My Story

Hey everyone!

For those of us who have lived in California in the past several years, we've felt what it's like to be in the middle of a statewide drought with water restrictions and new mandates. As for the rest of us lucky enough not to be affected by the drought, what if we just woke up one morning, walked over to the faucet to start our day off, and realized that there was no running water, and that we would need to go far out of our way to get dirty water at the best? How difficult and life-changing would it be to suddenly not have easy access to something we’ve often taken for granted?

Meanwhile, halfway across the globe in the state of Pernambuco in Brazil, more than 5.5 million people live without access to water. They don’t have the luxury of having clean, running water at the turn of a faucet. Instead, they often have to travel up to two hours in order to fetch water back to their homes, and the water they get is often contaminated and a carrier for diseases. Women and children are usually tasked with fetching water several times a week, and as a result the women are often unable to hold stable jobs to support their families, and children also drop out of school to help bring water back home.

As part of Habitat for Humanity’s worldwide mission to help families build and improve places to call home, 50 Cisco Early in Career employees will be traveling to Caruaru, Brazil from October 12th – 20th to construct in-ground water cisterns outside the families’ houses. We will be constructing these concrete cisterns from scratch, which will include mechanisms to collect and store up to 16,000 liters of rain water for the families to use, significantly reducing the need for these families to travel long distances to fetch contaminated water.

Cisco has been generous enough to cover our living accommodations and program fees, so all of the funds that we raise will go towards covering the cost of materials required to construct the water cisterns. As part of Cisco’s commitment to giving back and being the bridge between us and communities around the world, they will also match all donations dollar for dollar, so your contributions will go twice as far. Knowing how much Cisco values and encourages volunteering work makes this humbling opportunity even more meaningful for us. We would be really grateful for any support you can give us towards this cause of making clean, running water a reality for all these families in Caruaru.

As a fun bonus, I’ve teamed up with several co-workers and friends to shoot a short comedic video on what it would be like if we woke up one day to no water, considering how accustomed we are to having access to water within hand’s reach. It also explains our volunteering build with Habitat for Humanity, and we hope you’ll have as much fun watching it as we did making it, while still being a reminder of how much we take water for granted and how important it really is in our day to day lives.

Any amount, no matter how large or small, will be greatly appreciated. Thank you all so much for reading, hope you enjoyed the video, and please consider contributing to help our cause!

TL;DR: enjoy the video, have a good laugh, realize how much we take water for granted and that a LOT of people in Caruaru, Brazil don’t have access to clean water. We’re flying out there to help build water tanks for them and could really use your help, Cisco also matches all of your donations! Every bit counts, so thank you so much for your contributions!