We, at FRANK Water, are pleased to announce that the eco-friendly, charitable, festival initiative ‘FreeFill’ is back for 2012! Thanks to the Santander Social Enterprise Development Award, which you can read more about here.

Annabelle, one of our volunteers from last year is back to co-ordinate the FreeFill initiative:

“I thoroughly enjoyed volunteering in the FRANK Water office between March and September 2011. My role, as FreeFill Volunteer Coordinator, was great fun thanks to all the wonderful FreeFill volunteers who made the initiative such a success at WOMAD, Greenbelt and End of the Road.

I am very pleased to be back in the FRANK Water office this spring, coordinating FreeFill 2012 and can’t wait for the first festival of the season!

This year FreeFill will be returning to WOMAD and End of the Road and will be introduced to BrisFest at Ashton Court! We hope to be at a few other festivals (which will be confirmed over the next couple of weeks). Keep an eye on the Facebook group for updates:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/FRANKWater/

We aim to sell more FreeFill bottles (refillable exercise bottles) than last year, so that FRANK Water Projects can fund more clean water projects in India and we can hopefully reach our target of 100 projects funded by the end of the financial year.

It was so great to see so many festival goers relaxing in the shade, drinking from their reusable FreeFill bottles instead of using one use plastic bottles.

I look forward to working with some of the lovely volunteers from last year as well as meeting new volunteers. If you, or anyone you know, would like to volunteer with FRANK Water FreeFill this summer please complete the application form found at:
www.freefill.frankwater.com

Or if you’re at any of our festivals, don’t forget to grab a FreeFill bottle!

Any questions email me on:
volunteers@frankwater.com

Thank you – and see you in the summer!”

For more information about FreeFill head here.

This blog post is fresh in from Katie on their visit.

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“We’re in Cochin, at the very southern tip of India, it’s 40 degrees and there’s very little shade in the Union Club’s garden. Regardless, 69 teams, made up of over 170 adventurers from all over the globe have spent the last few days pimping indian auto rickshaws and preparing for the unbelievable adventure that is the Rickshaw Run – A two week journey that will take them from Cochin in the south west to Shillong in the far north east, in a small, temperamental (if what we’ve witnessed over the last few days is anything to go by) three wheeled tin can.

Harmeet and I have had the pleasure of meeting some amazing teams,who’ve told us all about the fun they’ve been having fundraising for us… from homemade jam sales to cake bakes, quiz nights, an inspired curry competition and even a rained-off outdoor cinema night (which still managed to generate funds).

It’s been great to meet so many people who had never even heard about FRANK Water until they signed up for the Rickshaw Run, that are now avid supporters. The clean drinking water problem in the UK is largely theoretical but out here driving across India it’s very very real.

The irony is not lost on us at FRANK water that the Rickshaw Runner ‘athletes’ themselves will mainly be drinking bottled water as in their words “its the only source that we can really trust to be safe and we just can’t take the risk of drinking anything else”.

…and who could blame them, stories of three guys all sharing a bed with dysentery doesn’t make for easy listening! But maybe makes everyone appreciate the importance of FRANK Water’s work and how lucky we all are in the UK.

Whilst the rickshaw runners have now set off on their Indian odyssey, our job is now to visit clean water NGO partners and new clean water projects across India – making sure our project funds are spent as effectively and efficiently as possible. Governance is a big part of what we do at FRANK Water ; building sustainable, long term, village clean water systems.

I hope to report back in 2 weeks from the finish of the Rickshaw Run on 21st April in Shillong and importantly report back to you all on our progress in the field.

Remember by supporting FRANK water and spreading the word about FRANK water you are part of the solution. FRANK you!

All the best, Katie x

We’re delighted to announce that we are an official charity partner of Bristol Triathlon – 15th July 2012. It’s only a matter of swimming 750 metres, cycling 20k and running 5k!  We have six places available and would love you to be on our team. We’ll support you every step of the way. If you’re interested in getting involved please email Philippa at philippa@frankwater.com

Next month, Katie and Harmeet are heading to India to visit all our project partners in April, and we look forward to updating everyone with our latest developments.  Watch out for updates on Facebook, Twitter and in our next blog post.

Katie and Harmeet will also be in India for the start of The Adventurists Spring Rickshaw Run, which sees a group of daredevils wobbling from Cochin to Shillong, whilst raising bucket loads of cash for FRANK! A huge thank you to those involved and we can’t wait to hear your tales of adventure.

Does this mad journey sound like your cup of tea? We have a ticket for the Autumn Rickshaw Run (worth over £1,000) up for grabs.  The route starts in Shillong in Northern India on 9th September and ends in Jaisalmer in Rajasthan on 22nd September.  We need a team of two people to undertake this incredible challenge on behalf of FRANK Water. The challenge: to raise a staggering amount of money for water projects by any means possible! We’ll help you along the way and you will have five months to fundraise and document your progress via social media. Tell us how you will do this and why we should choose you by emailing us at hello@frankwater.com by the 30th of March 2012 (two days time!)

*The small print – winners will still need to pay for all other associated costs (flights, visa, vaccinations, accommodation, food and rickshaw fuel.)

We will also be announcing our festival appearance for this summer soon… so watch this space…

We’re also busy building our team here to help fund and build more clean water projects (FRANK is growing) so we are currently appointing new staff to help out with fundraising and comms.

In the spirit of fun comms – here are our Valentines Cards originally designed by Pete Gibbons our super pro bono designer way back in ’05 (www.petergibbons.net)… fun and serious at the same time; 72.8% of the person you love is water! It’s a sobering thought that without water – there would be no one to love…

Could you do what  Joe Tristram, Rachel Hiles, Ellen Tristram and Debbie Glasse from LUCAS Vets did ? They pushed the boundaries of FRANK fundraising efforts…

Special thanks goes to Joe Tristram who not only risked life and limb jumping out of a plane, he also ran a marathon in order to reach their target donation to FRANK Water of £8000. Franks!

In the scheme of original fundraising ideas, we also want to give a shout out to Patrick, Jon and John who took part in the Autumn Rickshaw Run in 2010.

Not content with simply preparing to undertake thousands of miles of questionable terrain across India in a humble auto-rickshaw, the guys limbered up by devising the mother of all Cycle Challenges – to be the first people to cycle around London entirely on one of the new Barclays Cycle Hire bikes, docking their bike at every one of the 400 docking stations or so along the way. Oh and all in 24 hours….

Not only did they achieve it, they have also raised a fantastic £1,650 for FRANK Water!

Katie said “It’s great to be back with FRANK  a bit more, I’ve had a busy  few years and now have three babies under four (Amelia, Reuben and baby Elodie) which as you can imagine are keeping me busy!

In my part-time abscence It’s been great that our team has all pulled together and managed to fund so many projects (63 projects since 2005 – and still counting) so a big thanks and hats off to all of our supporters, customers, fundraisers and friends.”

Her brother Raju developed skeletal flourosis due to naturally occuring high levels of flouride in their village drinking water. Raju can’t walk; the flourosis has affected his central nervous system, bones and joints.

The good news is that FRANK Water has now set up a water project in the village giving 8000 villagers access to clean water – so cases like Raju and Usha will become a thing of the past.

50p from every online transaction will be donated to FRANK Water. To be part of the fundraising action, simply buy anything from their online store www.plainlazy.com. You can also monitor their money raising progress through their website.

Get your Christmas shopping sorted out with a few easy clicks – and in doing so you can be part of Plain Lazy’s bid to fund an entire clean water project!