Cape Town, South Africa – February 24, 2012 – Wishing Well International Foundation South Africa is born.  WWIF South Africa has been incorporated in Cape Town in an effort to make the work of the parent foundation more sustainable in South Africa.  Tony Marchesini, Senior VP of Operations for Africa and Ken Lister, VP of Marketing – Corporate Sponsorships and Fundraising initiated the filing process that will expand the reach of the foundation and allow for tax deductible fundraising in South Africa.  The idea is to be able to reach out to South Africans and South African companies so they can make tax deductible contributions for projects throughout Africa.  Once the business model is tried and proven it will be replicated in other countries for additional growth.

The initiative is a result of the US based foundation’s efforts in South Africa in collaboration with H2O International South Africa which is run and operated by Marchesini and Lister.  H2O International South Africa has been providing warehousing and distribution for Hydraid systems the foundation sent to South Africa for deployment to under developed communities.

Ken Lister, Guillermo Guzman & Tony Marchesini last NovemberThe formation of WWIF South Africa will allow all of the H2O International’s franchisees in South Africa to participate and get involved with the charitable activities of the foundation.  Not only can they get involved in local fundraising but they can also exercise their own corporate social responsibility and purchase and distribute systems to be delivered to communities without clean safe drinking water.  The franchisor will continue to contribute to the foundation via franchising fees collected from every franchisee for the bottling of water being sold to the general public.

Lister has also already identified several corporations willing to get involved as soon as everything is formalized.  All monies raised will be used for deployment and further procurement of Hydraid bio-sand filters from the US.

“Our target is to place over 1,000 of the Hydraid units within South Africa & our neighboring states. To perform this function we will need support both from corporations and individuals. We trust that we will have the support of all the H2O Franchisees and Distributors in this worthy cause” said Ken Lister