It’s that time of year when we reflect on our achievements. Our main purpose is to provide clean, safe drinking water and humanitarian aid to those in need across the world.
Water, food and shelter are three basic needs that we often take for granted but for many these needs are taken away by natural or man-made disasters. If you start to Google ‘How long can you live without’… water, comes up first. It can be as little as 3 days, depending on circumstances. In situations where we help those circumstances are not normal.
Shipments
This year has seen Aquabox send aid to Turkey, Syria, Ukraine, Nepal, Yemen, Lebanon, Malawi and Thailand.
Clean drinking water not only saves lives, but safe water for cooking and our Aqua-Aid boxes contain essential items to help with shelter. Aquabox is seen as part of the first responders in the countries we send aid to. Also, long term where refugee camps and temporary shelters are in use.
*In total this year we have sent out 3,318 family water filters, 135 community water filters and 1,200 Aqua-Aid boxes. These will provide 2.2 billion litres of water for 116,000 people.
Funding
The cost of the aid we sent in 2024 was £326,130. Without the support of you this would not be possible. With only 2 part time members of staff supported by a team of over 130 volunteers we keep our overheads very low, so the majority of your donations are used directly for aid.
Who invented the famous Aquabox water filter.
Back in 2010 Aquabox started to look for a more sustainable and elegant solution to provide clean drinking water so appealed for assistance. Local engineer and Rotarian John Griffith answered the call by volunteering his world-renowned skills in the field of engineering design. In his garage, John started to create new filter designs to meet the requirements for sustainable and environmentally friendly household water treatment filters capable of fitting into emergency aid boxes. John worked with Wirksworth Rotarian and Aquabox volunteer David Haspel to refine the filter to the version we send out today. John, alongside his wife Gill, went on to set up Grifaid “to relieve hardship, preserve health and support education among people in poverty residing in developing countries.”
We are delighted to announce that at Windsor Castle on Wednesday 21st February 2024 John and Gill Griffith were honoured to receive an MBE each from Prince William. Their MBEs were awarded for services to health and international economic development
A big thank you.
Aquabox was set up 33 years ago by the local Rotary club, and we continue to have very close relationships with Rotary clubs across the UK and worldwide. Our team of Rotary ambassadors raise awareness and funds. We also partner with Rotary clubs on the ground to provide vital assistance in getting aid to where it is needed most. Just three great examples of this are Ukraine, Nepal and Beirut where the local Rotary clubs help distribute aid.
David and Jane
Depot manager David, and his new assistant Jane, are the backbone of Aquabox. Without them the seven Trustees and 130+ volunteers would find tasks a lot more difficult.
Our volunteers
Aquabox is a community. Our amazing volunteers give their time freely, but also enjoy the social interactions which is a very important part of our ethos.
Hear what one of our volunteers has to say…
Corporate sponsors
The enthusiasm and generosity of our sponsors is truly inspiring. Staff give up their time to raise funds, larger companies provide much needed money to both help with overheads and directly support the aid. Some encourage their customers to support Aquabox. A big thank you to: AVK, The Worshipful Company of Plumbers, TDP, QiXing Consulting and Technolog, In 2024 we added Derwent Hydroelectric Power, Peak Translations, bpec, Cosy Direct, Dryden Aqua, Everything Art and Devtank to our fantastic corporate sponsors. See the full list here.
Aquaboost
Unusually for a charity we actually manufacture our family filters. This helps keep costs down and guarantees the quality of our filters. The culmination of months of work was completed in April when Theresa Peltier, High Sheriff of Derbyshire, opened our transformed production room meaning we have now doubled our output to 6,000 family filters a year.
This would not have been possible without the help of: Raytheon & Pratt & Whitney, Forged Solutions, ITP Aero, Desoutter Industrial Tools, Rockingham Systems, Compressors Limited, Airbench, EcoTile, Crown Paints and Benchmaster, who gave valuable time, provided equipment free of charge or at discounted rates.
San Pads Project.
Cheryl Berry MBE, one of our Trustees, started this project a few months ago and we are now ready to make our first shipment of re-usable Sanitary pads. Leaving before the end of the year, we are sending 500 San Pads for trial in Nepal. Hopefully they will prove to be beneficial and we can start to add these vital feminine hygiene pads in each Aqua-Aid box in 2025. This has only been possible by a new volunteer group of over 35 cutters, stitchers and packers making the San Pads, as well as the “carry & drying bags”.
Aquabox Challenge and Badge
Two years ago our amazing Aquabox ambassadors Ray, from Rotary district 1070 and Sylvia, a District Guide Leader, set up the Aquabox Challenge.
The challenge is to raise awareness of the amazing humanitarian aid work that Aquabox does to save lives around the world in times of crisis.
Designed to be fun and simple, it is an adaptable way to inform youth about Aquabox. The Aquabox Challenge is suitable for individuals and groups of all ages ranging from 4 years to 100 years! Ideal for Scouting, Girlguiding and Schools.
And finally
Each year a local artist and Aquabox volunteer designs a range of cards to help raise funds. The photo below shows the four beautiful designs for this year.
We wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and a peaceful New Year.
- Each family filter will provide 500,000 litres over an estimated life span of 7 years. Multiply this by the 3,318 filters sent in 2024 = 1,839 billion litres, plus each community filter provides 3 million litres of water over an estimated life span of 7 years x 135 sent in 2024 = 405 million litres. This gives a total of 2,244 billion litres.
- Each Aqua-Aid box contains essential shelter items for a family group of 10 (1,200 x 10), each family water filter water for an extended family of 10 (3,678 x 10) and the community filter for 500 people (135 x 500) adds up to 116,280 people.