Dr Catherine Wheatley
CEO , Water for a Village
CONTACT ME
Not for Profit, Community Service and Engagement, Education, Leadership
Travels from Tasmania
ABOUT ME
While walking through the Simien Mountain National Park in Ethiopia in 2014, Catherine Wheatley, a business owner, doctor of bio-chemistry and former nurse, was moved by the poverty she saw.
In a village where children suffered water-borne chronic illness, couldn’t go to school and women walked up to 7 hours each day to queue for and collect unsafe water, Catherine coordinated, installed and financed a hand dug well. Later that year she founded the charity Water for a Village whose sole aim is to install clean water sources in Ethiopia’s remote mountain villages.
Catherine has since raised hundreds of thousands of dollars that have funded the building of almost 60 improved water sources (March 2020) providing around 17000 people with all the clean fresh water they require.
These water sources bring about enormous change – children’s health has improved markedly, school attendance has increased especially for girls, and women have more time at home.
Catherine’s passion is water: to provide it for thousands of those who don’t have it; and to educate her own community about the poverty she sees and how we can change that.