World Water Day 2010

Saturday, 01 May 2010

Clean Water for a Healthy World

JAAGO Foundation, as it does with all the major national and international occasions, celebrated 'World Water Day 2010' on the 2^nd of March. In partnership with Coca-Cola Far East Limited, JAAGO Foundation organized a day-long awareness generation event in the surrounding community. The initiative drew the involvement of doctors, students, local community members and volunteers, all joining hands to create awareness about safe drinking water and sanitation. With the theme 'Clean Water for a Healthy World', the event saw students, people from the local community and over 100 volunteers gather together in the JAAGO Foundation School in the morning at around 10 am. They were provided with basic training for about an hour and then they set off at 11 from JAAGO Foundation to the nearby community to raise awareness about major health issues among the community members.

As part of the agenda of the program, the JAAGO Foundation volunteers accompanied by medical doctors visited the Rayerbazaar slums to create awareness about safe drinking water and sanitation. The doctors talked about ways through which water should be purified prior to drinking and for cooking purposes. They also taught them how to prepare oral rehydration saline easily at home. The benefits of using sanitary latrines, washing hands prior to eating and maintaining general cleanliness were also emphasized on. Specially prepared leaflets to create awareness about safe drinking water were also distributed as part of the same initiative.

In his message to all the attendees at the event, Debasish Deb, Country Manager, Coca-Cola Far East Limited said, "Access to safe drinking water and sanitation is the fundamental need of all the communities. We at Coca-Cola are always on the lookout for opportunities to promote this cause both is spirit and in action. Our partnership with JAAGO Foundation to celebrate World Water Day is a testament of this same endeavor. Given the times we live in, the need of the hour is for all stake holders to join hands and look at ways to promote the cause of 'Clean Water for a Healthy World'."

To create greater involvement and awareness about Safe Drinking water amongst children, a painting competition was also organized at the school premises. The competition saw the participation of around 200 students, who drew pictures on the underlying theme of the day, i.e. 'Clean Water for a Healthy World.' Winners of the art competition were given special gift hampers by Coca-Cola Far East Limited. Additionally; Coca-Cola Far East Limited also gifted three water purifiers to ensure safe drinking water for the students of the JAAGO Foundation School.

Word from Korvi Rakshand, the Founder of JAAGO Foundation: "I believe that the future of any nation is in its children. It is in our hands to help shaping the dreams of these children so that they can shape our nation in the near future in return. I personally believe that, it is virtually impossible for these children to grow up as civilized citizen unless they are protected from the constant diseases that they fall prey to.

Occurrences of diarrhea and other water-borne diseases are on the rise in the urban and rural areas and it is the children who are mostly affected after drinking contaminated and polluted water. Hence, we want to lend our helping-hands not only to these children but also to all the community members, and celebrate this 'World Water Day 2010' with the theme 'Clean Water for a Healthy World'. We wanted to raise awareness among the community members so that the number of afflicted is reduced through this program." In his speech, he specially thanked Debasish Deb and Cynthia Rodgers of Coca-Cola Far East Limited for their tremendous support and contributions in helping JAAGO celebrate the day.