Subject: Friendly Water for the World March 2021 newsletter

What does water mean to you?
friendly water for the world header

Welcome to the March issue of our monthly newsletter.


We don't know about you, but this is finally starting to feel like a new year. There is nothing like the start of something new. When possibilities and optimism flourish. When you feel like you can accomplish anything you set your mind to. Many years ago, we set our mind to expanding access to clean water. With 10 years of learning under our belts and a global pandemic starting, we hope, to recede, we are looking to 2021 as a new start to our work. We want to share more about that with you later this month, so make sure you don't miss the first article below. Here is what is in this month's newsletter:


  • World Water Day event

  • Supporter Spotlight: Kathleen O'Shaunessy

  • Creating A Legacy

  • Breaking News From Kambiri

  • Calling All Green Thumbs

  • March 16th Board of Directors Meeting


If you haven't read our newsletter the last few months, you'll notice one big format change - our long-form features are being hosted on our website under the News page. This email will share key information and story introductions. If you are interested and want to read more of each story, just click the Read More link and you'll be taken to our website. In the future, if you ever want to catch up on something from the past or present, all you need to do is visit https://friendlywater.org/news.


If you have any suggestions on how to improve our monthly newsletter or have ideas for stories to include, please contact will@friendlywater.org.


Until our next Chat, our next newsletter, or whenever we are fortunate enough to see each other again. Please be safe and kind to others.


-Will, on behalf of our community of staff, volunteers, and supporters

 

World Water Day

Any other year, well except for last year, we would acknowledge World Water Day by hosting a No Such Thing As A Free Lunch, Free Lunch fundraiser with you and all of our friends. Times sure have changed. The Coronavirus pandemic may have temporarily stopped us from meeting in person, but it hasn't stopped our work, and although its side-effects may have temporarily cleared the air in some places, the relentless march of climate change continues. As glaciers melt, salt-water rises, rain patterns change, and weather events become more severe and unpredictable, you can see how the value and importance of water, our most crucial resource, deepens almost daily.


Although we can't meet in person right now, the pandemic has sparked innovative ways for us to come together and share the new steps we are taking to expand water security by helping communities build resiliency and push back against climate change. On Sunday, March 27th from 4:00-5:30 PM PST, join us on Zoom to celebrate World Water Day (which actually falls on the 22nd) with our global community of friends. We are excited to tell you about our plans for 2021 and share how the big new changes to our program that you have made happen over the last year are making a difference right now.

The United Nations started the #Water2me social media hashtag to start a conversation about what water means to you. How is water important to your home and family life, your livelihood, your cultural practices, your wellbeing, and your local environment? We would love to know what you think. Tell us by visiting our website. We've created a special home page just to hear what you have to say.

 

Supporter Spotlight - Kathleen O'Shaunessy

Welcome to what we hope will be a long series of conversations between two friends. This series is part of our Chat program where we open the doors and pull up the chairs to meet and talk online, sharing our program and hearing from you and our whole community. In Between Two Friends, a host will sit down and have a conversation, virtually for now, with a supporter, donor, partner, volunteer, or another participant behind the work of Friendly Water for the World. We want these conversations will be entertaining, informative, and hopeful. More than anything, we want to introduce and appreciate the amazing people who contribute to our work.


In our first Between Two Friends conversation, we introduce Kathleen O'Shaunessy. Kathleen is a long-time supporter and current Board Director.


>> Read the whole story

 

Create A Legacy

Back this month is our special contributor, Tom McLean. Tom is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM in Olympia, founder of Advitica Financial Planning, and writes for us about charitable giving techniques that may create new tax and financial planning opportunities. In this issue, he'll describe the different paths you can choose to create a legacy of giving and clean water.


And please keep in mind that Friendly Water for the World is part of matching gift programs at Microsoft, Kaiser Permanente, Google, Boeing, and others. If you have an employer that has a matching gift program, please help us become part of their system.


>> Read the whole story

 

Breaking News From Kambiri

rainwater catchment curved brick tank walls
rainwater catchment curved brick tank

You are looking at the first Rainwater Catchment Tank we have constructed from our Water Technology Center in Kambiri, Kenya. Not only that, it's the first one to be built with curved Interlocking Stabilized Soil Bricks. It was completed just this past Friday with a team of local masons led by Eric Lijodi, our Africa Programs Manager, and facilitated by a trainer from local engineering services firm, Makiga. Makiga is the company that builds the ISSB presses we used to make the bricks that built the tank. The tank was constructed next to Eric's house as a demonstration and technology training and capacity building project. It is one of four tanks planned for the Kambiri area, the next three to be built at local schools.


Stay tuned for a lot more pictures and information on curved bricks and these new tanks.

 

Calling All Green Thumbs

For more than a decade, Friendly Water for the World Board Chair David Albert has been growing tomatoes from around the world. “I grew up in New York City,” he said, “And the very notion of growing things myself always is a revelation.” He collects seeds from many sources, and his pantry is always full. “I may not be a very good farmer,” he notes, “but I am a very good cook.”


For the last seven years, he has been “hatching” tomato (and other seedlings), which he sells as a fundraiser for Friendly Water for the World. “Not only does the organization receive much-needed funds, but it is hoped people will remember us when they harvest some magnificent fruit and bring it to the table.”


So here is your chance to turn your support of Friendly Water into a delicious pasta sauce. Or salsa. Or something straight off the vine. Punxsutawney Phil may have seen his shadow this year, but that doesn't mean you have more time to reserve your plants. Varieties will sell out, so first come, first served.


All plants are grown using organic fertilizer in biodegradable peat pots. All are heirlooms. No GMOs.


Note: plants are only available for Thurston County, Washington residents


To purchase some tomato plants, download the order form. On the form, select the varieties you want and then send the order to the address provided on the form. Or you can call David directly to place your order.

 

March Board Meeting

The Friendly Water for the World Board Meeting is OPEN to the public.


On Tuesday, March 16th at 4:30pm, we will be hosting our next meeting online again with a Zoom call. We want everyone to have the opportunity to participate, especially now when most of us are physically distancing at home. To join us, register below. After registering you'll be sent an email with a link to the meeting. If you don't see the email, please check your SPAM folder. If you find it in your SPAM folder, please make sure that in your email client you identify the email as 'Not SPAM'. This will ensure future communications are sent to your inbox.


If you have any difficulties joining, please contact will@friendlywater.org.


>> Register for the Board Meeting

 

FRIENDLY WATER FOR THE WORLD

 
Friendly Water for the World, 900 Jefferson St. SE, Unit 6070, Olympia, WA 98501, United States

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