On 14th December 2021, we would like to invite you to join us for RX Christmas Jumper Day! 

How does it work?

1. Wear your best/worst Christmas Jumper on your online meetings on 14th December 2021 

2. If you can, please make a donation to Just a Drop. We suggest £5 but anything you can give is greatly appreciated! You can make your donation through this page!

3. At the end of the day we'll crown a winner! 

4. Your support will make a real difference to hundreds of children in St. Augustine Mwingi School in Kenya! 

Who are Just a Drop?

Just a Drop is an international water charity that brings sustainable safe water and sanitation to communities across the world. 

Just a Drop was set up by Fiona Jeffery OBE when she was running World Travel Market in 1998 as a way for the travel industry to give back to the destinations that it was working in. Since then the charity has reached 1.8 million people with safe clean water and sanitation!

Through RX exhibitions such as World Travel Market, Mostra Convegno Expocomfort, Arabian Travel Market & WTM Africa, International Golf Travel Market and Oceanology International – RX Global’s support has enabled Just a Drop to reach over 39,000 people across 25 projects in nine countries with safe, clean water and sanitation!

The Just a Drop team work in the RX Richmond Office on the fourth floor so if you'd like to find out more, pop over and meet the team! 

What will RX Christmas Jumper Day Fund?

St. Augustine Mwingi School is a boys' school in the arid Kitui County in Kenya, that is attended by 688 children.

The school currently does not have a supply of water and so the school is forced to buy water into the school, taking away the precious money they have for the students. Often the water that they do buy in to the school is unclean and has been collected from the river which means that cases of stomach problems and other water related complications are often reported by students. This leads to increased cases of absenteeism in seeking medical attention and derails time spend on academic affairs those affecting school performance at large.

Sometimes water isn't available to buy into the school so the students are forced to queue at the local borehole for water, waiting for hours to collect water that is overly salty and not safe to drink. 

To add to this, the community has been badly hit by the coronavirus crisis and a number of community members have been taken ill. This causes the children to further miss out on their education, and creates more costs for the community in medical bills.

Japheth is a student in the school, he said: 

“The school has been running out of clean water for drinking.

We are forced to drink the boreholes water available which is at times coloured and drinking it may bring health complications, the existing water points are few and not enough to serve the big student population, sometimes students lack water for basic things like for washing and taking shower because of the congestion and struggle at the water points.”

How will your support change the situation? 

With your support, we will work with the local self-help group to construct a rainwater harvesting tank which will provide safe water for the whole school all year round. During the rainy season the tank harvests rain collected from the roof of the school, enabling the children and teachers to access to year-round water. The tank will be decorated with positive hygiene messages to reinforce good handwashing practices.

Just a Drop will also construct handwashing stations across the school grounds, and work with the school to form a Health Club. Led by a teacher, the members of the Health Club become ambassadors of handwashing, encouraging their peers to wash their hands after using the bathroom and before eating, whilst also leading peer-to-peer learning sessions.

Having access to clean water and handwashing facilities enables the community to protect itself from Coronavirus by slowing the spread of the virus and stopping transmission. In addition to this, by having access to clean water close to their homes and in their school, children will no longer be forced to queue for their turn at the borehole; limiting their need to visit crowded areas where transmission of the virus is likely.

As with all Just a Drop projects, sustainability is key. Each of our projects are designed to benefit the children and their community long-term – the tanks will last for many years and the community are taught how to fix it if it breaks. Local ownership is vital to this sustainability. We work with communities to identify the most appropriate solutions for their needs and then throughout the project, indeed, the communities themselves will be responsible for the building and maintenance of the facilities.

Please help us to bring safe water to St. Augustine Mwingi School this Christmas and transform lives!