THE MISSION

The Rotary Club of Fort Lauderdale actively supports water projects which provide clean, sustainable water, sanitation and economic development to underprivileged areas, primarily in Africa.

THE NEED  

Consider the following facts relating to the urgent need to improve safe drinking water supplies and better sanitation throughout the world:

WATER FACTS:

• 1 billion people in the world do not have access to safe drinking water, roughly one-sixth of the world's population.
• 50 percent of people on earth lack adequate sanitation
• Every minute of every day a child dies from a water-related disease
• 2.2 million people in developing countries, most of them children, die every year from diseases associated with unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.
• Half of the world's hospital beds are filled with people suffering from water related illnesses.
• In the past 10 years, diarrhea has killed more children than all the people lost to armed conflict since World War II.
• 358 million children in Africa don’t have clean drinking water
• African women walk an average of 3.6 miles to collect water
• The average American uses 100 gallons of water per day vs. 5 gallons per day for the average African family.

HOW WE ARE HELPING

Since our club began its water project initiative in 2007, we have contributed over $500,000 to the two principal programs which we support. These programs are:

WATER WELLS

Our club provides funding for the construction and operation of water wells in rural, underprivileged schools in South Africa in desperate need of water. For this initiative, we partner with A Spring of Hope, a 501(c)3 organization. Spring of Hope identifies, locates promising well site and coordinates construction of each well. The average well costs about $10,000, and we are proud of the fact that every well that we’ve ever funded is still in operation!

WATER FILTRATION SYSTEMS

Our club provides funding for to purchase of LifeStraw community water filtration systems, primarily for schools in Kenya. For this program, we partner with Replenish, a 501(c)3 organization based in Arlington, Texas. Replenish identifies schools in need, purchases the filters and coordinates distribution. Each Community LifeStraw can clean 100,000 liters of water, providing safe drinking water for up to 70 people for 5 years. Community LifeStraws cost average of $350, life can be extended with monitoring and maintenance costing an average of $100.  "Lifetime LifeStraw" which is  $500 for new units which includes the delivery and the maintenance and replacement parts as needed. Every $5 does give a child clean water for 5 years at this pricing.    

Click here for more information about A Spring of Hope and our Water Wells Program.	Click here for more information about Replenish and our Water Filtration Program.
Click below to donate to our Water Wells Program:	Click below to donate to our LifeStraw Program:

The Rotary Club of Fort Lauderdale registration number is CH6195

and the Rotary 1090 Foundation registration number is CH8789.