AquAid Water Coolers
We at Whitburn Church of England Academy are aware that keeping our children hydrated will aid them to perform at their very best throughout the school day. As a result, we decided to invest in watercoolers from AquAid www.aquaidwatercoolers.co.za . Our unique relationship with AquAid has also given our school the opportunity to help those less fortunate than ourselves.
Our decision to install a water cooler from AquAid means that for each machine that we have, we have donated £20 per year per cooler to The Africa Trust. Through our contributions to The Africa Trust, an ‘Elephant Pump’ is being installed in Africa on our behalf. This pump will bring much needed, clean, fresh drinking water and improve the quality of life of those who will have access to our well.
As of 2015 the Academy name has been displayed on the well; and because of our participation there is now a community in Africa that have access to safe, clean drinking water for life.
This pump is located in Zimbabwe in Manicaland – a province in the north eastern highlands of Zimbabwe.
An Elephant Pump can easily provide safe drinking water for upwards of 300 people.
The impact on the community where the well is built is profound and far reaching.
There are numerous ways in which having a water pump will assist a community:
a) It provides safe, clean drinking water to a community that before would not have access to drinking water, but would most likely need to walk for miles to retrieve water in buckets.
b) Having a pump eliminates many diseases e.g. dysentery – the concept of the Elephant Pump arose from the CE of The Africa Trust, Ian Thorpe, witnessing people having fallen ill from water from a contaminated water source – a snake had fallen in and decayed. See more about this here.
c) As the focus of the well building is for sustainability, it is likely that having access to water close by will mean that the children (as well as others) in the community will be able to eat better, drink more water and from this be able to better concentrate in class at school, which means a better education, which means a better future for them.
d) Depending upon the set-up in the community where the well is, it is possible that a banana plantation could be established, and using water from the well, the bananas could then be sold, more banana plants could be planted, and the monies from the sales could contribute towards the children’s’ school fees.
