Having an abundance of clean, safe water to drink, cook and clean with in our homes is a luxury many of us likely take for granted. While it is second nature to wash cars or water a nicely manicured lawn, many people don’t have readily available access to clean drinking water – as many as 884 million, according to the United Nations.
That’s what led a group of Atlas Copco employees in Sweden in 1984 to stand up and do something about it. With the establishment of Water for All, our employees built a program of partnerships that research and identify areas of great need and then help dig, drill and protect wells where a safe water supply is scarce. These donations also help build rain water collection systems, basic village and home-based water purification systems, and improve on standard sanitation conditions.
Each project is funded by the Atlas Copco employees who make voluntary donations from each paycheck each month, and all donations have been matched by the company since its inception. To broaden the impact and help stretch employees’ generosity even further, Atlas Copco started doubling its matching contributions in 2011, meaning $3 goes to each project for every $1 employee donation. A committee reviews projects and partners with independent, nonpartisan groups to select and implement these extraordinary projects.
The group’s motto, “clean drinking water is a human right,” leads the drive to raise money to support projects that help provide people in need with access to safe, sanitary water sources. Since its inception, Water for All has helped provide more than 1 million people with access to clean water, forever changing the lives of everyone that these projects touch. It’s one thing to read about the impact of these projects; to really see the difference it makes in the lives of the people and their villages, watch this short video. You’ll see what a difference clean water makes.
Water for All now includes more than 4,000 active members worldwide, most of whom are Atlas Copco employees. What fuels your passion to help others? Tell us below how your organization makes a difference.
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