WaterAid Awards
Deborah encourages the next generation of world changers at Water Innovators event
Running a successful business is hard. It takes guts, determination, strategic thinking and experience. To run one which is also socially and ethically conscious is on another level altogether. In today's world, businesses are facing complex issues, from sustainability to supply chain resilience, and from consumer behaviour to employee engagement.
Water Innovators is the signature development challenge for WaterAid’s corporate partners. Teams compete with others around the world to solve a real problem facing WaterAid, raise funds for water and sanitation projects and learn new skills. This programme gives teams the opportunity to ultimately reach more people with safe water and toilets, all whilst getting a unique learning experience.
The exciting thing is that through the Water Innovators competition, individuals add value not only to WaterAid’s projects, but also to their work places and therefore the business sector. Through the teams’ dedication, socially-conscious corporates can help make safe water and toilets a reality for some of the poorest communities in the developing world.
Over the last eight months, through the Water Innovators programme, over 30 teams from UK and Australian companies have been exploring ways to help some of the Cambodia’s poorest people out of a seemingly endless cycle of water poverty and collectively raised over £139,000 for WaterAid projects in Cambodia. Deborah was WaterAid’s special guest at the Awards and Celebration evening in central London to announce the winners and runners up of the 2016 Water Innovators programme.
Deborah explains “Water Innovators provides an opportunity for teams from different businesses to not only stretch their imaginations and skills, but to help solve a very real problem for millions of people living without clean water and sanitation. The winners cleverly combined their skills and talents to come up with their design and concept and crucially, the solutions found are not only simple but affordable and sustainable. By taking part in Water Innovators these teams and businesses have had a unique experience to test and learn the qualities needed and support WaterAid in delivering life changing safe water and toilets to the worlds’ poorest people. Now that’s a win-win deal for everyone”
Supporting creative on-the-job learning is vital for businesses to stay ahead of the game and ensure that they are delivering the best service to their customers. By taking part in Water Innovators, these teams and businesses have had a unique experience, testing and learning personal qualities needed to solve complex scenarios.
WaterAid’s Innovation and Strategic Engagement Lead, Isabelle Herszenhorn, says: “Everyone at the event was blown away by Deborah’s support for not only WaterAid’s work but the Water Innovators initiative as a whole. We really appreciate Deborah’s support as it helps us take one step closer to a world where everyone, everywhere has access to safe water and toilets as well as elevating the programme to a whole new level. We’re even more excited now to launch the 2017 programme.”
To find out more and join Water Innovators please visit www.wateraid.org/uk/waterinnovators
