Welcome to Inclusion Bites, your sanctuary for bold conversations that spark change. I'm Joanne Lockwood, your guide on this journey of exploration into the heart of inclusion, belonging, and societal transformation. Ever wondered what it truly takes to create a world where everyone not only belongs Bites thrives? You're not alone. Join me as we uncover the unseen, challenge the status quo, and share stories that resonate deep within. Ready to dive in. Whether you're sipping your morning coffee or winding down after a long day, let's connect, reflect, and inspire action together. Don't forget, you can be part of the conversation too. Reach out to jo.Lockwood@seechangehappen.co.uk to share your insights or to join me on the show.

So adjust your earbuds and settle in. It's time to ignite the spark of inclusion with Inclusion Bites. And today is episode 111 with the title Hydrating Humanity.

And I

have the absolute honor and privilege to welcome Hannah Bellamy. Hannah is the managing director of Charity Water. When I asked Hannah to describe her superpower, she said, getting people to see and care about ongoing issues in the world. Hello, Hannah. Welcome to the show.

Hi, Jo. Thanks so much for having me.

Absolute pleasure. So, Hannah, hydrating humanity, that is sounds like a fascinating thing. So tell us more.

Yeah. Of course. So hydrating humanity, I think what lots of people don't realize is that while we all need water, not everybody has access to it. So there's 703,000,000 people living around the world who don't have access to clean water, And it's not just about being able to drink it Wellbeing able to Joanne, you know, 10 on the tap and drink that water. Not having clean water is an issue which affects education. It affects opportunity. It's the biggest killer of children under the age of 5. And, really, it's a social injustice which affects women and girls in particular.

Those are some staggering numbers. Yeah. Biggest killer of children under the age of 5. Yeah. Wow. That and 703,000,000 people

Yeah.

Across the globe not having access to clean water. I suppose what's going on in my head and the Bites and see stereotypes are probably in my head is poverty in Africa, but it goes beyond that, doesn't it?

It does go beyond that. So it it can happen in in all sorts of places and and pop up in different pockets. So, you know, we'll definitely find that in some vast countries so if you think in North America, for example, there'll be areas where people don't have piped water to their homes. But see, as an organization, Charity Water, we do focus on countries that are low down on the UN's human development index because those are where people really need help. So about about 80% of our work is in Africa, about 20% in Southeast Asia, but that's not where the problem is completely isolated to. I mean, we hear about it now, unfortunately, in war zone situations. That's not the type of thing we go and fix because for us, we're working in places where we want to have long term systemic change to help remove people from the poverty that you're imagining. So clean water is the first step to help people remove people from poverty.

Yeah. Because it is a it's a tool in warfare, isn't it, where you remove utilities? So you remove sanitation, food, water supply in order to get your opposing side to capitulate or give in through suffering, starvation, dehydration. So, yeah, I'd never really put it in that context before. But it's it is it is one of those tools. And I guess if you go back I'm just thinking we jo back into ancient medieval history. We've got see to starve people out of their castle, didn't see? And through, like, a war.

see. Yeah. Which feels like it in some ways, there's instances similar to that now perhaps. But the the interesting thing there is because because when people read it in the news and it's happening in that type of war scenario, it feels like something new, and people are horrified by it. People are horrified by the idea of not having access to clean water in that situation. But what I want people to do is is to take that horror and think, actually, there's people around the world. Like I said, that's 700 over 700,000,000 people like that on a day to day basis. And, really, it it it's something we know how to fix.

So what I really want people to do is to hear that and think, oh my goodness. That's that's shocking. How can we allow that to happen? And oh my goodness. It's something we can change if we just invest in the right way. We can fix this problem, and we can save those children under 5. We can impact those women's lives. So it it's it's how do we take that that horror and and refocus it into action.

And is there a I mean, you emphasize the the the word clean water.

Mhmm.

Is there a a marked difference between clean water, dirty water, and no water? So a lot of these areas may have water Mhmm. But it's not suitable for for drinking or or sanitary to clean and washing. Is is that is that the challenge? Or having water at all is the challenge?

In the countries, we work in both, and it can change wildly between seasons, rainy season, dry season, everything like that. So if you think about somewhere like Bangladesh, there are instances where definitely there is too much water. It's just not the right water, so it can be extremely dirty. And, actually, what we need to do is think about clean water Inclusion, which are adaptable in times of flooding, but that still reach the clean water as opposed to the dirty water, which is flooding. There's other places we work where in the Sahel region, the desert region in I always Happen Gennifer Eats. How did see? In West Africa, which where it's a really harsh condition. It's not in the dry season. It there is no water.

I mean, you can dig really, really deep down. And what we find is people there may have really old wells, which they're able to sometimes gather water from, but they can dry up, and the water that does come is really dirty. And they've usually walked miles and spent hours, which is why women see affected, to collect that water. So what we want to do is drill deep down to a stable place in the water table and make it simple to pump that water up to the surface and then to have that water source close to people's homes. So women Wellbeing usually, you know, if you think barefoot, very hot ground, long distances, often unsafe. So what we do hear about is is different forms of violence they they could encounter to collect water, back breaking work to bring it back, and you think balancing it there on your head or or or sometimes strapping it to the back, bringing it home, having that water be dirty, having that make your children sick, having that make you sick, and then have to do and do it again and multiple times a day. So for us, it has to be a sustainable clean water source within 30 minutes round round trip, whole trip. We want to take less than 30 minutes when people need to get water, and it has to be Safety, and it has to be clean.

But what what I just heard you say there is so women are are making this journey potentially half a day Mhmm. 20, 50 miles, I guess, is is that sort of distance. And when they're bringing the water back, that water itself is not necessarily clean. It it can also be dirty as well. So they've gone to get this water, and now they're bringing in dirty water. How do they will they boil it? Will they sanitize it somehow? Or they just, you know, just be dirty and they they consume it as is?

Again, different communities will have different ways of doing it. Sometimes they'll filter it through some cloth, which obviously would remove some of the larger debris, but not the germs. And that's the real issue because often what we'll see so there's a woman called Malatani who lives in Malawi. She used to walk up and down this this quite intrepid ravine in her flip flops to go and collect water from a stream. It was a stream that would be really a trickle at certain points. So she's there, you have to dig down, get in a queue, take that water from it from the source. What around that will be goats, cows, whatever whatever other animals want to come. And so if a cow is weeing in that water, pushing it through a cloth, which may not be clean in itself, is not removing the germs.

It will remove some of the leaches, the the, you know, other nasty Bites, see everything else, but it's not Change, safe water.

But the pollution predominantly in these sources, because their water holes is likely to be animals' animal waste, both yeah. And human waste, I guess, in some areas Yep. River pollution and things.

Exactly. Animal waste, human waste, whatever pollution has been in there. I mean, it's it would be so for me, where I live, my closest water source would be see River Thames. So it would be like me walking down to the Thames, taking water from that, and using that for my family. And I wouldn't, Bites you you just think I wouldn't, but there's no choice within this matter.

Yeah. Water is so fundamental to life. Is what Yeah.

Exactly. You can

go hungry, but you can't go thirsty for more than a few days, can you?

No. No. Exactly. You can't. And then you also you then you start to realize it's not only that. It's it's keeping clean, keeping everything else around you clean and and the the the additional health benefits that provides and the dignity as well. Just feeling clean with yourself that your clothes aren't dirty, that you're not that you're not not dusty. And we we find that often in in the communities where we work, there's real pride after receiving King Water because people are able to find that dignity.

I, I visited see fairly early on within my 1st year working at Charity Water. I went to Ethiopia to the northern region called Tigray. I went to a couple of different communities within a day, and I found it was the first time I saw it so starkly. The first community that we visited, the children had clean water. It was somewhere we'd we'd worked. We'd we'd delivered a clean water source. Our local partner was working there. And everybody in in both communities, hugely welcoming, people dancing.

It's, you know, it's a joyous moment when see go into these communities and and and meet with people and talk and hear their stories. In that first community, everybody's dressed in these beautiful vibrant fabrics. They're dancing around there, and you can see the the shine in the children's eyes. We had a football match. You're you're doing all these things. The next community, we we we drove along see very dirt roads, couldn't get up there. And we had to sort of hike up some some mountainsides and and go meet the children there, and they didn't have clean water. We walked down to a sort of stream where they were able to collect water if it was Diversity.

We saw that and what it looked like and how they collected it, you know, scoops they were using and everything else. But the biggest contrast was just Safety vibrant cloth underneath, but very dusty and dirty. The children's faces, you know, they weren't able to keep themselves clean in the same way, the hair, everything else. see you soon realize it's Bites yes. It's about health and in and drinking and the hydration side of it. It's also just about how you want to live in the comfort level and the dignity it brings.

What what are the what are the symptoms? Or so you you've had drinking and consuming or washing and bathing in in unclean water. What what does that do to the human body in these cases? Is it is it dysentery, cholera, all these kind of diseases and things?

All sort I mean, all sorts of diseases in it. It's an endless list. What we see very often and what affects these the young children in particular, it it's diarrhea. So they have extremely runny stomachs. And, unfortunately, in a situation where you're not able to then have enough water and keep consuming enough water or if the water you're then consuming is also making you sick, diarrhea can be fatal. And that's the really, really sad thing. You know, to generally hear if my kids get diarrhea, it's a very unpleasant experience, but that's the end of it. Bites it's maybe 24 hours, 48 hours of discomfort, not very pleasant, but we're able to and and then the idea that actually in some in another country, the only water that that that if I was the mother would be able to give to my child could continue exacerbating that, and their child can die, which does Happen.

It's it's heartbreaking.

Bites I've been lost at see, and you've got all that salt water around you and they'll Yes. Drink something.

Yeah. Yeah. Heartbreak.

When you're when someone's got water that is in various I mean, not all dirty water is is equal, I guess. There must be hierarchies of really, really dirty to Mhmm. Okay. So there must be different treatments and different ways of of tackling different pollutants, I guess. So what what does it cost? I mean, I'm I'm in my head, I'm thinking that that little tablets or something you put in the water to disinfect or to clean. Is that is that the sort of solutions you're you're looking at to clean water, if you like?

It's not. So because what we're trying to do is search Charity Water every single time we work in a community, and we work with a local partner. So we don't do the work ourselves. We fund local organizations to do Happen. And we want to and we do put a pin on a map on our website with GPS coordinates, and we say this community now has clean water. So it can't be something which could run out in that way. So it looks different in every community because it has to be appropriate both to the water source, but also to what's appropriate for that community in terms of can they get the right nuts and bolts to fix it and maintain things. So in some places, it's digging down to like I said, we're so we get we need to be able to get a truck in there, have it really drilled deep down, find the water, and that water then will be clean usually.

So once you get down to the in the groundwater, it's going to be clean. Pump it up. We will make sure and test it and make sure there's not nothing come no traces of of unwanted things coming through from that water. And and then that that's drinkable water. That's potable water. In other places, it is a a case of having a a filter. And, actually, you ask what it costs. So, again, it varies per thing.

But a typical, you know, drilling a well with a hand pump, that's gonna be about £8,000, £10,000. In other places, so Cambodia, for example, we use a biosand filter program in lots of places we're working. And in that, it we're helping community members to build their own filters, which will work within their homes. And, again, how to maintain that, how does that and we know they're working for 10 10 plus years, if this structure that has then been built within their homes, and they can collect water, pour it in there, and it will come out completely clean. But the dirty water itself looks different in different contexts. We actually got our our creative team. So we are in Bangladesh at the moment, and they did something we haven't done for quite a while, which was take microscope with them. And they took a microscope, and they've taken it into one of the schools, and they've got some of the water that the kids were drinking, and they put it under the microscope and there are things moving.

You know, it's it's alive, that water that they're drinking, all different shapes and sizes and, you know, that that's reactive. And you look at that and you think, I don't wanna drink that and put that in my body. And then they look at what they've used there, and that's another fill a different type, but another filtration system, and they're able to see that there's nothing there. It's just it it's dead, which doesn't sound good, but that's what you want with your water. You do not want living things in your water.

Jo so dead things are good?

In that way, yeah.

So, yeah, in that way. So it's about killing off the bacteria or the the micros, because when they're alive, they react with the gut, and that's what the cause of diarrhea, etcetera. But Yeah.

Yeah.

Dead things are inert then, and they go straight through. And then Yeah.

And when I say dead, I just mean there's nothing there. see they've actually been filtered out. So knowing that you've killed them, they've literally just they've got caught. They're no longer within that. They said that it it just doesn't look alive. The water doesn't look alive like it does when you Oh, okay. When you get

yeah. It's not it's not the swimmy things that are now in a

No. They don't no. No. No. There are no swimmy things anymore.

Right. So

don't want swimmy things.

I'm I'm fascinated by how the water that you're drilling down is clean because, you know, it's obviously in the earth in the in the Mhmm. There's gonna be dust and bits and pieces in it, And presumably, water must filter through the earth Mhmm. Permeate down, and those and that would bring down pollutants with it. Or or is this coming or these water tables coming from from rainfall through clean Diversity, from the top of mountains all the way under in underground? Is that is that is that how they get cleaned through through evaporation and then perspiration down?

Right. This is slightly beyond my this is probably why we're at local partners. So my hydrogeology is minimal, but I know it is keen. And often I it what it is, I think, is it's gone through so many layers of rock. So a bit like when we put the biosand filters in in in Cambodia, it's a similar thing where it's gone through so many layers of rock to get there that it's become clean. And, also, it's dark down there, everything. There's no light to encourage any life in that sense. So it's also had had that experience, but I am that that's a piece I'm not I'm not very well involved on.

I'm just curious. No. I I I get that. Yeah. I suppose you got all that pressure. You got the the the filtration, as you say. There's there's no light. It's probably a bit cold as well.

Yeah. Yeah. So what are the what what are the challenges? I mean, obviously, I guess, money is a challenge.

Mhmm.

But there must be logistical challenges because you're often working in very rural or out the way areas. These these communities are are not on the main road. So you you probably have to find them and and and put infrastructure in there and electricity maybe, they may not have that either.

Yes. Jo most communities won't have electricity, and that would often come after water. So often what we find is that after clean water comes, the next step within a community may be to replace their roofing. If they've had straw roofs and things like that, There's enough money. They will replace it with tin roofs. So it's, it's better in terms of keeping the rain out and things like that. Then the next step often may be something like electricity, but that that usually comes a little bit later. In terms of logistical challenges, I think we're we're so lucky in our model and that we work with local experts and local partners because they're able to that they know the best solution, and they they know how to adapt their work for for for the environment.

So they they overcome those. Also, so many we come across. So, the woman I mentioned earlier, when our team first went to her community, they were really keen to have clean water because they'd seen it in a neighbouring village, and they really wanted clean water within their own village. But while you don't need the electricity to drill down, you do need a considerable sized rig. You know, the type of rigs you'd normally see on a building site or something else, they need to be able to get 100 of meters down in down to the ground. So it's a huge training piece on it. It needs to come through. It's run on diesel or whatever else it is, and it needs to be able to get right down in there.

And so what they didn't have was a road for for the for this drilling rig to be able to get there. And, actually, the ravine, which they'd been walking over militalia and her friends have been walking over and and and navigating to be able to get their stream water from is what is what the issue was because you can't you couldn't build a road over that very easily. So to overcome that, it's not us overcoming that. Actually, people really want water. So when they realised that was an issue and a a villainy and a necrosis, what they decided to do was every family within that community nominated one family member to work together and build a road, and they did. And they they gathered all the materials. They they they did it. And so our local partner will go in and support them and make sure they're planning it right.

Is it going to work, the drilling rig? How does this you know, they know because they've done it in other communities, the different, you know, layers of dirt and rocks and everything else you need. So they'll work with them to do that, but but it's it's off it's often this partnership. So it's us, it's our local partners and experts, and then it's the community themselves that are all working together to bring clean water and overcome any of the difficult challenges. And then the challenges we face the bigger challenge for me, the fan challenges we face is a bit like I mentioned earlier about when we we think about wartime and people not having clean water, that's a shock, and so the world pays attention. I was reading just yesterday about habituation and that there's as humans, we are it's a bit like boiling a frog in the sense that we we become used to something. We stop seeing it, and that's what's happened with these type of issues. And, unfortunately, when I often use the statistic that it's it's the leading killer of children under the age of 5 because if you said someone to someone, do you want to fix the the biggest killer of children under the age of 5? Do you want to neutralize that, save those children's lives? Nursery school aged kids. Everyone will say, yeah.

Everyone wants to do Happen, and we can do that. But they don't see it and hear it anymore because this is an ongoing you know, throughout our lifetime, there has there's been this issue.

I suppose I grew up well, I'm a bit maybe didn't grow up, but I was around with Live Aid and Bob Geldof and Feed the World and images of African young African children with pot bellies, malnutrition Yeah. And the drought related because, obviously, the drought causes lack of crops and lack of food. So it's kind of it's a bit of everything, really. So you not only are you trying to give people water to drink, you've also gotta find water to grow crops and other things, which is again Yep. A massive challenge in its own right. And you can't be putting sewage contaminated water on crops because of that, again, just creates the problem in there as well. So it it's it's the whole I I get it. It's it's the whole cycle

Yeah.

Of humanity that living in those communities, giving them life. Yeah. And it's almost, you know, using Maslow as an example is the the hierarchy of needs. It's that really basic. You can't, as you said, you can't wash your face or clean your clothes Yeah. If you haven't got enough water to drink, and it it reflects in their personas how you perceive them.

So Yeah. Yeah. And you can't wash your hands, which I think, you know, during COVID, that's something we all became very aware of was and we've always known it, but the importance of washing your hands throughout the day at a particular moment. So if you can't wash your hands, the spread of diseases, you know, it increases.

You kinda take it for granted, don't you? That, you don't even think about washing your hands. You you just it becomes there's the tap. I mean, we get frustrated if we go into the toilet, and there's the soap dispenser doesn't work with you.

Yeah. And and try

it off.

Yeah. I'm

I'm not gonna walk out with shaking my hands and get the drips off.

Waving our hands jo the sensors to try and get the water to you know, all those things these days. see.

Those first world problems that we get kind of

Mhmm.

Excited about really doesn't work. And, these people were they don't have the luxury of having water to drink, let alone to wash their hands in the Yeah. Exactly. So where where do you get most of your funding from? Because it it's this is not this is not a cheap thing, is it? This is this is big big infrastructure investment. How do you how do you raise the funds for this?

see as a as a normalization as a charity, we have a unique model. So we have 2 separate bank accounts. We have the water bank account, and then we have the overheads bank account. And the reason we do this is is we our founder, Scott Harrison, when he first set up the charity, he he realized that people don't trust charities. It's a real problem that people think I don't know where my money is going. I you know, especially when it's going overseas, what's happening with it? How do I know it's gone to the right place? How what who's saying for your laptop? I've you needed to fly here. You know, our team have fly places. What does how much is that costing? So to overcome all of that, we have these 2 separate bank accounts, water and overheads.

And if you went on our to our website today, if anyone decided to go onto the website and give to Charity Water, a 100% of that money will go into our water bank account. We take that and we grant every single penny. We even refund any credit card fees or anything else. We'll go to our local partners and be invested in Clean Water Solutions. So that money comes from a a couple of different places. So a lot of it comes from everyday people. So we have people who learn about this and they really want to make a difference, so they'll sign up to what we call the spring, which is to give every single month. Jo I always think of it as, like, a subscription for good.

You give you've got your Netflix. You've got whatever else it is you're giving to every month. You sign up there and actually give every single month and know that you're doing good in the world. A 100% of it has gone up over there. So we have that. We do have people who fundraise, who do races, who do any you know, whatever it is that's fun for them. So so they go and fundraise again, 100%. And then we have businesses we work with, so people like Uniqlo, Stanley, the the drink vessels, a number of other different businesses, Aveda, the hair salons.

They will give to us either they're fundraised with their employees or their or their customers, or they will from their corporate donations. And then the final piece would be welfare individuals who are able to say, I want to sponsor clean water for 1 community or clean water for 1 school or clean water for 1 health Inclusion. And then we'll work with them on that and provide them with that reporting process to say, great. Okay. You want to give £10,000. I have projects that need funding in Malawi, Rwanda, etcetera etcetera, and I work with them on the list and and watch that. You know? And so we'll work together to to make sure that matches. So that's the the water, and that's the bulk of what we do and the bulk of what we see.

But we always have to balance it, obviously, with our overhead. And so the majority of our overhead is funded by the, again, those wealthy donors. So philanthropists, they've often been founders of businesses, been very successful. They understand investing in the business processes and systems and structures and stuff to generate and be the engine of doing the rest of it. So they sign up to what we call the well. They give to us usually once a year for 3 years plus or commit 3 years, and they're very much part of our community. We report to them a bit like investors, so there is no return for them beyond the amazing feel good. And this is how many people we've impacted this year thanks to investing, but that money comes from there.

And then we do actually also add in Gift Aid now to that as well because it's much more sustainable way of us of us growing. Because otherwise, you can you can be in you you don't always balance out. Otherwise, the water can do really well. You need to make have the overhead doing just as well to be able to use that money effect.

I like that. That's quite a really enlightening governance model to do that and fundraising model. Because too often charities get, criticized for

Mhmm.

Salaries and, Safety, flights and and, you know, I know running a business, and you have to pay people. You have to pay people correctly. Yep. It's it's a charity that does that does good, but the people themselves aren't charities. You're not a charity. You have to live your life. And if you're gonna attract great people who could make a fantastic difference Yeah. Those great people have a worth.

And, no, we can't all we can't be all altruistic and and, and and do do it for nothing, can we?

No. Exactly. And people sometimes ask that and say and they see people are surprised sometimes when you you have a salary working for a see, but I'd have to work somewhere else otherwise. You know, then I have to work to buy food and pay my own water bills and, you know, have a home and my kids and and everything else. And my husband's a doctor in the NHS. So, you know, between us, we're we're both doing what we can.

Bites some of these countries you're you're working in, they're they don't have stable governments. There there is kind of corruption and issues, if you like, politically within that within that their territory. Do you have do you have troubles working within some of those jurisdictions or pretty much you you're left alone? Because I I just imagine that there's bribes and corruption that have to or or people using your facilities or services to for for for the wrong purpose, if you like.

Is

that something you have to be really care careful of?

So it's so it's something you need to always be aware of. Jo, again again, because it's often not us. It's a local organization. It's a bit different where where we're working with those people because they they they are known within that system, and they are wanted in the work they're doing. It's very valued. But, of course, you always have to be aware of of that. So we have a separate. They're almost an isolated team, who we call Programme Finance.

So our programmes team are the ones who work with the local partners on making sure the work is long term robust, that we're we're scaling it, everything else. The programmes finance, they sit they sit slightly separately, and they're auditing everything. So they're going in and checking how the funds have been used, have been they removed responsibly, can we see x, y, and zed to prove this. So a bit like any nonprofit or charity does generally in terms of reporting, we are really drilling down, and we have long term partners jo we can get because you you know, you then you build up that trust as well and you know what what works for each side. But, you know, we do we pay a great deal of attention to that stuff because we we we believe very strongly that the donors should feel absolute joy to know that that you know, if you get if I want you to know absolutely that you've given Team Wars to somebody on the other side of the world, and you should feel amazing about that. And that's what's happened with your money, so you feel very strongly about that and then feel really strongly that the person who, you know like we've talked about, Munatani's community, they've built a road. You know, they they deserve whatever money is is Wellbeing sent to help them, that for that to reach them because they're also working extremely hard and and will and will be dedicated to this water point. So on both sides, for us, it's really important it runs as smoothly as possible.

Yeah. Okay. So, yeah, I I get that. So you you are you're not out there trying to break Lockwood yourselves, if you like. You're you're working with local people who understand. So you not only are you providing clean water, you're also, I'm guessing through this, providing jobs and injection of money into their economies as Wellbeing.

Yes. That's a you know, we want it all to see. And and some local partners we work with, not only do they we'll work with them, and there'll be a local organization employing local people. Then we'll also arrange for Diversity local partners, have different expertise see get to know each other, to learn from each other, to also help on that side of things. And we also have I think it's in I'm trying to think which country it's in now. I think it's Rwanda, but I may be wrong. One of our local partners is that they they even invest in things like local masons who will be able to create the stone base that they need. So they helped train local masons to do that and to be able to supply it.

So it it it has complete knock on effects in terms of working through local people. And the other thing I would say is we know that when you invest in clean water infrastructure, like I said, it brings opportunities to places and you see the electricity, the different roofs, everything else. But, actually, you know, it's proven that that for every 1 pound invested, there's 4 there's 4 pound return in the local economy. So it it and that's just the start of it from a week.

Presumably, so you've been operating and and helping communities for several years now. How how long has your your project's been going? Is it?

So Charity Water globally has been going for 17 years, and then we've been in the UK since 2018.

Presumably, obviously, you've made a lot of difference to a lot of communities over that time. Is there is there an end to I mean, it's almost like an infinite bridge, path. You have to you keep keep painting it, you keep painting it, keep painting it, and there's always another community to to to handle it. Is is it is it sustainable to keep doing this forever if you like? Because I I can't predict an end.

No. So I think that there's there's 2 things there. First of all, we have a saying within the organization, which is don't be afraid of work that has no end. So you we are impacting each time you impact a community, you've done something. You've achieved something. And, actually, when we began, 1,000,000,000 people didn't have access to clean water. It's not all thanks to us. It's thanks to a whole a whole load of organizations, but now 703,000,000.

So progress has been made, and we our belief is that we can end the water crisis in our lifetime if everybody really pulls together. This isn't it it it's not jo it's not there there's so many other causes out there, so to do with climate change and how do we what do we do about climate change? What Diversity cancers, how do we tackle that? There's all these different things that people that see huge amounts of research and to development and iterative processes and learning to get to a point where we'd even would know how to solve some of it. Whereas that's not this. That's not the waterfront. We know how to fix it. It's there. It's it's a it it's about investing community by community, school by school, health clinic by health clinic until we we meet that. It will get more expensive as we go because the communities that left are likely to be the most rural, the most hard to reach, the most in need, but we don't stop until it's done.

You mentioned climate change there, and most people associate the that with rising sea levels. But that brings its own challenge, doesn't it? Because it's the wrong type of water, and you could be polluting water tables and sources of water that you're currently relying on.

It's yes. So that's one of the things we we really look at, and it it it was interesting. I was speaking with Brian who's who leads all our programmatic work, and he was saying that many of us feel like the world is unstable and and flapping around a little bit and and things are surprising us. Often, these communities, because they're more impoverished and they're struggling in different ways, they're at the end of the tail end of that flapping around. So if you think about something moving they're experiencing real extremes. And so what we find is somewhere like Malawi, we've talked about, will will they'll have extreme droughts, a lack of water. And so in those cases, we need to make sure we're drilling deep enough for that to be long term sustainable clean water for them and that we've thought about how this shifts over time as well. And then they're also experiencing, you know, huge storms where they're bringing unheard of amounts of rain, strong winds, and destroying infrastructure.

So we also have to make things sure things are built really robustly. And if there is things like flooding, that that the systems remain safe and that the dirty water isn't flooding and infiltrating the the clean water, everything else. And all of this has to be taken into account. And, actually, if we overlay a map of where we currently work and so we're in 22 countries. Where we currently work And the countries which are most impacted right now by climate change already feeling the effects of it, they pretty much sit on top of each other. So it's often in these countries that they're ex they're experiencing the they're experiencing it right now, climate change. And what we can do is if you give them an adequate, safe, long term access to clean water, you're removing one of the real difficulties for them because at least they have that And then everything you know, you can rebuild things you can motor, but you need to have the access to a clean water.

I'm I'm I'm I'm fascinated. I'm just thinking as you were describing, drilling down to these water types and making sure there's enough volume of water down there to be a sustaining community. Presumably, the the communities themselves are not consuming water on a vast scale. This is, what, 20, 30 households

Mhmm.

Few liters per person per day type of thing. Yeah. So how much water do you need to locate for it to be considered a worthwhile sustainable water source? Priscilla Bites quite technical. You may not know the answer to that, but it's what's going on in my head, I suppose.

Yeah. No. And people often ask us because they'll read about water tables drying up. And I think, you know, it's something that definitely the US is experiencing right now, and they're starting to be concerned about the consumption of water and and what does that mean when they're they're drawing water from the water table. But you're right. In the communities we work in, you know, there might be a couple of 100 people. They're often they they they don't have the power showers and flushing toilets and dishwashers and washing machines and everything else. So so they're not using huge amounts of water.

And, actually, generally, what causes water tables to fluctuate is industry. So, actually, where there's an issue with overuse of water, it tends to be because it's within a manufacturing or They will not deplete the water table just by having access to it.

Do you I presume not only are you bringing supply in, you must be putting sanitary and sanitation in to remove to remove the sources of the, contamination as well, aren't you?

So we do so so, generally, because of where we're coming, you don't need to where you're where you're if you're drilling down, or we're putting in a filtration and and then yes. We are. We do there there's certain places we work where, for example, we're planting trees around because that helps to slow down so that water doesn't suddenly flood and also, again, helps filter it and do different things. So there's different different adaptations that can work like that, but but we don't normally have to unless, as I said, it is somewhere like Cambodia or Bangladesh where where we're taking that water and putting it through a filtration system.

I appreciate this this next thing I wanna ask you is is not necessarily your your core specialty, but I'm sure you have an opinion being in the sector. Is just talk about a lot of stuff going on in the news around the UK at the moment, around pollution of rivers through untreated sewage and the water companies not fix it. I I I I like to be charitable. I think, well, they're not out to do bad. They may not be that efficient at doing what they do, but they're not they're not set out to be bad. It it must be a massive problem to cope with the volumes and demands of of of consumers and water users and just how how do you think that, you know, we we as a community and society in the UK could could, I don't know, get get around that and think about our own water supplies?

So it I'm not on the water supply side so much, but my background is so I I came into the charitable sector through the corporate sector. So I worked in corporate responsibility and actually worked for Centrica and British Gas on their corporate responsibility side of things. So I do have a view in the sense of businesses having a duty to do the right thing. And so when you say they don't want to do the wrong thing, I I believe that as individual people, the majority of individual people who are in businesses, of course, they don't want to to do the wrong thing. They want to do right by people and and, hopefully, by the environment. But if there if the culture and I don't know this with the different oil culture companies. But if the culture isn't right, if the goals aren't right, if the measurements aren't right, if perhaps legislation around it isn't right, then the decisions being made can lead to harm. And it's really important that the the the social impact and the environmental impact in this is being measured very clearly and benchmarked and that you have goals to improve that and to do it.

And so I don't know enough about the issue here, but it it has to be done in that you know, and and perhaps legislation would be the only answer.

Yeah. I mean, you you mentioned the people you're helping in these countries consume very little water per capita per head. Whereas in this country, and other developed countries, we consume vast amounts of water per head. Even if it's not directly going through our household, but just cleaning our food, watering our garden. All these all these ways we we can see water. And we take it for granted. We have no concept that water isn't free. You know, water, to us, is free.

It's just turn the tap on, and it's there. And we get really shocked when we go to Spain on a holiday, have to buy bottled water because you can't drink out the tap in the bath.

Mhmm.

So we get quite spoiled as a as consumers in the UK.

Yeah. Lockwood do. And I but I think it comes down to so much of it's overconsumption generally, isn't it? I mean, it's not it water's used huge amounts of water's in jeans. You know, to manufacture jeans, you need vast amounts, especially to get the stonewash effect, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. So it often isn't about what we're doing at home, although we can all reduce it. And, actually, I find my interesting my daughter has a shower, and she automatically turns off the water every time she's taking shampoo in or washing up. You know? She just does. And she just always has because she's like, well, that I wouldn't I wouldn't waste that.

So I I'm hopeful, and I do think that the kids are learning differently and starting to think about things differently. So I hope that continues.

I I never even thought of turning the shower off between washing my hair, and I I kind of just let it flow. I mean, it's not a power shower. It's a gravity shower, but, you know, I just kinda let it flow. But yeah. And nothing nothing better than when you're in a nice hotel and the the shower, one of those rain showers, it just feels

really invigorating. So yeah.

Yeah. But I do it without any thought. You know? I'm I'm starting to become very conscious around recycling plastics and avoiding plastics when I can, but I don't have a a water converse conservation or water care thing in my head at the moment. I I heard there's a world water day coming up. Is that is that trying to bring that in, is it?

So it that's about access to water for everybody. So world water day, yes, that's something to consider. But, actually, you consuming less is not going to provide clean water to someone else on the other side of the world. It's not you know, it's a bit like, you know, news to I don't think parents do it as much anymore, but, you know, when kids didn't eat their food and they'd say, there's some starving children who could, you know it doesn't one thing does not offset the other. So World Water Day, really, it has a different theme each year. It's a UN day, so to you know, it's partly because it's UN development sustainable development goal number 6 is access to clean water and sanitation for all. So it's about raising awareness for that. This year, I think it's having a theme of peace and how peace and and water really really play into one another and and the importance of one to the other.

But we'll be doing so Charity Water, we always do a lot of fun fun things for for, Water Day. So this year, if anyone's in London, we'll be just off Brick Lane unveiling a newly painted mural to try and raise awareness and keep keep people thinking about it beyond what I've ordered today.

Jo, yeah, just picking up what you said there. So me being frugal and turn the shower off doesn't solve the problem in Malawi or at one place you mentioned. So I've gotta realize that the way I can help

Mhmm.

Is not through personal action as such. Mhmm. It's around supporting causes, Mhmm. Lobbying governments, being more aware of the needs of those people, and where possible supporting, sponsoring, contributing, donating into the into the causes.

Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. And I think and what what's important to me, what I feel like is at the moment, for some reason, I feel like people are very focused on and I think this often happens in times of difficulty. They're very focused on local causes and charities and food banks and everything else, and we should be. We should all care about our local communities and not take away from that at all. But we should think about humanity as a whole and every single person and their value around the world and think about them all people is our neighbors, all humanity. So so that for me is if people are thinking about if people are thinking about giving, and and I hope most people do think about giving, to have that wider piece.

So I know one family who always want to give to a cause which is hyperlocal to them, so they so they they they focus on a hyperlocal cause, they focus on a national cause, and then they focus on an international cause. And for them, they they to make sure they're they're covering everything. So not everybody can give to 3 different organisations, but to have that awareness that where's it really needed? Where's the support really needed?

Yeah. And I I would say because I I I do work with charities. I've been trusted a number of charities. And whilst I don't actively give my pennies away

to

charity, I give my time, which I often think is more valuable than than than a penny. Yeah. I I I give you 10 hours of my time. I I I raise money or I I give to that. I it's it's sometimes more valuable. But, yeah, you can be giving without actually spending, if you like. Yeah. Advocating, awareness raising, even if it's just social media sharing and and and commenting and and becoming part of a movement to ray raise the awareness.

I appreciate you want cash as well, but creating the awareness is is also part of it, isn't it?

Yeah. So what we found, we had some Boston Consulting Group did some pro bono research for us. What they they've said to us is that if people don't know who Charity Water is, they're not going to give. So right now, I want anyone and everyone to know Charity Water. I want them to hear that name, to recognize the logo jo that we become become part of the culture here in the UK and people will then give because they'll trust us and hopefully start, especially because of our 100% way of working where, you know, they give you know, where their money's going, they know we're gonna prove where their money's gone, then they then they do start to give. Because ultimately, it's it's the giving which is going to you know, that's the direct investment in the change.

You're not you're not looking for hours of of people's time to come and, you know, fly out to one of these countries and start digging holes and stuff like that. So it's very much

Mhmm.

The local people do that. You're looking for raising funds in this country or fund wherever through gift dates or whatever it may be, creating awareness, creating a movement, creating a a a momentum, if you like, of of of awareness of the Change people are facing. And I I guess in the in the forms of time, global warming, our climate could change, other closer to home, people we would see see as our close neighbors could also be going through areas where their water tables become sort of, you know, what we consider developed countries now are only, I suppose, only 1 degree centigrade rise in temperature from becoming more barren, more desert like. And yeah. So it's an interesting topic. I I until we started this conversation, I I hadn't really explored in my mind around I just saw it as people in these countries, they have famine, they have drought. I don't really consider the, the sort of the whole aspect in their community around this, you know, what you said, walking hours and hours and hours to collect water. The water you collect is then being polluted.

It's then they're then consuming dirty water because that's already choice. And it's not about cleaning the water. It's finding access to the water that is clean already Decaf. Or cleaner. So you're not you're not trying to disinfect or or or clean water. You're trying to find the better water. And that's really fascinating. It's it's something, as I see, something I hadn't really explored before.

No. Not you said it is. It's one of the basic needs that the Masai Triangle piece of it. Right? That you have to meet this, and then everything else there's so many things can follow. So but it it does and it it impacts us as people, both from thinking about, yes, those communities and how we have access. But we're always using different water in different ways. Water comes into our lives all over the place. So it's just I think being grateful for what we have is really important.

And you said also about what people can do. The other piece, if they don't have the the the funding or anything themselves to give, is talk to their employees, talk to their businesses. We often find that, actually, it's those corporate organizations who who do have the funding and are able to help significantly as well. So there's also that side of it, of just thinking beyond individually and ourselves to what can we collectively do.

Yeah. And you say you don't have to support this cause every year or every time you Mhmm. You put on your running shoes or whatever else you choose to do. This could just be one of a portfolio of of charity causes that you want to support over you over the course of of your life. Jo, yeah, I I and I really like what you said about having that 3 tier, sort of like the the the the very specifically my village, my locale Mhmm. Sort of the the more nationalistic and then work for other fields, some of the bigger courses. And it's, yeah. It's it's it's opened up another way of thinking that, you know, like, or as I say, I donate to this.

Mhmm.

I've still got scope to think about something bigger than me as well and fit a a part of something. Because I I had a a friend who was doing some work with a an organization called see a Cow. I

don't know

if you've quite lost them. Bites it was a concept. It wasn't sending it the cow necessarily as meat. They were sending it as the lifeblood of a village to provide milk and to the nurture and care for it. And eventually, yes, when it got to a point where the milk stopped flowing, it may well become food. But the primary thing was it was transforming villages. Yeah. Having this this livestock that and they they said they went out to see a village Joanne they saw the when the cows arriving.

And some of the children had never seen livestock in that way. It it brings that whole, as you say, the smile and the the eyes of the village, not not just around that one accent. Yeah. You're you're you're you're changing lives and changing their quality of life as well, aren't you?

Yeah. You are. And I think that's it. It's about finding that one thing that you can feel really passionate excited about and the one thing that can absolutely transform lives that we may take completely for Joanne, but we can go and and I I sometimes think about bringing clean water to your community. What we know is that that increases the number of children going to school. And so this clean water can come, and I I like to think about a young girl who, perhaps, before was having to collect water, was too unwell to go to school, doing it. She's now going to school, so we know that. Then she she's she's going to school.

She's learning. What we found is when we bring keen water to a school, for example, that increases attendance by 30%. So so so you impact there. And then you we know education is so important. So if you think about this as one child, so that child's no longer sick at home, no longer affecting dirty water, now going to school, getting an education, what's she gonna do next? Because now she's really educated and she's doing really well, and she can go off and do the next piece that the education provides. Maybe maybe and when we hear that we speak to some kids and they say, I want to become a doctor. So imagine that girl does become a doctor, and then she starts to save lives. And then, you know, the ripple effects are massive.

And so I just it's how do we find that that catalyst for change and for impacting lockwood for a long time.

I I remember I I just did a lot of work with the community fundraising and back 20, 30 years ago. And I remember working with agencies in in India. Mhmm. They had a program at the time called freedom through education.

Mhmm.

So it's about freeing people through the educational process, and their their freedom at the time was their freedom was from legacy colonialism. So they wanted to educate themselves out of that that that that legacy of colonialism. And then we started getting involved with building schools. And then we realized that the the priority wasn't just building the school, it's actually building toilets. Because without toilets Yeah. It had a disproportionate impact on young girls. Yeah. And then we talk about period products, and we talk about other things.

So you start by thinking about this, and then suddenly quickly realize there are enablers that help more women and more more young girls get involved because they are the ones that are more disproportionately disaffected by the lack of sanitation, as you said. They're collecting the water, periods, not not you know, as they grow up and this and this. see they they've got challenges to go into education. And also the the the the the the societal expectations of young women as well. We gotta try to become that as well. But, yeah, it's it's all kind of little little piece of the jigsaw. Often, it's the the the small pieces you don't realize until you realize the big pieces don't work on their own.

Yeah. And I and I think we you know, when when girls get their periods here, there's you know, when they were at school and all those things, they they're terrified of being embarrassed. I, you know, I I remember you Change jo school and you but you've still got you've got your individual bathrooms, toilets you can access. You know you've got access to taps. You know you can you know that from home, you'll have everything you see, or perhaps at school, the school nurse can help. You know, you have all these different things you need. But is there still a terror and, for some reason, worry about humiliation? And so you take that and you put it into a context where women are already perhaps more oppressed in some ways and and where people could be maybe thought of very differently when they get periods and and all this this societal pressure. And then you send them to school without a space to go by themselves, you know, so without any way of cleaning themselves up.

And it it really see it it's unfair on those girls because you're really taking away the opportunities, and they're staying home because they just don't want to be. It's because of that shame. And so when we work in a school, it's not only about providing clean water. We are working with the school to make sure there's gender specific latrines, enough latrines to to cover the whole population, and, also, usually, a a separate space for girls to go out sort of a a a room they can change in and that they can wash in and they can do other things they need to do if they have their periods. That they have that again again, it comes back to dignity, to be honest, and removing any stigma from it. We also, like, just see, you know, it's a broader conversation about how how we're not in that. We shouldn't be embarrassed about it, and everybody gets it, and this is what it looks like. But but also allowing people you don't want to have to to raise awareness of it by by young girls walking around with with mess on themselves.

It's just not right.

Oh, and it's it's trying to change centuries and centuries, probably millennia, of of stigma and shame

Yeah.

And oppression of women. We can't solve that. What we can do is solve toilets. We can create clean water. We can provide spaces for them products Yeah. Whilst we're trying to change the world. And Yeah. I remember that statement in the first place.

Yeah. I I I see that. Hannah, it's been fascinating. And and I knew so little about this when we started the conversation, and I I I feel quite passionate and evangelistical now. I think that

Oh, good.

I Joanne talk about this. So it's been absolutely fascinating. So tell us more about, the website, the programs. How can people get in contact with you? How can people support you?

So I you know, we we need all the support we can get, and so we'd love I'd love anyone to go to charitywater.org. You can sign up to our monthly newsletter. You can set up a fundraising campaign. You can decide to join our spring and get every single month, whatever works for people because and as I said, every single penny will go on clean water. And then see, personally, I'm on LinkedIn, Hannah Bellamy. I love connecting with people, especially if they they have a way of helping in terms of through their businesses or or anything else that works for them. So, yep, I hope this I hope more people feel evangelical after hearing our conversation.

That's nice. I'll put all the details on the show notes. And, Hannah, thank you so much.

Thank you. Thanks so much for having me.

As we bring this conversation to a close, I want to express my deepest gratitude to you, our listener, for lending your ear and heart to the cause of inclusion. Today's discussion strike a chord Consider subscribing to Inclusion Bites and become part of our ever growing community, driving real change. Share this journey with friends, family, and colleagues. Let's amplify the voices that matter. Got thoughts, stories, or a vision to share? I'm all ears. Reach out to jo.Lockwood@seechangehappen.co.uk. And let's make your voice heard. Until next time.

This is Joanne Lockwood signing off for the promise to return with more enriching narratives that challenge, inspire, and unite us all. Here's to fostering a more inclusive world one episode at a time. Catch you on the next bite.