With five months to go today until UK Coffee Week 2021 begins, we go back to basic to look at what we do – and why.

Bringing Clean Water to Coffee-Growing Communities

Today, 785 million people around the world don’t have access to clean water. Most live in isolated, rural areas – and many live in places where our coffee is grown.

It’s wrong that while we enjoy the purest filtered water in our coffee, the communities at the beginning of the coffee supply chain face a water crisis.

UK Coffee Week is a nationwide campaign that raises money for Project Waterfall – a charity working to end the water crisis in our lifetime.

PC: WaterAid/ Behailu Shiferaw. Photos from our current Jabi Tehnan project.

What is UK Coffee Week?

For one spectacular week every year, the coffee industry and coffee lovers come together to raise money for Project Waterfall by, amongst other things, donating money from every coffee sold, running raffles and holding fun events.

This year UK Coffee Week will take place between October 18 and 24 2021. Hundreds of coffee shops, chains, brands and businesses will register to take part, all so coffee lovers across the UK can raise money on their commute, at work, and with their daily cup of coffee.

Since 2011, UK Coffee Week has raised over £800,000 for Project Waterfall, helped fund 6 new initiatives in countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania, and changed 45,000 lives.

What does Project Waterfall do?

Project Waterfall brings clean water, sanitation and education to coffee-growing communities across the world.

The global pandemic has brought the importance of clean water to the top of the agenda. In many areas there is no access for water to wash with, let alone to drink.

But regardless of where a community is, or how big it is, Project Waterfall’s aim is to implement tangible and sustainable solutions that create access to water and improve the quality of it.

Every single penny raised during this year’s UK Coffee Week will go to Project Waterfall’s ongoing work in the rural Jabi Tehnan district of Ethiopia.

If you want to learn more about UK Coffee Week then head to the website where you can read stories about Project Waterfall’s latest work.