Each day, we walk to our sinks, turn on the tap, and fill glasses with clean fresh water.
We turn on our showers, wash our hair, and don’t question the origins of the droplets of water that make this ritual possible.
Yet, around the world temperatures are peaking, sea levels are rising, and our atmosphere is changing. Climate change may feel like an abstract concept, but for people living around the globe, the impacts are felt on a daily basis.
Especially when it comes to water.
Over 700 million people worldwide are living without access to this resource none of us can live without. Extractive industries and industrial development contaminate streams and rivers people depend on for drinking water and food, droughts cause water sources to dry up, and women and children walk miles a day to fill their buckets with liquid that causes disease when they drink.
There’s no doubt we need to act now.
At Global Greengrants Fund, we are proud to support grassroots activists across the globe who are standing up to extractive industries, educating their communities, and improving access to clean water.
Meet three of the hundreds of water defenders worldwide who give us hope for a better future.
Name: Godliver Businge
Location: Gomba, Uganda
Bio: Godliver earned her degree in civil engineering, standing tall as the only woman in her class and earning the highest marks. Godliver serves as the Head Technology Trainer for the Uganda Women’s Water Initiative. With her guidance, the women of Gomba, Uganda have used money from Aveda and Global Greengrants Fund to build 12 water filters, which have not only brought clean water to the community, but have improved school attendance as the children no longer suffer from water-related diseases. Her work has been so noteworthy that Godliver was recognized by UNESCO as a STEM woman on the frontlines of change in 2017. Find out more about Godliver, and how the Uganda Women’s Water Initiative is using their most recent grant, awarded this year, to inspire more positive impacts in their community.
Name: Judy DaSilva
Location: Grassy Narrows First Nation, Ontario, Canada
Bio: Judy DaSilva is a well-known indigenous leader in her community of Grassy Narrows First Nation. She has led a blockade to stop logging that would negatively impact her community, and has actively led efforts to persuade the Canadian government to clean up mercury that is contaminating the Wabigoon River her community depends on for fish, water, and their livelihoods. At 55 years old, Judy is in a wheelchair, and suffers from loss of muscle coordination and tunnel vision as a result of mercury poisoning. She, and the Grassy Narrow’s Women’s Drum Circle has used seven grants from Global Greengrants Fund and Aveda to urge the government to take action. Find out how their efforts have been successful, and why there is still a need to keep the pressure on.
Name: Rimba Satwa Foundation
Location: Sumatra, Indonesia
Bio: For the past thirty years, almost 40,000 acres of forest on the Indonesian island of Sumatra has been burned and destroyed to build pulp and paper plantations. The construction of electric fences and destruction of the natural environment has negatively impacted natural corridors elephants depend on for food and water. This has led to increased conflict between local people and elephants over water sources. With $2500, the Rimba Satwa Foundation has rehabilitated 12 acres of natural elephant habitat, vastly improving their access to food and water, and lessening conflict. The group has also installed beehives, providing the local people with sustainable forms of income aside from destructive plantations. Learn how the organization plans to take their reforestation a step further in 2018.
Want to support defenders like these working worldwide for clean water? Make a gift now.