Our Black Friday Charity Event - with Excellent Development

We’re SO excited to announce the continuation of our favourite Paraffle tradition: our Black Friday Charity Event!

This year, we’re partnering with Excellent Development - 25% of Paraffle sales from the Black Friday weekend (26th-29th November) will be donated to them.

With COP26 right behind us - and climate change only getting worse - it’s never been clearer that people living in poverty are among those most severely affected by our changing climate. That’s exactly why I was so keen to work with Excellent Development.

Excellent Development supports some of the world’s poorest people to transform their own lives through water and soil conservation in drylands. When people have access to clean water, they can take their future into their own hands, live sustainably, and work their way out of poverty with dignity.

It gets better: this year, Excellent Development are taking part in The Big Give. That means that everything we donate from our Black Friday event will be matched - essentially doubling our donation!

Excellent Development’s work is simple, practical and effective. Creating sand dams to capture and hold rainwater doesn’t only help the people living in these communities; it also helps to regenerate the natural environment and benefits surrounding ecosystems and wildlife. This direct action is why I was so keen to partner up with them.

Here’s a bit about how they work:

Excellent Development work with local in-country partners to help vulnerable rural dryland communities to build sand dams; a sustainable and cost-effective rainwater harvesting technology that can capture up to 40 million litres of water, replenishing every rainy season. That water is stored safe from disease and evaporation within the sand. It’s easily extractable via pipework connected to hand-pumps and taps, with one sand dam providing enough year-round water for over 1,000 people. For more information about how sand dams work, watch this short animation: https://www.excellentdevelopment.com/what-is-a-sand-dam

Sand dams play a significant role in mitigating the effects of climate change, including reversing land degradation. They raise groundwater levels through slowing down the rate of run-off and capturing rainwater that would otherwise be lost as run-off, while allowing most water to continue downstream. The slowing down of water runoff allows water to infiltrate the soil, resulting in vegetation recovery, reduced erosion and regenerated degraded environments.

While Excellent’s work often starts with a sand dam, it’s certainly not where it ends. Once water and time are available, a wealth of opportunities arise. The charity also works through partners to advise communities on improved climate-smart agriculture techniques, such as terracing, developing seed banks and the planting of drought-resistant crops and tress; empowering families to grow enough food to eat, store and sell in the face of climate change and drought.

Since 2002, Excellent have enabled the construction of over 1,000 sand dams across 10 countries, providing over 1 million people with lifelong access to clean water.

They have also supported communities to dig over 1.8 million metres of terracing and plant over 1.1 million trees.

Excellent currently has programmes in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Ethiopia and two in Kenya (one in the southeast working with self-help community groups, and another in Tsavo National Park focusing on supporting local wildlife).

More information can be found here: https://www.excellentdevelopment.com/

And finally, on a personal note:

One of the (many) joys of being a small business owner is the ability to create campaigns like this, using what little power we have to create positive results. I want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has supported Paraffle so far - your support means that we can try to make meaningful changes, no matter how small!

Sammy

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