Sharon and Pete Crean-Beyond Water

David Hunt introduced Sharon and Pete Crean who have been married for 31 years. Peter was born in NZ and is from a farming background. 
Peter spoke to the club about how Beyond Water is a not-for-profit organization working across East Africa. Their focus is on ensuring schools, medical clinics, children’s homes and remote communities have access to safe, clean drinking water and sanitation facilities.
These include deep bore wells, guttering, water tanks, hand washing facilities, toilets and health education programmes.

In November 2007 Pete and Sharon Crean were living in Sydney, Australia. They were presented with the fact that one billion people don’t have access to safe, clean drinking water and another two billion don’t have the use of a toilet. They gathered a team of volunteers who were enthusiastic about doing something to alleviate poverty in East Africa and started Beyond Water.

10 years on they have been able to give over 100,000 people across East Africa sustainable solutions and a way out of poverty.

Peter said that for any project to succeed they must get the locals on board. A hand up not a hand out. They encourage the communities to have 50% of women on their project committees. 
Sharon spoke about how only 30% of schools have toilets and how they must keep the projects simple e.g. no maintenance. They educate the kids to wash their hands. They have established women’s leadership programmes and now have 24 programmes operating. Women from Rotary in Africa play a large part in the projects.

Beyond Water is registered as a trust both in New Zealand and Kenya, and as a charity in Australia.