So we made it into January, through the Christmas binge and out the other side. I don’t know about you, but if I see one more brussel sprout I might scream! So besides giving up brussels for the foreseeable future, like most of us, I’ve made a New Year's resolution for 2020. Mine was to get involved more in charitable fundraising, which kick started with a challenge to drink ‘Just Water’ for the month of January in aid of WaterAid. Yes, you read it right, just water... no coffee, no tea and no gin (ouch, that last one was always going to hurt!).
But, thankfully, I’m not alone and have a team at Access who are taking on the challenge too. One of our Project Managers, Beth, who's been working with our client WaterAid, came across the initiative in December while involved on a project and suggested that we take part. Four of us decided to embrace the challenge and participate in what feels like the ultimate detox, in order to raise money for WaterAid.
The Just Water Team
WaterAid are an incredible charity who are changing lives around the globe by giving the gift of something that a lot of us tend to take for granted; myself included. Until this month, I didn’t realise how much water I used to consume, because it’s lost among my morning coffee or 20 afternoon teas. When we stripped back the extras, I realised how fundamentally important access to water is and can’t imagine a life without it just being the turn of a tap away.
So we’re 21 days in, the caffeine headaches have finally subsided and we’re keeping each other motivated… “just one more weekend to go”. No one has had a cheat day and we plan on keeping it that way! I speak for the team when I say it truly has been a challenge; for Phil and his regimented morning coffee, Paul with his afternoon mint tea and Beth and I with our Friday evening G&T’s in the local. And it's been great to have support from some of the Access Team who are drinking just water during the work day to help keep us motivated.
But we’re keeping our goal in mind, managing to raise £392.53 so far. This is enough to buy 4 water pumps, 10 toolkits and 9 cement bags (used to make a toilet base). We’ve got 10 more days to go and are hoping to reach our goal of £450. If you would like to donate to our page, please do via our Just Giving page. Here’s to bringing clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene to everyone everywhere - now that would be worth raising a glass to come February 1st!
