Project Waterfall – April’s UK Coffee Week

Project Waterfall – everyone deserves clean drinking water

With Comic Relief on our door step, I’d like to take the time to point out another great opportunity to help change people’s lives. In just over a months time, the biggest celebration of coffee culture is going to kick off with the national UK Coffee Week. This week in the year, the 22nd to the 28th of April, is a great opportunity for gigantic coffee chains, national food services and independent coffee shops to unite as one to benefit the poorest of the poor, through a great incentive called Project Waterfall.

We are used to taps topping up our coffee machines water tanks ready for our next espresso or cappuccino, but can you imagine that some people have to spend over two hours everyday just to get water?

What is Project Waterfall

We couldn’t put it better than the actual organisers themselves:

Project Waterfall is the central focus for fundraising during UK Coffee Week™, and aims to transform lives by improving access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation in African coffee-growing countries. 100% of all funds raised from consumer donations will directly benefit this cause. The first project is providing clean water to communities in the Mbulu District of Tanzania in partnership with our service delivery partner WaterAid.

Dirty water claims millions of childrens live

Over 2,000 children in Africa die everyday from dirty water

We know a lot of our readers check out our articles in the office place or while sipping on their espresso down at the local coffee bar. It’s hard to imagine in our cosy, plush and safe environment that hundreds of millions of people in the world go without clean water every day.

People are forced to drink the cleanest water they can find, water that we probably wouldn’t even pour over our vegetable patches. This dirty water is the reason over 2,000 children in Africa alone, die everyday from water born diseases.

How coffee drinkers and shops can help

The easiest method that you, as a coffee lover, can get involved in changing Africans lives is to simply add 5p to your coffee bill when you purchase your next steaming hot, clean and safe, beverage at a participating shop.

Costa, Debenhams, SOHO Coffee Co, Rhode Island Coffee and many other companies are backing the scheme.

A simple 5p donation helps transform lives and whole villages in Africa.

You may grab a snack of a coffee and a muffin and spend £5.00 – so why not add 1% extra (5p) and contribute to what we’re hoping is going to be a record breaking Project Waterfall. Last year 360,000 donated an extra 5p during the UK Coffee Week, which turned around the lives of over 3,630 people by granting them clean water.

With a month to go, check out what local shops have joined the scheme and think about perhaps donating 5p when you enjoy that next beverage.

If you’re a coffee shop and would like to participate in this great cause, get in touch with the UK Coffee Week organisers and help people find you.

The UK Coffee Week is so much more than just Project Waterfall too, which we plan to cover in the coming weeks, but if you’re thirsty for more reading please head over to their website. [UK Coffee Week]

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