A new Isle of Man charity will begin putting down its roots today (Thursday) by holding a launch event at Government House.
Lieutenant Governor Adam Wood is the new patron of Excellent Development Isle of Man – a charity that supports some of the world’s poorest people to transform their own lives, through enabling them to build sand dams.
Sand dams are an ingenious way of bringing safe water closer to home for people living in rural communities in drylands, who often face daily treks for that most basic of survival needs – water.
This means that people, mostly women and children, can break the cycle of water slavery, giving them time to focus on education and even raising the water table so that new crops can be grown by the whole community to eat, store and sell.
Chief executive officer Simon Maddrell, a Manxman himself, founded the charity after joining a sand dam building expedition 13 years ago and knows what a ‘fantastic’ impact they make.
proud
He said: ‘I am extremely proud of what we’ve supported communities to achieve so far – 881 sand dams enabled in eight water scarce countries and over 850,000 people with access to safe water.
‘But it’s the community who are the real champions of these projects. People come to us to change their own lives.’
And organisers say that is the secret of success for Excellent sand dams – that they are built and owned by communities, from their very conception.
Simon hopes that his fellow Manxmen and women will feel the same way as he did 14 years ago – that these people need a kick start, not a hand out – and join hands in helping them start a sand dam revolution.
For more information, visit www.excellent.org.im