by Fern Shaw | Sep 5, 2022 | aquaid, Charity, Christian Aid, water cooler, Water Coolers
Today is the International Day of Charity. As an organisation, AquAid, with our focus on giving back since our inception in 1998, acknowledging this day is immensely significant.
For over twenty-two years, AquAid has donated a portion of revenue to charities, predominantly to both Christian Aid and The Africa Trust.
Founded in 1941, the mission of Christian Aid is to eradicate the causes of poverty, striving to achieve equality, dignity and freedom for all, regardless of faith or nationality. AquAid have supported Christian Aid for more than twenty years, donating over £3.7 million to water and capacity building projects around the world.
Since its formation in 2010, The Africa Trust has worked tirelessly to create sustainable solutions that include establishing supplies of clean, productive drinking water and decent sanitation to thousands of communities in water scarce regions across Africa. Wealth creation is another important objective, with business skills training helping school leavers and villagers to start or expand profitable businesses.
This year’s International Day of Charity resonates even more so with all of us at AquAid as the company has recently reached donations exceeding £19 million. This amount has enabled us to provide life-changing assistance to more than 3 million people around the globe and predominantly throughout Africa.
We would like to dedicate this achievement to Paul Searle, AquAid’s Founder, Managing Director and Chairman, whose faith and unquenchable spirit was the driving force that kept AquAid growing and expanding for over two decades, all while never losing sight of the importance of contributing to charity.
Should you too wish to partner with AquAid in this continuing commitment to charity while keeping your organisation hydrated, please contact us – we will be happy to assist.
by Fern Shaw | Apr 15, 2022 | aquaid, Water, water cooler
In spite of what has almost become an AquAid tradition of writing an Easter themed blog and the role water plays at this time of the year, we’re constantly amazed there is more to discover out there with an (usually traditional) Easter/water connection. As well as other unusual traditions and events that is.
In previous blogs, we referred to traditions such as in Switzerland, people decorate wells and fountains leading up to Easter. Decorating a well symbolises the honouring of water, which is essential for life, and Easter, the feast of renewed life.
In another, we looked at where every Easter, hundreds of thousands of Norwegians indulge in crime fiction, known in Norwegian as påskekrim (Easter crime).
This year we discovered ‘l’eau de Paques’, or ‘Easter water’. The purity, healing and restorative powers of any water collected from any moving brook, stream or river in the hours* before sunrise on Easter hearkens back to a Catholic ritual performed in France hundreds of years ago and reaching as far as Quebec, and still performed today.
Egg rolling began in Central Europe and the United Kingdom and in Preston, eggs have been rolled for more than a century and a half. According to a Lonely Planet article Avenham Park, whose grassy slope is the perfect stage for children competing to roll their egg the furthest.
Fireworks are common during midnight church services on Orthodox Easter Saturdays in Greece. But on the island of Chios, Easter is incendiary. Two neighbouring parishes hold an annual competition to fire shots at each other’s steeples. Real cannons were used until the late 19th century, but these days homemade rockets are the ammunition for the town’s annual ‘rouketopolemos’ (rocket war).*
Of course, as AquAid is all things water, health and hydration, we do not recommend beginning a local version of the Easter rocket wars. What we will do is wish you all a peaceful and blessed Easter, however you choose to celebrate it.
*source: article Bangor Daily News
*source: article Lonely Planet
by Fern Shaw | Dec 7, 2021 | aquaid, bottle fed water coolers, water cooler, Water Coolers
Other than the differing terminology, essentially there is no difference.
Bottled, bottle-fed, bottled water coolers are ideal where portable water or a mains water supply is unavailable. The water coolers provide an efficient method of dispensing refreshing cool and chilled drinking water for any size business, in any industry, including big, medium or small offices, workspaces, construction sites, hotel and catering, schools, colleges and universities.
What is different are the benefits that come standard with every rental, purchase and installation of an AquAid water dispenser, be that a bottled or mains water cooler or water boiler. Benefits that include:
- Free on-site survey to assess your water dispenser requirements.
- 48-Hours delivery and installation of bottle-fed water dispensers.
- With 23 branches across the UK, you have the benefit of an AquAid branch at your convenience.
- Efficiency – whether you need additional bottled water delivered (usually within 24 hours) or you are benefitting from our automatic water cooler sanitisation every three months.
- For every bottle of water we deliver, there is an automatic donation to the charities we support. Charities that implement clean water resources for thousands of communities in need across Africa.
Whatever your bottle-fed, bottled or bottle water preferred terminology, contact us today and benefit from the AquAid difference.
by Fern Shaw | Nov 24, 2020 | aquaid, water cooler
Maintaining even a modicum of the usual fitness levels can be difficult during normal circumstances; during periods of social distancing, they may seem well-nigh impossible. We don’t all have a home gyms or exercise equipment in our place of residence. For many of us, both indoor and outdoor space can also be an issue.
That said, here at AquAid, we looked at exercise methods that are not only better suited to a more private indoor environment but are also easily achievable. A few examples are:
Resistance training – using workout/exercise bands.
Walking, climbing stairs, on the spot jogging – after a good warm up.
Yoga, Pilates and stretching exercises.
Seated exercise – at your desk or in your workspace.
Home weights training – you can use anything from a tin of beans to a dictionary for this.
As always, with any form of mobility, exercising or fitness training, the key to protecting your body and mind while being able to better perform during any fitness or exercise is to make sure you drink water. If you prefer more high impact exercising – e.g. cardio workouts or dancing, where you sweat more, the rule is simple – drink more water.
There is a considerable amount of videos freely available online to guide even the most sedentary of us to basic fitness health, but we particularly liked the videos available at the NHS.
Here’s wishing you a safe, enjoyable and very well hydrated work out, wherever you are, whatever size your home, home office or current workspace.
by Fern Shaw | Nov 18, 2020 | aquaid, water cooler
It should come as no surprise that, at AquAid, we often comment on all things hydration and health – mainly where we refer to how drinking water more leads to incredible health benefits.
With this though, we understand that we sometimes need to pause our constant exhortations relating to hydration and health. Which is what we’re doing today. Of course, we wouldn’t be whom we are if the subject didn’t involve simple drinking water related health tips, but we’re sure you don’t expect anything less from your water cooler company.
We have spoken about herbs, spices, vegetables and fruit: grapefruit and blackberries are both great healthy examples – either those that have a high water content or those that boost our immune system in some way or form.
Today we’re writing about a little gem (herb wise), native to the UK and with an incredibly impressive health benefit pedigree: the elderflower.
Whereas it may not be the season for elderflowers to blossom, with the year as it is, you’ll forgive as if we’re slightly out of step.
Elderflowers come from the elder tree that generally grows as a shrub or small tree, which you will find in abundance throughout the UK, in woods and along roadside hedgerows.
Their uses are myriad:
As an immune stimulator, hot elderflower tea can provide soothing relief for acute cold symptoms while gargling and rinsing with cooled elderflower tea can combat sore throats, toothaches, and abscesses.
A syrup made with flowers of the elder tree as well as the berries can be drunk to fight off colds, flus and winter blues.
As a salve for relief of inflammation from sprains and strains or made into a soothing eyewash which can help relieve itchy eyes, hay fever or conjunctivitis.
Remember, it’s always advisable to consult with a medical professional before starting any herbal medicine and it’s always good to speak to AquAid for all your hot, chilled & ambient drinking water requirements.
sources: Gardeners Path
Woodland Trust
by Fern Shaw | Sep 8, 2020 | aquaid, water cooler
Ahh, a day that globally makes the hearts of bookworms beat a little faster. World Literacy Day is more than that, of course. The rather sad reality according to UNESCO is that ‘at least 750 million youth and adults still cannot read and write and 250 million children are failing to acquire basic literacy skills. This results in an exclusion of low-literate and low-skilled youth and adults from full participation in their communities and societies.’
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines literacy as “the quality or state of being literate: educated … able to read and write.”
As you are no doubt reading this online, the above illiteracy figures may seem incomprehensible, however, there is a high likelihood of there being many people in our own communities who not only cannot read this post, but are unable to read a book, a road sign, an instruction manual, a prescription bottle label or even a cereal box.
At AquAid, we recognise the importance and value of literacy, which is one of the reasons we continue to donate to charities that implement safe water resources. Although one may not initially see a connection between potable water and literacy, they are most definitely linked.
Across Africa, for both boys and girls, water collection can take time away from their education and sometimes even prevent their attending school altogether.
The charities we donate continue to build clean water resources that free up children’s time, enabling more access to education, including learning to read while attending school.
More than freeing up time, nearby access to a safe water resource means children will be better hydrated, and good hydration means the ability to better concentrate and increased cognitive function.
If you would like to know more about how installing an AquAid water cooler translates into the continued implementation of accessible clean water resources for children and communities in need, we invite you to browse the AquAid website or call us on 0800 772 3003 – we’ll be delighted to assist.
