Background
Sing for Water was initiated in 2002 by Helen Chadwick, composer, singer, arranger, founder of London’s Georgian Choir and Musical Director to raise money for the charity WaterAid. Sing for Water was originally produced for The Mayor’s Thames Festival on London’s South Bank by Catherine Reiser
Sing for Water has become an annual fixture in London’s Mayor’s Thames Festival diary, involving over 30 choirs from all over the UK and France. In three years, over $300,000 has been raised supporting clean water and sanitation projects in Southern India, Burkino Faso and Ghana.
Children Sing for Water grew out of the success of the adult choir and for three years, children have been learning songs and performing at The Mayor’s Thames Festival under the artisitc direction of Richard Frostick (International, Published Music Educator, Founder and Director of The Music Centre in Islington, London). The children are not asked or expected to raise funds but all participating schools receive education resource materials about WaterAid and the specific project being funded.
WaterAid
WaterAid is dedicated exclusively to the provision of safe domestic water, sanitation and hygiene education to the world’s poorest people. Sing for Water, Melbourne will support a new program in East Timor where only 20% of the population have access to safe water and only 15% to sanitation facilities. Much of East Timor’s basic infrastructure was destroyed during the terrible violence following the 1999 independence ballot. Many women and children spend hours each day walking long distances to collect mostly dirty and unsafe water. Collecting and carrying water prevents women from doing vital domestic or income generating work and stops children, especially young girls, from going to school. Hygiene education is also a key part of WaterAid’s work. WaterAid has been successfully managing these projects for over 20 years and in 2004 set up a branch here in Melbourne focusing on The Pacific Region and South East Asia.
For more information about the WaterAid project being contributed to by Sing For Water Australia, download this PDF (1.1MB).
Sponsorship
Individual participants are given a sponsorship form (PDF, 1.1MB) and sponsorship is sought from friends and family with the funds going directly to WaterAid, Australia to provide a community in East Timor with clean water and sanitation. To donate to WaterAid Australia, you can go online at www.wateraid.org.au and click on donate now.
