Friendly Water for the World September newsletter

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Subject: Friendly Water for the World September newsletter

Welcome to the September issue of News and Notes. 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:

Kakamega Center
Our 10-year anniversary save-the-date
The first school in Mungolo
New address
Gifting stock
Helping people help themselves 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.

NEWS FROM KENYA

Making something to stand on.

Our platform, from clean water to adequate shelter, is designed to make available the basic ingredients to create better health, sustainable prosperity, and self-reliance. It's something we build, share, and stand on together.

Eric Lijodi, our Africa Programs Manager, is building and testing interlocking soil stabilized bricks that we hope will erect many walls, from schools to chicken coops, around our new Center in Kakamega town, Kenya. Not only is the town situated close to Uganda and Tanzania, but it's home to Eric and many communities that may benefit from the outputs and outcomes of our platform.

Last month we had a conversation with Getry Agizah, the Director of Transforming Community for Social Change (TCSC), a local non-government organization that serves Kakamega and surrounding counties in Western Kenya. TCSC is a Friends Peace Team and is supported by the Africa Great Lakes Initiative and Friends United Meeting. They work to resolve conflict and train local communities in peacemaking. During our initial conversation, Getry introduced us to a growing community known as Matsakha.

Matsakha is a Sub-location in Kakamega County. It has 10 villages with a little more than 8,000 people. It is not far from Uganda, and as distances go in Kenya, a stone's throw from our new office run by Africa Programs Manager Eric Lijodi in Kakamega town. Following our call, Getry and her team completed a community survey for Matsaka, the first step in our project process.

Matsakha has limited access to water. There are seasonal rains that feed a couple of water points for part of the year. But these sources can't come close to meeting the demand for water. Worse, the water often looks clean but isn't. Almost 75% of the community have recently suffered from diarrhea, typhoid, or malaria. To supplement, mostly women and children make a long 5-kilometer walk for water. With the closest health care center over 10 kilometers away and travel difficult, many illnesses go untreated.

Our next step with the people of Matsakha is to utilize community engagement to learn more from the community - a series of layered and interactive conversations combined with data collection and analysis. Our approach always uses appreciative inquiry, focusing on the assets and strengths the people can leverage to help build and expand their own platform, resilience, and self-reliance. We look forward to exploring this potential partnership and discovering how we can help the community thrive.

PROJECT UPDATE

There's a new school building in Mungolo

Warren once helped make a school |_ this _| big.

The new school in Mungolo has a new roof atop our interlocking soil stabilized bricks. It's looking sturdy and new. When students return to school, for the first time ever in Mungolo they'll be returning to their own, purpose-built, school building. Thanks, in no small part, to our Coach in Zambia, Warren Hastings Mwenda, and all the other people behind the good work happening there.

As a reminder, this school replaced one that had crumbled to the ground. For more than a year the local students had been meeting under a large tree. This new school, built by the Zambia Women and Girls Foundation in partnership with the Friends of Monze, includes three classrooms, two offices, and two storerooms to teach 300 students.

The bricks they've used were made with an Interlocking Soil Stabilized Brick press provided with training from Friendly Water for the World. These bricks are non-fired so they produce far less harmful climate pollutants, help prevent deforestation, cost less, and are just as strong with better thermal capabilities as any other fired brick.

The President of Zambia, Edgar Lungu, just announced that all learning institutions will be able to reopen between September 14 and 18. They have been shut down since March. We can't imagine how happy the children will be to see and use their new school.

Next week we'll share more progress in Monze, as new filters are being delivered to a village grappling with water so contaminated that they reached out to the Ministry of Health.

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, September 20th at 2:00pm, 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.

ATTEND THE BOARD 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.

Because it's very timely and important, this month we are going to re-run an article from last month about gifting stock written by our new special contributor, Tom McLean. Tom is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER^TM in Olympia, founder of Advitica Financial Planning, and will be writing about charitable giving techniques that may create new tax and financial planning opportunities. In this issue, he'll describe why if you own shares of stock, this might be a great time to gift some to your favorite nonprofit (we hope that's us!).

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.

Save Taxes by Gifting Stock

2020 has been a year of crisis. Across the world, communities are confronting tremendous challenges related to the coronavirus and its economic impact. But a time of acute suffering and stress for so many also creates an opportunity for us to help in new and creative ways.

The most common gift charitable organizations receive is cash. While organizations need cash, there are other, potentially more tax-efficient methods for donors to make gifts. One example is to give appreciated stock (stock that has increased in value).

Today, with many stocks having recovered from their March lows, it is an especially interesting time to consider gifting stock (or stock mutual funds). There is a double benefit: you get to deduct the gift (if over the standard deduction amount), and your capital gains tax liability disappears!

Additionally, for those over 70.5 who have been making gifts from their IRAs to satisfy required minimum distributions (RMDs), the CARES Act passed in March this year waived RMDs. This nullified the tax benefit of making these gifts for 2020. Lastly, with the economy in a precarious position, stock markets may see renewed volatility before the end of the year. Making gifts now while valuations are strong could be a smart move.

2020 is an important year to consider gifting stock. With tax deductibility, capital gains tax savings, and the waiver of IRA RMDs, giving stock is more important than before. Additionally, by making a gift of stock you may create significant space to turn taxable IRA withdrawals into tax-free Roth IRA withdrawals (we will discuss in a future newsletter). While making stock gifts has its advantages, before implementing this strategy it is imperative to discuss this with your tax advisor or CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional to make sure it is the right solution for you.

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

Helping people help themselves.

This year marks the passage of our 10th anniversary. It’s been a subdued celebration as so many people continue to suffer through a difficult year. But we are needed more than ever. And we continue because of you; supporters and local partners and communities who believe in each other, hope, and good work. To honor both the past that made us and the new future we are creating together, this year we are launching a new website. Our website is a way for us to tell our story and invite others to help people help themselves.

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 we are going to share our new website and then, most importantly, share the different ways you can join and participate in the good work of so many.

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

JOIN THE CHAT

FRIENDLY WATER FOR THE WORLD

https://friendlywater.org

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Subject: Friendly Water for the World September newsletter