For anyone not familiar, we work closely with the The Point Foundation as part of our ethical scheme - it's a wonderful charity supporting the communities that bring us our tea. Thanks to on pack donations from our english breakfast and fundraising events, we fully fund teapigs house – a safe house which provides medical support, accommodation, nutrition, and emotional encouragement to 7 young adults and children with disabilities. The Point Foundation further supports 3 other houses which all together supports 24 local children with disabilities, giving them a safe and supportive living environment. In a bid to raise some extra funds last year, a team of teapigs took on Tough Mudder in the UK where we raised just shy of £4,000!
After a few chats with Point Foundation founders Karen & Charles, we decided on investing the money into TWO 5,000L rainwater tanks for better access to water for their Community Living Programme which includes teapigs house. We're thrilled to tell you that not only are the two tanks up and running, but thanks to additional donations from Caffe Praego Coffee Company (and a very rainy season) they were able to install 2 more tanks, all of which filled up within the first week!
Rain harvesting is saving a lot of time and money over at the Community Living Programme. In Gisenyi, water mains are typically costly and erratic, while a local public water supply is a 2 mile walk away. The new tanks ensure that water is not only free, but readily accessible and it can even become a source of income for the community. The local Ubumwe Community Centre helped organise the building work & installations while the Point Foundation helped oversee progress. The tanks journeyed from Kigali, Rwanda 240km to Gisenyi, and the Ubumwe Community Center created metal stands for the tanks with cement and rocks underneath to hold them safely and securely in place. It was a bit of a challenge and required a lot of heavy lifting power as each tank weighed 5 tonnes!
thank you!
We wanted to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who donated to the Tough Mudder fundraiser - hopefully you can see the amazing impact your contribution is going to have on the day to day lives of people living in this community. We're definitely not done quite yet, and currently looking to take on another team challenge later this year to raise more funds - if you've got any suggestions, we're all ears! Leave us a comment or tag us on twitter letting us know what challenge we can take on next!
Interested in more information about our ethical scheme?
- Shop our english breakfast tea - a percentage of all sales of our signatre blend directly support the wonderful work carried out by The Point Foundation.
- Read all about our ethical scheme here!
