#clean water program

[handinhandsoap]

hand in hand's first ever well

we wanted to share this important day with you where we opened up our first-ever well in onaville, haiti.  

onaville, haiti is a community of over 30,000 displaced people who are trying to rebuild their lives.  onaville has no infrastructure for water, roads, or electricity.  many people in the community must walk over three miles to get a 5 gallon bucket of water.  with this new well built (the only one in the community) over 240 families will have access to clean water each and every day!

                                                                              right next to the new well, we built a tippy tap which allows people to wash their hands in such a simple & efficient way, using very little water.  tippy taps offer a great way to promote hand washing with soap, especially with children.   (on the left: bill, co-founder of hand in hand, and on the right: william from, my neighbors children, our non-profit partner, who helped make this well possible).

                                                                                                                                                                                                                here are photos of our first-ever well! we were so excited to open it up and see the water flow.  what made it most rewarding was seeing the community fill up their buckets with smiles on their faces, knowing now that they will have clean water!  

                                                                                                                                                                                                                          we heard from community members that they used to have to walk 3 or more miles to access clean water, and now with this new well, they won't have to!

                                                                                                                                                                          we wanted to thank all hand in hand supporters for purchasing our products, which made this well go from a dream to a reality!  we look forward to many more amazing memories providing soap and clean water to those in need.

[handinhandsoap]

october 15th is global handwashing day.  this year we are teaming up with voss foundation & nest to support and bring awareness to this important event.                              

                                        as voss foundation points out on their blog post, 1500 bacteria live on just 1 centimeter of your hand and millions of children die each year from water related illness, but washing hands with soap & water can reduce that number by nearly half.

voss foundation is non-profit, providing access to clean water to communities in sub-saharan africa and raising awareness of ongoing need in the region.

nest is a non-profit, devoted to maintaining traditions of craft and the livelihood of artisans worldwide.

leading up to global handwashing day, all 3 of our organizations will post updates and tweets across facebook & twitter.

please help us spread the word by sharing and retweeting our posts, to be entered to win a gift bag with goodies from voss, nest, and of course, hand in hand!

washing hands can ward off germs that cause diarrhea, pneumonia, skin diseases, eye worms, and intestinal worms.  just 20 seconds with soap and water washes away the possibilities of such diseases and illness.  when you promote washing hands with soap & water, you can help save lives by bringing awareness to preventing these water related illnesses.

make sure to follow hand in hand, voss foundation & nest to participate in the celebration of handwashing day.  

to learn more about global handwashing day, visit the global public-private partnership for handwashing (ppphw).

we look forward to celebrating global handwashing day with you & our friends at voss & nest!

[handinhandsoap]

                      big news! after months & months of preparation we are finally heading back to haiti tomorrow, september 27th for the ribbon cutting of our first ever well! this is so exciting because each well provides clean water for 240 families each and every day for a decade! 

we wanted to thank you because we could not have done it without your support! 

we can't wait to share this amazing event with you all when we return, so stay tuned!

[handinhandsoap]

                             we are so excited to announce that we are launching our clean water program on june 27th when we will be digging our first well in haiti.  so from june 27th on, for every product purchased at hand in hand, we will be donating one bar of soap, saving 50 square feet of rainforest, and providing clean water for one person for one month!  this new program will be giving a haitian community, access to clean water who would otherwise not have access.

while hand washing alone can reduce nearly half of water related deaths, we seek to eliminate water related illness in the communities we serve by introducing our clean water program.  this first well will provide clean water to over 240 families every single day!  

we will be sure to keep you posted on our trip to haiti this june, so stay tuned!