2020 is a lost year, but with a lot to gain
Covid-19 will not stop us from making the world a better place.
2020 is a lost year, but with a lot to gain
Covid-19 will not stop us from making the world a better place.
Scroll down for A Drop of Life’s 2020
We often take valuable natural resources like water for granted, but when natural disasters or pandemics hit, access to clean water becomes a matter of life and death.
2020 has made us realize the importance of prioritising access to clean water, safe sanitation facilities, and good hand hygiene as the first line of defense against the virus and other future disease outbreaks.
We are constantly being reminded to wash our hands with soap and clean water multiple times a day. However, for people living in developing countries, clean water is not always available, let alone proper sanitation facilities.
Long before the pandemic, “A Drop of Life” has already been working with our partners to implement water and sanitation projects for communities in need.
Now, as the COVID-19 pandemic threatens everyone everywhere, our work to bring clean drinking water, basic toilet facilities, and good hygiene practices to those most in need has never been more critical.
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Together with our local partners, we have identified a few areas that our projects can help prevent the spread of the virus on different levels...
When the world is struggling to obtain supplies such as face masks, sanitation products, and other household necessities, we receive overwhelming support that makes it possible for us to immediately deliver aid packages to local communities.
Tourism has always been the backbone of Cambodia’s economy. Many villagers who migrated to cities for work opportunities have lost their jobs because of the epidemic, which greatly affected their livelihoods. We understand that any effort to improve the environmental hygiene could be a futile attempt if one does not even have the money to buy food.
This year, the COVID-19 outbreak has brought a lot of pressure on us: dealing with disrupted plans and daily routines, not being able to have family gatherings, and worrying about not having enough supplies of face masks, cleansing products, and other household necessities.
Even though we cannot control how the coronavirus spread, we are committed to respond to people’s needs quickly. Since the beginning of the year, we had organized 24 community visit events through our “Fighting against COVID-19 Project”.
Every small step makes a huge difference for people on the ground.
“Over the past ten years, I have been so busy working for my livelihood that I did not even have a chance to look at her appearance carefully. It turns out that she has grown a lot without me noticing,” says a single mother who is taking care of her 15-year-old handicapped daughter.
She is a cleaner who has been raising her daughter alone. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, her daughter’s classes were suspended, so she had to stop everything on her hand and stay at home to take care of her daughter while relying on her meager income from before. We did not expect that our visit would make her daughter very nervous. She became emotionally unstable and overturned the water glass while crying. She was immediately hugged and comforted by her mother while we lowered our heads to help clean up.
She has always been her daughter’s only support . “During the epidemic, my daugh-ter was unable to go to school, and I could not do my usual work. We have not stepped outside of the door for four days, and the food supplies are running low at home. However, I got to spend more time with her and we got a lot closer to each other because of the coronavirus. I did not realize that my daughter was already fifteen years old and she has grown so much”. For better or for worse, the road ahead is not easy for them, but this mother has never complained, and even promised that she would keep fighting no matter what challenges lies ahead.
After the visit, our volunteers actively offered to help purchase new supplies and food for them. When she knew what the volunteers did, she cried and said thank you. Every family has their own challenges behind the doors. We might not always have the opportunity to know their unique stories, but during this challenging time of the year, it is important for us to help our neighbors, and to treasure our every moment with family members and loved ones.
The living environment in rural Cambodia is simple. Villagers generally live in elevated wooden huts, where the living room, bedroom, and kitchen are all in the same area, but one important room is often nowhere to be found – the toilet. Out of curiosity, I tried asking the villagers, "How do you go to toilet?” I did not under-stand their language, but based on their embarrassed looks and awkward body gestures, I reckoned that they probably just defecate openly in the bushes.
For villagers living by the river, their situation is not any better. They would build very primitive "toilets" on the shore that drain their excrement directly into the river.
There seems to be nothing wrong with returning organic human waste back to mother nature, but the problem is that, untreated excrement will allow bacteria and viruses to seep into the soil along with rain and river water, contaminating the underground water source. Under the current pandemic, we have been taught the importance of covering the toilet seat before flushing, so imagine how dangerous it is to live in an environment where human excrements are nakedly exposed in open air. If we extract the groundwater nearby, will it still be a safe source of drinking water for the villagers?
Although "toilet" and "sanitation" seem to have nothing to do with "water", they are in fact closely related.
In face of this coronavirus pandemic, our daily routines and the way we connect with our supporters have been changed completely. Even though we were excited to prepare for our annual fundraising events, “Race for Water” and “Walk & Run for Water” this year, and tried our very best to get ahead of dif-ferent challenges, we had to make the difficult decision to cancel the races because the health and safety of our staff members and participants are always our top priorities. Nonetheless, our colleagues upheld the spirit of our supporters and finished the 15km on the original race day of “Race For Water 2020”. The blessings we received along the way has strengthened our belief and work.
Although there are many difficulties ahead, they are not reasons for us to stop. We designed a new way for “A Drop of Life Hong Kong Flag Day” to happen, and were fortunate to receive an overwhelming sup-port from everyone. In total, we raised over HKD$700,000 through the online pledge donation of gold flag and recognition gifts. The fund raised will be used towards providing clean and safe water to those in need in developing countries, which will lead to significant improvement in their health, education and living condition. Your support means the whole world to us especially in this challenging time. We will get through this period of adversity, and come out stronger together as a result.
Jackie Lee
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages around the world, people who lack basic sanitation facilities and epidemic prevention resources are much more vulnerable to the threats and challenges posed by the outbreak. How could they fight against the virus without clean water?
Washing our hands frequently is one of the simplest yet essential tools to prevent the spread of the virus. However, even a simple act as such is a challenge for the 785 million people. As a result of poverty, they lack basic access to clean and safe water, and the present epidemic has exposed this inequality which exists globally.
Currently, A Drop of Life is working to scale up projects related to clean water, sanitation and hygiene in rural areas of Nepal, Myanmar, and Cambodia. Owing to the pandemic in 2020, obviously we could not travel to these countries. We have to rely on our local partners to help us understand the challenges and needs of the villagers and their children, so that we can implement “Clean Water and Sanitation” projects efficiently.
Based on this experience, we have the confidence to promote sustainable development in these regions, and we believe eventually it will improve the living environments of our beneficiaries.
I wish everyone good health!
In the past years, I had been participating in the “Race for Water” event organized by “A Drop of Life” during every March. Unfortunately, the event was cancelled this year due to the pandemic, but my support for the mission of the organization never stops!
The year of 2020 has been very different for me as well as for you. Apart from spending more time staying at home, I have paid much more attention to the environmental and personal hygiene issues. I deeply realize the importance of access to clean water under the pandemic situation. How fortunate we are living in a well-developed city that we can be able to obtain everything we need easily, whereas people living in remote villages do not even have safe and clean water during this critical period to fight against virus. Water, essentially brings safe living, leading to a better future and hope. In the coming year, I will keep my promise to continue support “A Drop of Life” and their meaningful work.
2020 has been a very special year. With the entire world battling with COVID-19, it changes everyone’s life style and plan, and I deeply realized many things cannot be taken for granted.
The pandemic forced students of all ages to study online, and somehow it may have caused some negative impacts on their learning and social lives. If parents like me are worrying about these changes, then how about those children living in remote rural villages?
Staff from “A Drop of Life” told me that these children have to stay at home as a result of school closures. What’s worse is that they do not even have access to toilet facility and clean water and soap for proper handwashing. Also, their parents do not have the knowledge of personal hygiene.
This makes me realize that water and personal hygiene are highly related; it plays an important role in those communities without proper health knowledge. Therefore I firmly support A Drop of Life’s new direction to promote “Water and Sanitation” projects.
A reporter recently asked me, “what are the periods of ups and downs in my acting career?” Up? Cannot really think of any. Down? It must be this year. My personal income was at least 60% less than that of the previous year. My investment in swimming teaching performed even worse.
Under the global pandemic, we know commercial firms are greatly hit, but what about charity organizations ? Of course, the situation is even worse as all fundraising events for charity are suspended. Other than that, sometimes, it is difficult to provide services for people who are in need.
Nevertheless, the number of people who lack clean water is increasing. Their situations are definitely more critical than ours. Hence they need our help more than ever before.
Without doubt, our income is less this year. However, as long as we work together, no matter how much is our donation, we should continue to use our positive strength to take part in this meaningful project by providing water facilities for the 785 million people around the world who are still lack of safe and clean water.
A reporter recently asked me, “what are the periods of ups and downs in my acting career?” Up? Cannot really think of any. Down? It must be this year. My personal income was at least 60% less than that of the previous year. My investment in swimming teaching performed even worse.
Under the global pandemic, we know commercial firms are greatly hit, but what about charity organizations ? Of course, the situation is even worse as all fundraising events for charity are suspended. Other than that, sometimes, it is difficult to provide services for people who are in need.
Nevertheless, the number of people who lack clean water is increasing. Their situations are definitely more critical than ours. Hence they need our help more than ever before.
Without doubt, our income is less this year. However, as long as we work together, no matter how much is our donation, we should continue to use our positive strength to take part in this meaningful project by providing water facilities for the 785 million people around the world who are still lack of safe and clean water.
A Drop of life has not slowed down their steps despite global pandemic. They reached out to show caring and distribute antivirus relief to the community, also kept spreading clean water projects.
Furthermore, the release of documentary of "Alex Fong's 45KM Swims around Hong Kong Island" on the1st anniversary. The grand event that belongs to every Hong Kong people, record breaking of swimming around Hong Kong Island of 45KM in 10 hours and 43 minutes, definitely worth to look back to every memorable moment.
It is indeed an important milestone for wisely promotion in the future to review such grant event again. Although Alex kept saying it was just a report about how donation has been unitized. But as a junior like me, for sure this report touches peoples' hearts.
I believe that it has also inspired many people who admire Alex like me, to be encouraged to step out and extend a helping hand to others in every difficult time.
Water is an important element for the survival of all living things. It can be able to provide irrigation, nourishment and cleansing. Under the global pandemic in 2020, clean water resources have become even more precious and important than before. “A Drop of Life” has always committed themselves to providing safe and clean water in underprivileged areas in the world (they have served 4.8 millions of people since established).
I hope that “A Drop of Life” will continue their work in the coming year. I will definitely continue to support them by taking part personally to help those people living in remote rural areas to have access to clean water for their basic needs.
Time flies in the blink of an eye, and this year seemed to have passed by much quicker than before. Owing to various reasons, many people in Hong Kong have been living in difficulties during this year.
Nonetheless, I hope we have to remember that, similar to us, there are many people around the world who are also going through difficult times.
Let us keep a positive attitude towards the challenges posed by issues related to pandemic, poverty, water shortage, and environmental hygiene!
The United Nations has listed "Water and Sanitation" as a sustainable development goal for years continuously, which shows the importance of having clean water for healthy living and economic development. Unfortunately, 780 million and 4.2 billion people in the world right now are living without clean water and safe sanitation facilities. Under the coronavirus pandemic this year, toilets, soap and hand-washing facilities have become extremely important. Therefore, we are taking immediate steps to review the quality of toilets built in 2019 and formulate multiple standards, so as to speed up the construction of facilities in many Cambodian villages, and also to strengthen hand-washing and personal hygiene awareness. Our long-term goal is to make sure that every family in the villages we serve have a safe toilet. This can effectively reduce the risk of spreading the virus while protecting the quality of water sources.
Over the past 22 years, we have been making efforts to implement the best plan to build water facilities in response to the unique geographical factors, water sources, geographical and population of each country. We also educate local stakeholders to ensure that projects are successfully implemented. The problem water crisis is growing in concern as climate change has made the conditions of dry and humid regions becoming more polarized than before. We have set long-term goals to explore different water technologies around the world and to develop the possibilities of other water sources. We hope we will not only improve ourselves, but also help alleviate the global water crisis.
Revenue and Charitable Project Expenditure from 01 January 2019 to 31 Dec 2019
2020 has affected everybody’s lives in different ways, but there are plenty of reasons for hope. It is a lost year, but with a lot to gain.
Despite COVID-19, you have helped us build 3,577 water projects benefited 2,503,318 people, and provided pandemic relief packages to 20,784 people.
So, thank you. A big thank you for being a supporter and thank you for sticking with us throughout the year. We believe that if all of us take small steps together, we can continue to make a difference in 2021.