12 May, march to Downing Street with the river

We are very excited to annouce news of the first major outing of the knitted river!!!!

On 12 May 2007 we will march to Downing Street to End Water Poverty

The march is the first activity of this kind for WaterAid so we must be very proud of ourselves - knitters are brilliant and the contribution made to WaterAid through the Knit a river campaign is incredible. The river is truely magnificent and I think with lots of us knitters being there to carry it it will look even better.

The beauty of this is, of course, that it is not a fundraising campaign, it is simply asking for more attention to be given to the billions of people who struggle without accss to safe water and basic sanitaion. Even now 4 children die every minute as a result of prevenatble water related diseases such as diarrhea. The idea that diarrhea could kill a child in the UK is crazy - it would simply never happen. The short walk from Vauxhall to Downing Street will be representative of the hours wasted each day by women and children walking miles and miles for water for their families. The time wasted impacts on everything - women can't work, children can't go to school- billions of people are locked in a stranglehold of poverty just because they lack access to water. But you are helping! The river is helping, and on the 12 May we will be able to use the river to amplify our simple request - End Water Poverty.

The assembly point is still being confirmed but it is very likely to be Spring Gardens in Vauxhall, just minutes away from Vauxhall Station. We will start around 11am and the whole show will be over by 2pm. The idea of marching with the river to Downing Street is incredible; I hope many of you can make it on the day, we could never have got this far without your support.

Gxx