Paddling Pioneers raise money for Frank Water

On Thursday 23rd September four of our Pioneer FM team took to the waves of Bristol Harbour to raise money for our charity partner, Frank Water.

The day raised over £5,000 and will support Frank Water projects that are providing safe drinking water and sanitation in remote parts of India and Nepal.

Our Paddling Pioneers valiantly got through to the semi-finals. But sadly, their competition ended there, when Pioneer FM, Partnerships Director, Holly Stockbridge-Hodgson was victim to some foul play and ended up in the water. The team tried to fight back and ended up finishing fourth in the semi-finals.

Holly said of her team’s performance, “I’m very proud of my team, some had only been on a paddleboard once before today. We may have failed to clean up the competition, but we showed great spirit and teamwork. And most importantly we raised money for Frank Water”.

About Frank Water

Since 2005, Frank Water has helped over 425,000 people in 617 communities. Quite
simply, their projects have saved lives and reduced poverty.

The charity helps communities take ownership of their own water systems. It focuses
on the role of women and girls in communities as well as elderly and disabled people
who are further marginalised by age, gender, or health.
For many women and girls in these remote locations, attending school and getting a
job is out of the question because they are tasked with collecting water for their families. And catastrophically, after walking many miles, the water they collect is often unclean.

Frank Water’s mission
Frank Water’s mission struck a chord with our leadership team at Pioneer FM. Our organisation would not exist without the ready availability of clean water, a
commodity we and others often take for granted in this country. And as a company with a predominantly female workforce, we are passionate advocates for equal opportunity and developing women’s careers so they can support their own families.
Frank Water works on a small scale and uses its own research to help communities leverage more funds from the local and national governments. Its diverse programmes
include the implementation of gravity-fed systems where water runs down from a
hilltop source and is stored and used. In other areas, the charity works with local
organisations to install rainwater harvesting units that capture and filter rainfall for
households.

But there is more to do. Over 660 million people worldwide still lack access to safe
drinking water.

Katie Alcott founded Frank Water in 2005 after she contracted dysentery from drinking dirty water. She said: "Frank Water are thrilled to welcome Pioneer FM as a
corporate partner. Our ambitious, dynamic charity has pioneered using water resource management to improve water security across the world, and we feel well-aligned with Pioneer FM's mindset and the ground-breaking, eco approach they apply to large-scale facilities management. We look forward to working with MJ and her team to push forward our vision for global water security.”

Our CEO, MJ Pettit, said: “Our business is reliant on being able to access clean water and a large proportion of our workforce is female. We also employ people whose relatives’ lives are threatened by being unable to access clean water in their own countries. Frank Water is involved in some amazing projects to change lives for the better and we will do everything we can to help make a difference to the communities affected.”