Zonta Club of Hudson provides clean water for women

The Zonta Club of Hudson, USA, will collect shoes to donate to Water Step to provide clean water to villages and communities in need this fall.

Access to clean water is predominantly a women's issue, whether it is the physically demanding work women engage in to collect water, the ways the time-consuming task of water collection can keep girls out of school, or not having access to clean or safe water for cooking, drinking, or keeping clean. Understanding how this consequence of climate change impacts women is why the Zonta Club of Hudson wanted to participate in the Zonta Says NOW initiative by collecting shoes that lead to providing and promoting clean water for women and girls globally.

The club started this service and advocacy work at the Hudson's Community Farmers Market and will have five collection sites throughout their community this fall.

At the market, the club educated the attendees about their shoe collection initiative for clean water and the impact the lack of access to clean water has on women.

"I had no idea this was such an issue for women in third-world countries," said one attendee.

"We experienced the lack of access to clean water when we lived in Michigan, so we support the club's efforts," another attendee said.

The club aims to ship at least four dishwasher-size boxes to Water Step to support the purchase of water purification kits for communities in need in 2023. This initiative directly addresses climate change by partnering with an organization that addresses clean water issues worldwide and educating their local community about this issue at events such as a community farmers market.

Although the initiative is new to the club's community, the club is raising awareness about how access to clean water is a women's issue and how they are taking action to increase access to clean water.