Friendly Water for the World October newsletter

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Subject: Friendly Water for the World October newsletter

Welcome to the October issue of our monthly newsletter.

All of us at Friendly Water for the World hope this email finds you well. We know these are difficult times, especially hard for some. But for those of us who can do more to help others, it's an important opportunity to make a substantial difference in the lives of vulnerable people and communities around the world. This month we share stories about:

Another step for Monze in Chinzila
Our 10-year anniversary sign-up
Quick project updates
New address (reminder)
Creating a legacy
Community Engagement Chat invitation

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

Chinzilla, Zambia

Good neighbors.

This is an inspirational picture for reasons that may not be immediately apparent.

First, some background. Back in early February, which seems like 9 years not 9 months ago, we conducted three training sessions in partnership with the Zambia Women and Girls Foundation. A group of men and women in the community learned how to fabricate BioSand Water filters, construct rainwater catchment systems, and make interlocking stabilized-soil bricks.

Since then, the group we trained has been busy. First, they constructed additional rainwater catchment tanks for a school in Malimba. Then, they built a school using bricks from a Friendly Water for the World brick making press. The same bricks that were recently certified for use by the local building officials. And that gets us to this picture.

The town of Chinzilla had recently applied to the local Ministry of Health for help. They have one water source in the village, a borehole well. The well has not been maintained and the water has become contaminated. The community is battling a range of waterborne diseases. And the Ministry was unable to help them.

We heard about this situation through a local representative. And with materials raised through your giving, and the knowledge and hard work of the community, there are now 60 BioSand Water Filters installed in Chinzilla to provide clean water to the community.

This work was a partnership between Friendly Water for the World, Zambia Women and Girls Foundation, the Friends of Monze, the people of Chinzilla, the Friendly Water for the World Coach, and perhaps most importantly, the local villagers and artisans who came together. And that's the power of the picture. All the people pictured are local people building local clean-water solutions for other local people. At the same time, they're building their own knowledge and expertise they can apply to future projects.

At least two of the team, your new friends Jennifer Milimo and Oldnesss Lwiindi, left their homes and families in Malimba, Zambia and walked 15 kilometers to the fabrication site. They stayed for four days, cleaning sand and gravel, mixing and pouring cement, and then walked home. And these are just some of their results.

Oldness and Jennifer and you stand as beacons of hope for a better future for all of us. Together, and especially through the efforts of our Coach, we will be monitoring the program closely, and expect more progress as our center in Monze grows into projects in Simwatachela.

This year we are embracing Thanksgiving week as a time to give thanks to all those working to help others help themselves. The world may seem dark, but our team of partners and friends are finding new ways to build hopeful futures. Let’s turn Black Friday into a day of light as we start a new future together. Reserve your place for an entertaining free virtual event of stories and fun on Friday, November 27th at 4:30pm as we get an early start on celebrating a new year.

RESERVE NOW

QUICK PROJECT UPDATES

Bukabero, Uganda

We have begun preliminary discussions with Bukabero Community Health Center in the Bududa District of eastern Uganda. The Center is located in the foothills of Mt Elgon in one of Uganda's poorest regions. In 2010 a mudslide swept away their health center and it was never rebuilt. We have received a Community Survey and are now discussing opportunities with their international team of partners including Sheila Hosner, Teresa Walker, David Wamuwaya, and Fred Peter Mutsaka.

Wardha, India

The partnership with Nalanda Academy in Wardha India continues to move forward. The Academy has purchased the land for its new campus and is in the process of re-zoning. They have agreed to use interlocking soil stabilized bricks for the construction of their facilities. All efforts in India continue to be slowed or stopped due to their challenges with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Matsakha, Kenya

One final thing. This is a picture of the start of our first community engagement meeting in Matasakha, Kenya. The meeting spanned three days, engaged 100 participants from the community, and just ended as a great success. We will be sharing all about it in both our monthly Chat, that you can register to join at the bottom of this email, and in our next newsletter.

MOVING DAY

A reminder about our new virtual office.

As the benefits of opening our new office in Kakamega became more apparent, so did the benefits of opening a new digital headquarters. We are a global organization and the pandemic has both reduced the utilization of our office in Olympia and demonstrated how effectively we can connect with all of our constituents in a digital environment. So, we are currently shifting our staff and office operations to a primarily digital environment. This will both save our monthly rent and office expenses and help enable us to grow beyond the confines of our physical environment. Our new physical mailing address is:

900 Jefferson St

Unit 6070

Olympia WA 98501

Anything you may have just sent will be forwarded to this address. And we are still available to meet, connect, and share our work, within the safety guidelines of the current public health environment.

MONTHLY BOARD MEETING

The Friendly Water for the World board meeting is open to the public.

On Sunday, October 20th 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, click the button below to register. After registering you'll be sent an email with a link to the meeting.

If you are located in the United States and would like to join an audio-only version of the call from your telephone, dial the number below that is closest to your location and enter the Meeting ID: 551-730-873.

San Jose +1 669 900 9128
New York +1 646 558 8656

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

JOIN THE MEETING

CHARITABLE GIVING

How can you make a lasting impact?

Every month we have included a section in this newsletter about how you can make your donations go further and make a lasting impact by giving in different ways. Our details have been a little light on how to do that, and the benefits it can have for you. So, we are going to start sharing timely and hopefully more useful information on topics like estate planning, donor-advised funds, and asset gifting.

Back this month is our special contributor, Tom McLean. Tom is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER^TM 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 why 2020 is such a unique year to create tax-free assets which can potentially be offered as gifts.

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.

Now, on to Tom's article.

Create TAX-FREE assets

2020 is a near-perfect year to create tax-free assets and contribute gifts. The passing of the CARES Act as part of the government stimulus program to tackle the economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic created a number of special provisions for 2020.

The most notable of these included suspending IRA required minimum distributions (RMDs), and the increase of the deductible percentage of cash contributions to 100% of Adjusted Gross Income (the deductible percentage for AGI is usually a much lower 60%).

With a greater likelihood that future tax rates may increase to pay down debt and 2020 being perhaps a once in a decade (or lifetime?) opportunity to pause IRA withdrawals, 2020 may be the best year ever to make sizeable gifts.

Perhaps like you, most people support themselves in retirement through a combination of Social Security income and investment withdrawals. Investment withdrawals often come from tax-deferred accounts such as 401(k)s and IRA(s). However, when funds are withdrawn from most traditional IRAs, that cash is reported to the IRS and taxed as ordinary income.

What if you do not have to make withdrawals from traditional IRAs? That would keep your taxable income down, and you may have significant space to do a Roth conversion. Roth conversions take money from your traditional IRA (which generates taxable income) and transfer it to your Roth IRA (which has tax free withdrawals).

The CARES Act creates a multiplier effect of 100% of AGI deductibility for cash donations in 2020 allowing for significant increases to Roth conversions with virtually no taxes! This is an incredible year to convert taxable income to tax-free income and create an enduring legacy with a charitable gift.

Disclaimer: The information provided is not intended to provide personal financial, tax, or legal advice. The information is for informational purposes only. You should consult your tax or financial advisor to understand the impact on your specific situation.

For more information about gifting stock, you may contact Tom at tom@adviticafp.com or our Finance Manager, Heather Avery at heather@friendlywater.org.

ONE LAST THING

A Chat about community engagement.

Did you ever wonder how relationships that span 9,000 miles get started? This month Eric Lijodi, our Africa Programs Manager, is on a journey to explore a new partnership with the people of Matsakha and Kenyan peacemaking group Transforming Community for Social Change, in the first community engagement out of our Kakamega center.

To learn more, join us for a Chat. On the last Friday of each month at noon, we host an online Zoom video conferencing Chat. The Chat is open to everyone and we encourage anyone who wants to participate to share their thoughts and ideas. In our next Chat, Eric will share what it is like to grow our global community, and we’ll learn how Appreciative Inquiry, assets versus needs, and the 4D Cycle is transforming how we work.

ZOOM CHAT

And you can watch any of our previous Chats and register for any of our other upcoming events on our website Events page here:

https://friendlywater.org/events

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, and the rest of our small but global team

FRIENDLY WATER FOR THE WORLD

https://friendlywater.org

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Subject: Friendly Water for the World October newsletter