CHARLESTON, SC, March 14, 2005 (PRNewswire) -- As many as 25,000 more people in the tsunami-ravaged villages in Sri Lanka and Indonesia will soon be able to have clean, safe, drinking water each day thanks to Water Missions International (WMI) and Sun Microsystems, Inc., whose $50,000 donation will help WMI build, ship and deploy five Living Water Treatment Systems in these areas.
"We were extremely happy to learn of the Sun's desire to support our cause," said Molly Greene, president and co-founder, WMI. "Sun's generous contribution will undoubtedly go a long way in improving the quality, availability and sustainability of safe drinking water for people in desperate need of this vital resource."
As a corporation, Sun Microsystems has contributed in excess of $1 million, counting employee donations and Sun Foundation matching, to various relief agencies engaged in helping tsunami victims, including the International Red Cross. In addition to those efforts, a special fundraising drive was initiated by John Loiacono, an executive vice president at Sun, for the benefit WMI.
The contribution from Sun represents one of the largest donations WMI has received since the disaster struck, including $76,500 from Solana Beach, California-based Variety Children's Lifeline, Inc., $60,000 from First Presbyterian Church in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and $40,000 from the Church of the Redeemer in Baltimore, Maryland. After receiving attention from Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. and local media, WMI -- which specializes in providing water purification systems that are simple to set up, use and maintain -- has seen contributions swell to $1 million over the past two months -- a nearly 100 percent increase in funding compared to last year.
To date, WMI has shipped 66 Living Water(TM) Treatment Systems to South Asia, which will provide 660,000 gallons of drinking water each day. Due to the outpouring of support, WMI is on track to meet its goal of shipping 100 such systems, said Greene.
To raise money for WMI, Sun created an online auction in which employees could bid on items donated by partners, customers and employees from around the world, as well as the local community. All bids translated into cash donations, which Sun Foundation then matched dollar-for-dollar, with the highest bidder winning the item. The auction site included items such as an Apple iPod mini, donated by Extreme Networks; a Firehouse dinner, donated by the CDF/San Mateo County Fire Department; and a round of golf with Loiacono, which alone generated $5,000 after the company match.
In addition to the online auction, employees made direct cash donations and several executives donated a full-day's salary.
"I'm especially proud of what we were able to accomplish in order to support the relief effort, Loiacono said. "WMI is doing amazingly critical work in South Asia, and we're just happy to play a small role in that aid."
WMI (www.watermissions.org) is a nonprofit, engineering organization serving the water and sanitation needs of developing nations and disaster areas. WMI was founded by George and Molly Greene, who first became aware of the global water crisis when they responded to the devastation in Honduras caused by Hurricane Mitch in 1998. It has a staff of seven full-time employees and a growing team of volunteers, whose mission is to provide access to safe water to 100 million people by the end of 2011. The organization believes no person should perish for want of safe drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities. Once the relief phase of assistance has ended in South Asia, the water purification systems will remain in place to serve as permanent sources of clean and safe water. The systems are vital to the overall rebuilding challenge in South Asia, as the Tsunami destroyed much of the infrastructure and contaminated many of the existing water supplies.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision has propelled Sun Microsystems Inc. (www.sun.com) to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that make the network. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries.
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