In 2019 Aspect has provided support to Pump Aid. Pump Aid was selected by employees during our annual voting process and is a Charity that we have partnered with since 2009. Pump Aid has been delivering sustainable water solutions to communities in rural sub-Saharan Africa for more than twenty years. And today, almost 10,000 communities and nearly 1.5 million people have access to safe clean water as a result of their life-changing programmes and ground-breaking initiatives. Pump Aid has been driven by a desire to deliver aid in the most innovative and sustainable ways possible. Learning from experience, they target their resources where they will have most impact and deliver long-term sustainability and a reduction in aid dependency. Aspect’s Charity Committee set an ambitious fundraising target.
The Story of the Year
As with any challenge Aspect’s employees tackled an incredibly varied range of events. 2019’s events included Ping Pong tournaments, the London Duathlon, the Oxford Half Marathon and the Santa in the City Run. Away from sport there were a number of food sales, a beer tasting event and a chilli eating competition which even made the news (London quant managers don’t fear the Reaper). 19 employees took part in the contest which started with an entire Jalapeno and culminated with the world renowned Carolina Reaper. The Reaper tips the Scoville scale at an average of 1,569,300 Scoville heat units. Remarkably 7 employees completed the competition consuming an entire Reaper each.
Water Walk Challenge
In September the entire company took on the Aspect Water Walk challenge as our largest sponsored event for the year. Around 50% of the population in Malawi do not have access to safe water, since a source is either too far to collect from or contaminated. This greatly limits the amount of water used, making basic sanitation more challenging. Most people are only able to obtain up to around 20 litres per day. To put this in perspective, a shower uses around 50 litres of water! The World Health Organisation and the UN state that most people need between 50-100 litres of water a day with an improved water source of no more than 1 km roundtrip to meet basic needs. This highlights why the work that Pump Aid does is so vital to improving people’s lives.
We hoped that in one day, we would be able to achieve an equivalent 1 km journey for water and collect 20 litres for each individual who works here at Aspect. To do this treadmills were setup in the Aspect Staff Hub and jerry cans were brimmed with water. In total, with four treadmills running all day, Team Aspect moved the equivalent of 3,339 litres. This would supply approximately 167 people for one day. A great result but another indicator of the scale of the challenge faced by those impacted in Malawi.
Fundraising
After a busy year we are delighted that Aspect’s employees have raised over £27,500, which will be doubled by Aspect. Congratulations to everyone involved in the fundraising effort during 2019 and thank you to all those who generously donated.
Special thanks to Hire Fitness for their exceptional service and support during the Water Walk Challenge.
