A journey to a better future

In an escalation of its long-standing relationship with the clean water charity Just a Drop, the long haul holiday specialist Hayes & Jarvis has announced a new project-based support campaign which aims to deliver water to those who most need it in places around the world where the dual impact of climate change and the global recession is hitting hardest.

While making a substantial donation itself to ensure that the project targets can be met, Hayes & Jarvis is focusing the campaign on a regular series of fund-raising days and activities, led by its staff and with resulting moneys being matched by the company.

Championed by Clare Tobin, Managing Director of TUI Travel’s UK Specialist long haul brands which include Hayes & Jarvis, the first project to be supported is the creation of a water system with two new wells and hand pumps in a remote area of northern Bolivia, regularly blighted by severe disease-spreading floods.

The Just a Drop project will benefit 260 people living in the village of Nueva Esperanza (New Hope), which lies in the tropical fresh water lake area of Rojoaguado. Nearly half of these are children, who are likely to be the main victims of a lack of access to clean water because of their vulnerability to water-borne diseases such as dysentery and cholera.

The Bolivian project is the first of several that Hayes & Jarvis intends to support over the coming year, with the central aim of helping to provide the clean water that will offer children living in remote communities a better chance of a healthy future.

Stressing that the cornerstones of the campaign are water, children and education, Clare Tobin said: “Teaching children about water sanitation and hygiene can quite literally save their lives. The sustainable supply of water underpins economic growth, poverty reduction, food and energy security.

The most effective way to meet the needs of future generations is to educate them about water. We must focus on the scarcity of water in the same way as we are focusing on carbon – water is the next carbon. It is my view that before long we will all need to measure our ‘water footprint’.

“Having just launched our first programme to Latin America, our interest in the region has been heightened and we chose to support the Bolivian project first because this is a way to offer a real economic benefit to a local community that urgently needs help. The dual consequence of the global recession and climate change negatively impacting on weather patterns will make access to clean water and the economic situation there even more difficult – making it crucially important for us to act responsibly and help.”

The first fund-raising day was held on 29th July at Hayes & Jarvis’ headquarters in the Atrium, Crawley in order to launch the campaign. It raised a total of £913 through staff donations and the raffle of an All Inclusive five-night beach holiday in Costa Rica, one of the new Latin America destinations just introduced by Hayes & Jarvis in its Worldwide Collection brochure.

Progress reports on the Bolivian project and the others that will follow will be available soon on Hayes & Jarvis’ website – hayesandjarvis.com.

For further information on Just a Drop see justadrop.org.