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"Nobody ever drowned in his own sweat." ~ Ann Landers.
The BridgIT Water Foundation works in collaboration with an International volunteering company called Projects Abroad that organizes placement for volunteers.
 Projects Abroad is a UK based company that offers volunteer placements in developing countries across 5 continents in 24 developing countries.
Projects Abroad do their very best to ensure that each volunteer is making a valuable contribution to the community they are working within, whilst gaining genuinely useful work experience. Volunteers are fully supported by local staff prior to arrival and also within country. Volunteers live with host families who assist in providing a great cultural experience.
BridgIT Water Foundation working with Projects Abroad Can:
- Identify worthwhile water projects in developing countries due to their varied placements and contacts
- Provide support through local & UK based staff who will act as liaison between the BWF and selected projects
- Market and recruit volunteers to work on the water projects
- Provide advice on visas, work permits, travel, immigration, local norms and customs as necessary
- Arrange orientation, airport pickups and host family arrangements as necessary
For further information please visit www.projects-abroad.co.uk
Projects Abroad programmes are eye opening and life changing but also enjoyable and well planned and supported. Volunteers return from their placement with an understanding of the developing world that cannot be acquired in the classroom or library.
  
Working hard while also enjoying meeting many other like-minded volunteers and making life-long friends along the way
Volunteering can be an ideal way of experiencing tourism while also being immersed in the local culture plus contributing to a worthwhile project.
  
Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, herd cattle with Maasai or visit Inca ruins on your days off.
"The person who is waiting for something to turn up might start with their shirt sleeves" ~ Garth Henrichs
Volunteer Stories
A Day In The Life of the Tanzanian Water Project (posted on BridgIT facebook page July 2011)
Water is such a precious commodity and this has been so starkly made obvious on this project. We start the day by filling water bottles with boiled water so we can wash our face and brush our teeth, then either fill our drinking bottles with boiled water or using bought bottled water. All boiled water is done manually over an outside fire so may take 1/2 hour or more. We then march off to work singing as we go through the throng of children at the school who all want to shake our hands. We put in a steady day in the sun and dust. Presently we are erecting guttering on the Dispensary / Clinic where the local Maasai people come to the sole doctor for miles and wait sometimes for many hours to see him after an already km long walk while sick. They are often thirsty and ask for water for themselves or their babies. We are also erecting guttering at the secondary school. We have contracted a 100,000 litre tank to be constructed to harvest rainwater as the presently piped water from Mt. Meru is contaminated with fluoride which causes bone drformaties in children, but when that is all you have to drink, you drink it. Our day ends with having to find ways to amuse ourselves the old fashioned way (without phones, internet etc). I have 'my girls', the secondary school girls who I am coaching in netball and the guys play soccer. All played on very dusty fields, but we have lots of fun and laugh all the time. Our night time water collection then begins with bucketing water on rope from the tanks so we can - flush toilets, bathe, wash clothes, cook etc. This is all done manually and everything is cooked outside on small wooden fires including heating water for a bath. Cold water is very refreshing, but the nights get quite cool. All this is done with the magnificent Mt. Kilimanjaro in the background - and even though some may think this sort of living is difficult and harsh, you can also think 'life doesn't get much better than this'. I'll keep you posted.
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