Our Story
Aquabox is a charity which provides safe drinking water, through the use of filtration units, and humanitarian aid to crisis zones around the world. Originally established in 1992 by the Wirksworth Rotary Club, it is a registered charity which is managed and run by the Aquabox Trustees.
Aquabox family and community water filters have been distributed around the world to countries suffering from natural and man-made disasters, providing safe drinking water to hundreds of thousands of people.
In addition our Aqua-aid Box, which is tailored to support a family group, contains water purification filters as well as items of humanitarian aid to help with shelter and shelter building, lighting, cooking and feeding, educational development and hygiene.
Natural disasters happen all too often and when they do people are in desperate need of safe drinking water and humanitarian help. We rely entirely on donations and the fundraising activities of our supporters to fund our work and purchase the items which we supply in the aid boxes. Without the generosity of our supporters, we would not be able to continue this work.
In recognition of the contribution made by Aquabox to helping those in need and of the work put in by all the volunteers, we were very proud to receive the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in June 2016. Read more here.
Aquabox is almost entirely a volunteer-led organisation, with one part-time paid administrator, so the proportion of total donations contributing directly to aid boxes is amongst the highest achievable.
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
We couldn’t do it without our partners
We’re proud of our historic relationship with Rotary members around the country. Their continued support has not
just increased our fund-raising opportunities, but allowed us to increase the awareness of Aquabox around the globe.
