A major breakthrough agreement by .travel, the new industry top level domain, will help the…
A major breakthrough agreement by .travel, the new industry top level domain, will help the water-aid charity Just a Drop save thousands of children’s lives around the world.
Ron Andruff, CEO of Tralliance Corporation has revealed that the .travel Registry will donate $1 for every .travel domain name registered and has challenged all those who hold those names to match the company’s contribution.
The Tralliance philanthropic initiative has the potential to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in the coming years and is the largest funding pledge for the charity in its eight-year history.
Founded in 1997, Just a Drop is the only global travel and tourism industry charity to give children everywhere the right to life by providing clean water to thousands of children and their families. Registered with the Charity Commission, the charity raises money to build wells, hand pumps and health and sanitation programmes in order to give children and their families access to clean water close to their homes.
Four million children die every year from diarrhoea, dysentery and cholera because the only water they have to drink and bathe in is dirty and polluted. A total of 1.4 billion children have no access to clean water, near to their homes. Just a Drop has completed carefully monitored projects in most regions of the world, including most recently, Grenada, India and Sri Lanka.
Founded by Fiona Jeffery, Group Exhibition Director of World Travel Market who is also chairman of the Board of Trustees, the charity prides itself in not spending large sums on administration or opulent offices.
It’s philosophy is that you can make a difference to thousands of peoples’ lives by keeping operational costs tight, using a small devoted team and seeking help from dedicated professionals and advisors whose background and vast experience means they totally understand the problems and challenges.
Fiona Jeffery said that Tralliance and .travel`s overwhelming goodwill would make a significant difference.
It is a terrible fact of life that millions of children under the age of five die every year because of the lack of clean water and sanitation, she said. Together, .travel and Just a Drop will be able to provide hundreds more protected wells, kilometre upon kilometre of piping, latrines and much more to totally change the lives of communities who right now do not even have the very basics of life.
It means for example that more children will not have to make the long daily trek with their mothers to collect water, freeing them up to attend school.
The agreement between Tralliance and the charity was brokered by Just a Drop Treasurer and Trustee Tom Nutley, chairman of Reed Travel Exhibitions. He said: This is an extremely generous and big hearted gesture by Tralliance which will make a huge difference to the work of Just a Drop. For the first time, we will be able to plan ahead and ensure that we can cover the costs of more projects in the field than ever before.
It is particularly appropriate that Just a Drop should now be linked with this historic development for the global travel and tourism industry to acquire greater consumer visibility and credibility on the Internet. The travel industry as a whole is aware of the importance to ‘give back’ to the communities in which they operate, said Ron Andruff. As an integral part of the global travel and tourism community, we want to ensure that vital causes like Just a Drop receive the support they need.
There are currently thousands and thousands of .travel registrants. With more travel industry organizations registering each day and the potential for each registrant to match our donation, we are confident that we will be able to make significant contributions to this important cause.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
