For many years, Just a Drop has received the generous support of Reed's Travel Exhibitions, the world's leading travel and tourism events organiser, with a growing portfolio of more than 22 international travel and tourism trade events in Europe, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

We've received support from World Travel Market (WTM), Arabian Travel Market (ATM),  and the International Golf Travel Market (IGTM) to name just three exhibitions and this unstinting support has enabled us to achieve real impact - simply thousands of people have benefited. 

The travel exhibitions have supported 15 projects including across seven countries, enabling 28,575 to access safe, clean water! 

• El Fashir Golo & Seillei Villages in Sudan supporting 5,290 people
• Tidene Valley Sakafet and Tarnezlak Villages in the Sahara Desert in Niger supporting 15000 people
• Manpura Village in India supporting 600 people
• Jagasya Village in India supporting 302 people
• Kithyululu & Kwa Mbotoe Schools in Kenya supporting 435 people
• Butega Parish Community in Uganda supporting 1730 people
• Kwa Mbotoe in Kenya supporting 435 people
• Kayabwe Village, Nkozi Parish in Uganda supporting 950 people
• Mpumpule Community in Zambia supporting 160 people
• Fundanga Community in Zambia supporting 190 people
• Norah Junior School in Uganda supporting 437 people
• 4 School Biosand Filters in Norah, St Mark, Elly, St Aloysious schools, supporting 1279 people
• Kashitu Borehole Repair Project in Zambia supporting 1284 people
• La Ceiba Village in Nicaragua supporting 173 people
• Rincon Village project in Nicaragua supporting 310 people

A great example is the project at Mpumpule village in Zambia, where the community had no clean water at all - Just a Drop with WTM and ATM drilled a boreeholer and installed a hand pump in an accessible location. This is the experience on one of the village's residents:

Doris is 34 years old and a mother of no less than 12 children. She explained to us before the project that the water in the river had mostly dried up, with only small ponds and stagnant water. It was dirty, with dead leaves and a bad smell and snakes also lived close by. The water affected the health of all the family. We met up with Doris again after the project was completed. She was very excited to tell us that since the new borehole was drilled, a new school with 35 pupils has started close by. She also said distance to fetch water has been reduced from 3km to less than 1km - the time saved can now be used for other activities at school. The water is clean and health much improved.

Thanks to the support of WTM and ATM, Doris's life has rapidly improved and we're very grateful for this support. 

WTM 2017 saw Just a Drop launch our Clean Water for Uganda campaign which ran until the end of November. The campaign provided 30 biosand filters to three Ugandan schools, bringing clean safe water to 1,279 pupils and their teachers.

Every donation towards the campaign was match funded by World Travel Market, helping to double the impact of each donation. Overall, we received £2106 in donations - beating our target £1980!

In 2017, Just a Drop took part in WTM's Responsible Tourism Day where Just a Drop Founder & Chairman Fiona Jeffery OBE joined Just a Drop partners David Hosking, Director TTC, The Travel Corporation & Treadright Foundation; Inge Huijbrechts, Vice President Responsible Business, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group and Sarah Hunter, CSR Director, Euromonitor International, for a discussion about how business and charity partnerships can use the UN sustainable development goals to generate greater innovation and greater benefits for society.

Click here to read Fiona Jeffery's WTM blog post on the subject.

2017's show also saw the return of Just a Drop’s ‘This Bottle is a Lifesaver’ fundraising initiative. For a small donation, reusable water bottles could be purchased from the Just a Drop stand, with free water refills available from various water stations located around the fair.

Water stations in 2017 included Affordable Car Hire, Air Europa, ETOA, EVA Air, Radisson Blu Hotels and Skål International.

          

Over the last few years, the travel exhibitions have supported two projects in Nicaragua which are currently in progress. The projects will enable the two communities of La Ceiba and Rincon to access safe water through a piped system directly into their homes for the first time. 

In Rincon, the community are forced to leave their homes to travel to collect water every day; and once they’ve collected that water, they want to use it for drinking and cooking, rather than handwashing.

Soon this will no longer be the case in Rincon as Just a Drop is building a gravity flow system which will see sustainable, clean water brought to the homes of every community member; enabling them to easily access safe, clean water. This means that they can practice good hygiene, such as handwashing; making them more resilient in the face of the current Coronavirus crisis. The project is transforming lives and protecting the community.

The project is made possible by the collective support of the travel industry; by just exhibiting at WTM Virtual 2020, each of them made a donation to this project.