Global Community Impact Award
Pure Water for the World
Lincoln Financial Advisors
In 2010, Randy Thompson, a financial advisor with Lincoln Financial Advisors in Houston, volunteered to go to Haiti to survey the work of Pure Water for the World as a representative of his local Rotary club.
“It was a sea change in my life — a very deeply moving experience,” he said.
The charity’s mission is simple but profound: it provides life-saving water filters, hygiene education, monitoring and follow-up support to impoverished rural communities in Haiti and Honduras.
According to the organization’s website, 780 million people worldwide have only contaminated water to drink, resulting in diseases such as cholera that kill millions each year, mostly children. Since 2008, the nonprofit has had an impact on almost 500,000 people.
“It’s not just pain and desperation, there’s also joy,” Mr. Thompson said.
Though he has seen people die from cholera, he has personally raised money to help whole villages receive the inexpensive filters and services. It averages just $300 to help one family.
Donor support comes from around the U.S., with about one-third of donations coming from Rotary Clubs, one-third from churches and one-third from grants and individuals.
What does he see as the ripple effect?
“On a macro level, their economy will grow; on a micro level, they won’t have to watch their children die.”