Water Aid in Tombohuaun

The water aid website is a charitable website that gives you information on different countries around the world who are in need of fresh clean water and what the organisation is doing to help these countries. It offers first-hand accounts of people who live in the third world be it Africa, Asia or South America.

The site gives the user many ways to interact with the people who the charity works with, this is done via videos from African villages who give their stories of what Water Aid has done to provide them with a source of fresh water. It also provides a unique insight to one village specifically; Tombohuaun. The website has a 360 degree view of the village allowing the user to immerse themselves in the community, it has icons for videos of the villagers, or arrows to take you to different parts. They also have a blog detailing the different work that Water aid does around the world.

The Water Aid website gets their users participating by offering the chance to attend events and campaigns. Campaigns such as the Water Fight are used in classrooms by PSHE or Geography teachers, these are all about making clean water and toilets a normal part of schools everywhere. The lessons will begin by asking class to consider what is needed at school to have a good day. The class then learns how germs are easily spread and how this can lead to illness. Pupils then investigate why it’s important to have cleaning running water and decent toilets in school, and find out about children like Zara, who doesn’t have these essential facilities in her school. Events such as trekking over Tanzania are good for raising money for Water Aid and raising awareness through first hand photos of the trekkers experience. Furthermore, the campaign also offers a more unorthodox way of participating, it allows you to donate to the charity through your will after you have died. This is a unique way of giving back once you are no longer here. Lastly, there is the more conventional way of taking part and that is by volunteering your own time to helping out, this can be at home or travelling to the countries that need help.

The Water Aid website is very successful as it is probably one of the best known charities around the world, they have been doing work throughout the world since 21 July 1981. Since then they have reached 25.8 million people with clean water and 25.1 million with decent toilets. In the last year they have reached 1,357,000 with clean water. 1,356,000 with decent toilets and 2,086,000 with good hygiene. The Water Aid Facebook page has 95,677 likes, while its UK Twitter page has 72,700 followers and it American Twitter page has 34,300.