cards requested, as well as the amount of each ($10 or $30)

A team member of A Drink for Tomorrow will contact you with specific information regarding payment and shipping. Thank you for giving someone a drink for tomorrow this holiday season!

In July of 2010, ADFT, in partnership with Triangle Tube of Blackwood, NJ, funded the construction of a freshwater well in the village of Labala, located in Botswana, Africa. This project, made possible entirely by a donation from Triangle Tube, consists of a newly drilled well approximately 100 feet deep and a new hand pump to draw clean water from the well. The well provide a community of approximately 400 people with clean, safe drinking water.

Stephanie Weaver and Daniel Lasserre, President of Triangle Tube

This project showed an extremely fast turn around from funding to completion, and we are excited to be able to report that the project is complete, and the community of Labala is now benefitting from the well immensely. The 400 inhabitants of Labala formerly drank from large ditches in the ground, filled with muddy brown water laden with disease and contaminants, as animals freely roamed in these ditches.

A typical water source for the villagers of Labala prior to the drilling of ADFT's well

When the ditches dried up, the women and children would hike 4 miles to a government pump. In the summer of 2010, before this well was drilled, the ditches were dry, as was the government pump, because the truck carrying the water got stuck in soft desert sand and never arrived. The villagers were so desperate that the women and children would walk miles and miles until they found cars passing by and stop them to beg the people inside to help them find water.

The community was also suffering because they were traditionally hunters/gatherers but the government banned hunting in their region – making ‘gathering’ their only option for food, despite the fact that they had no water to cultivate agriculture. The new well will not only keep them from contracting diseases from contaminated water or dying of dehydration, it will also allow them to cultivate agriculture, thus providing nourishment. The children in this picture are some of the thousands of people whose lives will be saved, and dramatically improved, because of the individuals, groups, and businesses who support our work.

Triangle Tube has been an innovator and industry leader in the manufacture of quality stainless steel water heating equipment, providing highly efficient, environmentally sound solutions to the heating and plumbing industry for over 60 years. It is extremely fitting, therefore, that the company has decided to fund the construction of a system that will bring clean, safe drinking water to 400 people living in poverty who previously lacked the access to clean water. ADFT is grateful for Triangle Tubes outstanding support to generate the necessary funds for such a life-changing project. Triangle Tube is the first ADFT business partner to fully fund a water project.

ADFT’s newest campaign, Raise a Drink for Tomorrow, is a challenge to the local Philadelphia beer community to respond to the clean drinking water crisis affecting 884 million people who are forced to drink disease-laden water every day. Local bars and microbreweries, with the support of local craft breweries and distributors, will be challenged to raise as much money as possible in one month to fund clean water projects in communities in crisis through the sale of local craft beer. At the same time, local businesses and organizations will make a commitment to support the participating bars and microbreweries by hosting happy hours or other events to help raise money for the campaign. Philadelphia’s beer drinking communities will thus be linked, through a tap, with those in need of clean water, raising awareness about global poverty and taking direct action to provide a basic human right.

Through this campaign the Philadelphia beer drinking community will literally save thousands of lives by simply visiting a local bar & drinking a local beer.

We’re planning to launch this campaign in the spring of 2011; please check back soon for more information such as campaign dates, names of participating bars, brewers, other campaign partners, a link to the campaign website and ways you can get involved!

I am not a parent, yet (though I hope to be one day, God willing). I am an aunt, however. A very proud aunt at that (probably an annoyingly proud aunt to be honest). I’m madly in love with my four nephews pictured below. They are all under five – an age that is disproportionately adversely affected by the water crisis. So, I can’t help but think of them every day when I work to help children, most of whom I will never meet, through the work of A Drink for Tomorrow. I picture my own nephews having to drink water contaminated with fecal matter or hike four miles in bare feet each time they are thirsty.  The sense of injustice I feel is amplified by my intense love for my nephews, which fuels my passion for the cause that much more.

Matteo, almost 4 yrs old

Matteo: My First Nephew.

1.8 million children die every year as a result of diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation. This amounts to around 5000 deaths a day. (UNDP)

Pius, 3.5 yrs old

Pius: Nephew Number Two

443 million school days are lost each year due to water-related diseases. (UNDP)

Petar 1.5 yrs old

Petar: Nephew Number Three.

Water-related disease is the second biggest killer of children worldwide, after acute respiratory infections like tuberculosis. (UNDP)

Cassian, almost 1 year

Cassian: My Newest Nephew.

In the last 24 hours…
I have been involved in so many different forms of communication it is hard to believe. Some of these forms of communication have been verbal, and others have been written. Some have been online and others face to face. Still others have been on the telephone, either through voice or text. I have communicated as Stephanie Weaver, in a personal sense, I have communicated on behalf of A Drink for Tomorrow as the Executive Director, as the Chair of the Board, as a volunteer and anonymously through some of our social networking sites. I have even begun to communicate as an employee of TD Bank.

Since last night, I have finalized and e-mailed a ADFT’s October E-Newsletter, posted to ADFT’s Facebook page, Tweeted for A Drink for Tomorrow, and sent A Drink for Tomorrow’s 2010 Year in Review to the printer. I currently sit writing a blog post, which will automatically post to Changents.com and Linkedin upon publishing to wordpress, as well as feeding to ADFT’s Homepage.

In the last 24 hours, I’ve written about 75 e-mails, shaken hands, attended a group networking meeting and a personal, one-on-one networking meeting. I’ve talked on the phone, texted, BBMed, posted photographs for ADFT, as well as statuses, exchanged business cards, friended someone on Facebook, accepted friendships on Facebook, suggested ADFT’s Page to people on Facebook, requested someone to join my network on Linkedin, accepted someone’s request to join their network on Linkedin, wrote and mailed two hand-written thank you notes, received and sent two facebook messages.

I’ve smiled (in texts and in person). I’ve hugged. I’ve “haha-ed” I’ve ‘cced’. I’ve ‘liked’ and commented. And I am exhausted! No wonder I have not gone to bed until before 2am for the last 3 weeks. I am not complaining by any means. I LOVE all of the ways I can be in contact with so many people so frequently, because if I am anything at all, I am a people person. But it can certainly be overwhelming!

This blog is more of an observation then an analysis. I don’t plan on drawing many strong conclusions here. I’m really learning as I go; I think we’re all learning how to balance new communication streams and network in this rapidly changing world of social media. A few things come to mind when I look at the above:
1. I need to learn how to delegate better
2. Communication – and networking, are HUGE parts of what we do at ADFT (and of building any business/organization in general)
3. There is a lot of repetition out there in regards to our communications and ways of staying in touch, but at the same time, we may have a different base of followers in each social space. Do we analyze and determine what is most effective? Or streamline our communications?

Where is the line? How do you figure out which supporters are seeing too much overlap? Is it when you look at your newsletter analytics and notice that some of your family members don’t read your E-newsletter? Do they not care? Or did they already see every story in the newsletter on Facebook? Do supporters who follow you on Twitter, Like your Page on Facebook, subscribe to your Newsletter and your mailing list but receive the same updates in each media get burnt out?

Do people want to hear from your organization once a day? Once a month? Once a week? Do they want to full story? Or the key fact? These are they questions mulling around in my mind as I attempt to manage the communications channels for A Drink for Tomorrow.
I realize this blog certainly blended together communications and networking – and online communications and in person networking are distinct, but I think there is some overlap in the sense that they are still about relationships.

Any suggestions are welcome!!

Cholera Outbreak:


Partners in Health (PIH) reports that a cholera outbreak is currently devastating the area surrounding Haiti’s lower Artibonite region. This is the first major cholera outbreak in Haiti in over 50 years. Facilities are overflowing with symptomatic patients and the mortality rate is high: as of Friday morning October 22nd, there have been more than 2000 cases of acute watery diarrhea and 160 deaths reported at the PIH facilities in the region since the evening of October 19th. 
“Cholera is an acute diarrheal illness that is spread by drinking water containing the organism Vibrio cholera. Symptoms typically develop between one and five days after drinking water contaminated by the human feces of persons infected with the cholera bacteria. Only about 10 percent of those who drink water contaminated by the cholera bacteria will fall ill; however, the infection can be fatal particularly among young children, the elderly, the malnourished and persons with decreased immune function. Those ill with cholera develop profuse, watery, high volume diarrhea that is rapidly dehydrating. Without adequate replacement of volume lost, patients may go into shock and die of dehydration.” (Joia Mukherjee, Chief Medical Officer, PIH)


In response to this emergency, ADFT made an immediate relief effort donation to Partners in Health on October 26th. PIH is currently dispatching reinforcements for its teams that are handling clinical treatment and community-based finding of suspected cholera cases. PIH’s community health workers are also actively taking measures to prevent the spread of the acute diarrheal disease.
 


Earthquake

In the aftermath of last year’s earthquake, in addition to making an immediate response, ADFT also made a commitment to making a long-term response to rebuilding the clean water infrastructure in Haiti. To this effect, this summer, we funded a well rehabilitation in Haiti that, once completed, will bring clean water to a community of approximately 250 people for 20-30 years.



Photo copyright Living Water International www.water.cc

The Moorestown High School Interact Club donated ten percent of the funds for this project; we are incredibly grateful for the club’s consistent support.

We will not have details on the location of the project until its completion in early 2011, because our implementing partner, Living Water International, is experiencing reporting as because it has had so many projects funded in response to the earthquake. 
We hope that this support can bring relief to those who have been affected by these tragedies.

Child drinking clean, safe water from a well rehabilitation by ADFT's partner (and owner of this photo) Living Water International www.water.cc