Wine to Water is committed to support life and dignity for all through the power of clean water.

In 2015, Grand Circle Foundation launched our WASH (Water, And Sanitation, Hygiene) initiative with a goal for every school and village we support to have access to an adequate supply of clean water, and toilets that meet or exceed local standards.

By early 2018, we realized that although we were able to manage getting clean water to schools, we struggled to get water to the villages and needed an international partner. Lucky for us, we found Wine to Water.

The Wine To Water filter build program is an opportunity for groups and organizations to assemble filters, strengthen corporate social responsibility and become educated about and engaged in the world water crisis. Each filter removes 99.9999 percent of bacteria which cause waterborne diseases and provides an entire family with clean water for more than 10 years.

Grand Circle sponsored a filter build of 1,000 water filters that involved associates from 30 countries. Associates put together 1000 water filters that will eventually be shipped to communities around the world.

60 of those filters made their way to a remote village in Colombia as a result of a community service project by the OAT regional team in partnership with Wine to Water locally.

If you’ve been watching the news, you may have seen stories about the lack of sufficient rains in Africa, and the worry of possible famine as crops cannot grow and livestock is dying. As part of the GCF WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) Initiative, we funded a water drilling rig ($246,000) in partnership with Wine to Water, led by our friend, Doc Hendley, to provide access to water at the schools and villages GCF supports in East Africa.

After permitting delays, government delays, and ensuring all the proper authorities were notified and gave approval, the team was finally able to drill today, and had success!

The drilling team is a mix of Christian and Muslim men, working together (not common in Tanzania) learning about and from each other. The drill hit water between 140-150 meters, but continued to drill to 160 meters, so there is plenty of water for the Eluway school and community.

The Eluway Primary School is a mixed gender school in the heart of Tarangire educating Maasai children in the area. The school has 294 pupils. It’s not very old…registered in 2012 with only 1 teacher and 54 children, but it’s grown quickly. The unique thing about this school is the community built it under the leadership of Chief Lobulo. He actioned the community leaders to collect a cow from each homestead which he then sold to build the classrooms and the office. The ladies gave 20% of their jewelry sales to build the toilets on site. And now they have water!

As more schools and communities receive this life-changing gift, we’ll be sharing the good news with you.

Another reason for me to pause and think about my favorite quote:

“Someone else is dreaming about what you take for granted” ~Anonymous

Stay safe and well.

Jan