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All proceeds will be directed
to the work of Water For People.
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Water For People invites you to join us at Wine For Us 2011
Orange County Regional History Center
in downtown Orlando
Thursday, August 25, 2011
6:00 – 9:00 p.m.
maps/directions
Learn the issues
Water and sanitation infrastructure is a foundational premise of development and socio-economic progress. Without securing safe water and adequate sanitation, communities are unable to break out of the disease-cycle which quickly descends into poverty and lack of opportunity. This was true in today's developed nations before these communities (through massive infusions of capital) secured these resources for their populations and put them on the path to development, progress and prosperity.
Unfortunately, large numbers of our fellow citizens around the world continue to struggle under the burdens posed by unclean water and inadequate sanitation. Communities unable to secure these resources have to rely on their women and children to fetch water to meet their daily needs. These women and children often spend several hours each day fetching water to meet their household needs. This keeps women from participating actively in their communities and keeps the children from attending school. It is estimated that nearly 900 million people lack access to safe drinking water around the world. That is nearly 3 times the population of the United States!
The situation is even worse with sanitation. Inadequate sanitary facilities result in chronic illnesses, particularly the easily preventable ones like diarrhea and dysentery. These preventable illness contribute to over 1.8 million children dying each year from preventable water-related illnesses. In addition to disease-cycles being a drain on the grossly limited finances of the families, they also keep productive workers from the workforce and children from school.
Unclean drinking water and inadequate sanitation result in dramatic losses in productivity, school attendance and community involvement, and contribute to the vicious cycle of depressed incomes, abject poverty and under-development. Women and children are the most marginalized demographics in this crisis, lacking the voice and the resources to be heard or make a difference.
How do we respond?
Wine For Us was originally conceived as a social forum to deliberate the issue of international development, particularly related to water and sanitation. In the early years, it served as a social networking event among friends and interested individuals who would come together one evening each year to share glasses of wine and discuss the issues of the day. With time, and the increasingly urgent need for action, Wine For Us evolved into a fundraising event to support the important work of grassroots development, while retaining its flavor as forum to deliberate on the issues that affect vast fellow-citizens of the world.
Wine For Us helps address this global crisis in several ways:
- Fundraising: Wine For Us directs all proceeds to the work of Water For People (www.waterforpeople.org) in developing sustainable water/sanitation infrastructure and health education/hygiene in developing countries. As a direct grassroots intervention, water/sanitation/hygiene serve to address the issues at the heart of the global crisis in health, well being and development. It helps communities break out of the vicious disease-poverty cycle and puts them back on the path to productivity, development and prosperity.
- Education: Wine For Us as a forum of discussion/deliberation also serves to educate participants on the issues and makes the case for individual participation in this global effort. The Wine For Us team believes that the more people know, the more they will participate in this truly worthy cause of development.
- Outreach: Wine For Us is also a networking forum for professionals and leaders in the community to come together in common action on a global issue. It helps build partnerships between people of disparate backgrounds who nonetheless recognize the common humanity of the issues and the impact to life and livelihood around the world. In bringing together people focused not just on local action but on the global impact that it entails, Wine For Us serves as a bridge-builder between people who truly want to “change the world” for those less fortunate than themselves.
Our vision is a world where all people have access to safe drinking water and sanitation;
a world where no one suffers or dies from a water- or sanitation-related disease.
