Our Work

Our Mission

If a hippo water roller can save a woman 20+ hours of work per week, imagine what she could do with that time. Imagine what a community of women could do. Or a nation.

The Roll a Hippo Foundation improves the lives of marginalized women and children in rural South Africa by providing families with the innovative hippo water roller that transforms the backbreaking chore of collecting household water. 

Our Story

“When people first see the Hippo Roller the first question is always, ‘Why hasn’t someone thought of this before? It is an astonishingly simple tool”
– Linda Ryan

After discovering the hippo roller in early 2014, Luke and Linda were blown away by it’s simple, yet effective design, and how it could drastically change the lives of women all over the world, who collectively, spend 200M hours a day collecting water.

In the words of Luke Vorstermans, Founder of Roll a Hippo Foundation: “A hippo can save a woman upwards of 20 hours of work per week, so imagine what a group of women could collectively do with that time. Or a nation of women? This simple design can change the world.”

They decided, from that point forward, tat it was their mission to get the hippo roller in the hands of as many women as possible.

It started with a humble crowdfunding campaign to raise funding for 1,000 hippo rollers, and has grown into a movement that has impacted tens of thousands in South Africa.

The Roll A Hippo has now moved on to its next goal, to deliver 10,000 hippo rollers to women in need, and we need your help!