Dearest family and friends,With the year almost over I wanted to thank you for your support and for following my work and travels on this blog, keeping in touch with me and welcoming me home when I have been so absent. It has meant so much to me to know I have the support of such a fantastic group of people. I am truly blessed.
As you know I work for a formidable little organization called CAWST - the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology. The small staff of 23 - see photo above (and over 150 volunteers) that so far have helped 3.6 million of the most vulnerable people get access to better water and sanitation.
With CAWST I have personally and professionally garnered a wealth of experience, opportunity, growth, and innovation that I didn't think was possible. And even after the adventures that I have been priviledged to live, prior to joining CAWST, I see the world in a completely different light as my experiences are now directly working with local champions in places like Haiti, Zambia and Uganda.
Along side my time in the field is the experience of being surrounded by an incredible force of talent. There have been countless occasions where I have been at the office or working in the field and been awestruck by the passionate, determined, innovative, adaptable, overachieving, excessively intelligent people I work with. It is all at once stimulating, encouraging and intimidating.
Since CAWST is a non-profit organization, often I am asked where we get our funding from. It is through a combination of generous donations (personal and corporate), government grants, project consulting, and training courses.
Interestingly we are the only organization world wide that does what we do - provide technical and educational training and consulting and act as a centre of expertise in water and sanitation for the poor in developing countries. This being so, at times it is difficult to sell ourselves when historically many donors look for indicators such as number of wells drilled or hand pumps installed.
Greta Raymond, CAWST's Board of Directors Chair wrote in our 2010 annual report:
"CAWST has reaffirmed its key strategies and focused its limited human and financial resources on those strategies which we believe will have the biggest impact. As always our Board is committed to prudent financial management. While we have many generous donors, funding is always a challenge when there is so much work to do. We actively balance our commitments, activities and resultant expenditures with the level of funding available."
Interestingly we are the only organization world wide that does what we do - provide technical and educational training and consulting and act as a centre of expertise in water and sanitation for the poor in developing countries. This being so, at times it is difficult to sell ourselves when historically many donors look for indicators such as number of wells drilled or hand pumps installed.
Greta Raymond, CAWST's Board of Directors Chair wrote in our 2010 annual report:
"CAWST has reaffirmed its key strategies and focused its limited human and financial resources on those strategies which we believe will have the biggest impact. As always our Board is committed to prudent financial management. While we have many generous donors, funding is always a challenge when there is so much work to do. We actively balance our commitments, activities and resultant expenditures with the level of funding available."
So, with the holidays approaching I wanted to offer you (and all who you know) the option of CAWST as a worthy recipient of your hard earned dollars, to help us continue to serve the poor in meeting their basic water and sanitation needs.
If you choose to do so, go to the DONATE tab at http://www.cawst.org/ to determine a method to suits your needs.
Wishing you a safe, healthy, happy and soulful holiday season.
All my love and thanks,
Heidi
