March 8th is International Women's Day. YES! I absolutely love it. Not that everyday shouldn't be inspiring, empowering and justified in some way. This international women's day I want to focus on water equality. I know that this might seem like a strange subject or thing to even really think about to many of you but i've developed a thing for water.
Water is great and essential to life, but water isn't actually abundant like most people think who live in the first, or free, world. Water can easily become contaminated and a lot of work is put into ridding water of viruses and bacteria. What does this really mean though? Having clean water means firstly, you have something to drink. H2O is essential for the body. Having drinkable water means that your community’s water sources won't give make you sick, or give you a virus, (like Giardia or Cryptospyridium, or even gastro), or "drinking" water shares water delegated to septic tanks (ya know, like your toilet water). Poor countries don't necessarily have the funds to put towards clean and seperate water flows and therefore clean, drinkable and cleansing water to their general population.
Living in the first world, you might find it shocking, unbelievable or just plain wrong that 1 in 9 women and children are without clean water (844 million in the world). From there, 1 in 3 women and children do not have access to a clean toilet (2.3 BILLION people worldwide). This means that hygiene goes out the window. The follow on from this is HUGE!
Some examples of the after effects include:
* Babies dying as a result of mothers giving birth in unhygienic conditions.
* Lack of clean water means children get sick with illnesses like diarrhoea, cholera, stunting, pneumonia and worms.
* Around 289,000 children under 5 die each year from diarrhoeal diseases caused by dirty water and poor sanitation. Almost 800 children a day.
* Girls miss and drop out of school (usually around puberty) because there are no appropriate menstrual hygiene services (we'll definitely be taking about this later).
* Almost 500 million adult women are illiterate, accounting for almost two thirds of the world's illiterate population.
Access to clean water, and therefore toilets, improves women's life conditions as they are then able to
get a decent education. This helps in the long run, as these women are able to contribute and help their community, society as a whole, and most importantly, themselves. Being an active and participative member of her community. This brings women out of poverty. Something as simple as clean water can make or break a women into poverty or not. Can you believe it?
You can help by firstly being aware that this happens every day for so many people worldwide. Tell other people.
Learn about who Wateraid are and what it is that they do. How they help poor and marginalised communities obtain and keep safe and clean water. Donate if you can.
In the last year alone Wateraid have helped:
* 1.5 million people to gain access to clean water
* 2.3 million people to gain access to a decent toilet
* 3.2 million people learn and understand about good hygiene
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| Photo courtesy of Wateraid |
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| Photo courtesy of Wateraid |
Another way you can help is by purchasing toilet paper from Who Gives A Crap. Who Gives a Crap is an Australian recycled and bamboo toilet paper company who donates 50% of their profits to building toilets for those in impoverished countries and those without clean toilet facilities (around 40% of the world*). They do this through and with help of Wateraid.
I personally purchase the bamboo 48 roll which lasts me about 6 months which works out to be roughly $1.80AUD a roll. Which, to be honest might seem pricey to some, but when it's being made from sustainable materials (let's talk about wood tress later, maybe), and proceeds are going to help build toilets, and as we just talked about, provide clean and hygienic facilities and women in society as a whole, I can't help but be on board.
You can also purchase recycled toilet paper (it's a bit cheaper), tissues and paper towels.
Sign up at whogivesacrap.org for $10 off your first purchase. You get free shipping over $30 (BONUS!), and designate how often you receive a shipment, like a subscription. The subscription date is very, very easily changed and not a hassle at all. I always have to push back my subscription back to about 26 weeks (tp for 2 people) and they always send a reminder 3 days in advance of the next shipment date. This post in unsponsored and I honestly, wholeheartedly believe in Who Gives a Crap. I can’t see myself purchasing supermarket toilet paper for as long as this great tp is an option.
All statistics and facts taken from Whogivesacrap.org and Wateraid.
