Thank you!

Blue Peter presenters Konnie Huq, Simon Thomas and Liz Barker announcing the achievement of the £500,000 target for the WaterWorks Appeal.

Credit: BBC

Because of the generosity and hard work of both our longstanding supporters and those new to WaterAid we are celebrating our best fundraising year ever. 2003's income is forecast to be a massive 50% higher than 2002's.

This means that we are now able to support more of the poorest communities in Africa and Asia gain access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education.

The BBC's Blue Peter WaterWorks Appeal exceeded all expectations raising nearly three times the target figure of £500,000. Over 9000 Bring and Buy Sales were held and £1.45 million was raised.

This was an amazing achievement, as Blue Peter's Editor Steve Hocking explained "This was one of the most successful Blue Peter Appeals in recent years. It addressed a clear and immediate need and through WaterAid Blue Peter was able to engage tens of thousands of children all over the UK with the lives of people living in Tanzania and Uganda."

The Guardian and Observer Christmas Charity Appeal 2002 was the paper's most successful ever raising a further £450,000 for WaterAid. And, in addition to this our summer, autumn and Christmas appeals to existing supporters raised over £740,000. A significant proportion of this has been used to advance WaterAid projects in Mozambique, Zambia and Ethiopia.

In fact donations increased across the board - thank you for all of your support. It really is making a huge difference to people's lives. This extra money is helping WaterAid to work towards its vision of a world where everyone has access to safe water and sanitation.

In recent years we have helped over 500,000 people every year. This year that figure will be even higher, meaning that WaterAid has directly changed the lives of over 7.5 million people since 1981.

This is a really optimistic time for WaterAid and our partners in Africa and Asia. The leap in income means that expenditure on our overseas work will be able to grow significantly.

This year £900,000 of additional funds were made available to WaterAid's country programmes to enable them to carry out further projects and help more poor people gain a better quality of life. Of this £150,000 was allocated to significantly increase the development of our work in Mali and Burkina Faso.

With your continued support we will work to ensure that as many as possible of the poorest people in Africa and Asia receive the help they need to take their first steps out of poverty.

Andrew Cook, Head of Marketing