Giving Back: Nina Church of Nika Water
CAUSE: Nina Church and her family started Nika Water, an environmentally responsible water bottle company that donates 100 percent of its profits to support clean water projects in impoverished countries. An estimated 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to safe, drinkable water. Water-related diseases caused by contaminated water result in thousands of deaths a day in the developing world. The lack of available clean water also has social consequences: Many women and children spend their days trekking to remote water sources, leaving no time for them to earn an elementary education. Eighteen-year-old Nina is working to break this cycle of poverty.
EFFECT: Nika Water has committed more than $400,000 to bring clean water to over 7,000 people worldwide. Since its launch in 2009, Nika has completed projects in Sri Lanka, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Nicaragua. It is the first CarbonFree-certified water bottle company (Nika offsets its carbon footprint by funding the planting of trees in Nicaragua), and it also participates in the One-for-One Recycling Program.
GET INVOLVED: Nika Water is currently on sale in California and Nevada. If you live in the California area, you can volunteer and sell Nika Water at street fares and on the beach. Nika Water is hoping to expand to other states, and you can help spread the word about Nika and the world water crisis over social media platforms.
1/6"Four years ago, my family went to Kenya and Ethiopia for a month to try and understand the cycle of poverty and see what we could do to help. While in Kenya, we did a water walk—a walk that is done all over the developing world by young women multiple times a day. Girls walk four miles to the closest water source, and they then carry 40 pounds of water back to their villages to use to feed their families, bathe, cook, and clean. What they don't know is that all this water is polluted and unsanitary. They are catching water-borne diseases, which cause over 4,000 deaths a day around the developing world."
2/6This California teen is helping people in impoverished villages gain access to safe drinking water.
3/6"The need for clean water is at the bottom of the cycle of poverty. When girls walk for water, they don't get an education, and they get married younger. They aren't aware that something as simple as boiling water can help kill the bacteria in the polluted water. The only way to break this cycle is to give the girls an education. The organizations that Nika works with are making it so that instead of spending eight hours a day walking back and forth to a distant water source, girls can walk to school and get purified water. The girls are also getting educated about how to help control water-borne diseases."
4/6"We're all busy, but there are things that we can do on a daily basis to help the world. Being aware of how much water we use—such as the length of showers and leaving the water on when we brush our teeth—helps. There is a finite supply of water in the world, even though it may not feel like that. I also push smart shopping: Know if brands use child labor and if they donate any profits to charity. For every one of your shopping needs, there is a group like Nika that is eco-friendly and will donate profits back to charity."
5/6"We found out that bottled water is a $36 billion a year industry. We created Nika Water in 2009 so that we could tap into a little part of this industry and donate 100 percent of profits to people in these villages. We work with non-profits to bring education, clean water, and sanitation to impoverished villages. At the moment, 7,000 people have clean water that did not have clean water before because of Nika. It costs $20 to bring somebody clean water for a lifetime. The Nika water bottle is also eco-friendly, and we have programs to increase recycling and offset our carbon footprint."
6/6"This project is a collaborative effort with my family, but I've taken on the role of the spokesperson. I speak at different high schools, colleges, and conferences on three different topics: finding a passion, the world water crisis, and social entrepreneurship. I'm headed to Stanford next year to study public policy with a concentration in national security. I plan on putting together a "how-to" interactive social entrepreneurship website that will help guide teens who want to do good but do not know what avenue to take."
