Globally, 1 out of 8 people lacks access to clean drinking water. This simple fact is the root cause for the deaths of upwards of 4,000 children a year due to diarrhea-related illnesses - that's more than AIDS, malaria, & measles combined. It was those startling facts that fueled my interest in the water crisis two years ago when my 5th grade class took on a service learning project that benefitted the Water for Schools campaign with charity:water, a non-profit that is fighting the global water crisis by building freshwater wells. I first became aware of the dire need for access to clean drinking water around the world thanks to Becky Straw, one of Joel's closest friends from high school, and now one of mine, too. At the time, Becky was working for charity:water, but she has since gone on to an even bigger and better endeavor. Along with friend Jody Landers, Becky co-founded The AdVENTURE Project, a non-profit aimed at ending global poverty in our lifetime.
Each quarter, The AdVENTURE Project focuses on one humanitarian issue affecting global poverty, & then they find low-cost, high-impact, innovative solutions. This quarter, TAP is partnering with WaterAid for the Keep It Clean Campaign to benefit WaterAid's well-mechanics program in India. It's an amazing program that trains men AND women how to fix the 1/3 of all freshwater wells that are broken. You can read more about it here or here. Below is a picture of Ram Rati, one of the first women employed through the well-mechanics program. When needed, she straps her tools on to her bike, and rides to do her job. Talk about a hero!
So, when I was approached to be a part of typeTAP for World Water Day, I jumped at the chance! typeTAP is a first of its kind fundraising and awareness campaign being promoted by bloggers. I was asked to be a part of the core team to get the ball rolling. I feel honored to have been asked despite the fact that I think I'm barely worthy of the "blogger" title. I may not be able to globe-trot to get involved in finding solutions for the world's inequities, but I can definitely do this!
The goal was originally to get 50 bloggers on board that would dedicate their blog post on Tuesday, March 22nd, to World Water Day . We have already exceeded that number! Last I checked, the count stood at 70. The new goal is 100 blogs by Tuesday. I know we can do it. If you have a blog and want to get involved, please click here. No blog? No problem! Make your own fundraising page here, and share it via email, Facebook, or Twitter!
Now, the key here is that each blogger has an audience. If each blogger could motivate 20 of their readers to donate $5, or 100 readers to donate $1, or 10 readers to donate $10....that would be $10,000. In. One. Day. Amazing!!!
But it gets even better....on Friday, Becky got a call that makes all of this even more incredible. If we can get 100 bloggers to raise $100 each within 24 hours on March 22nd, The Prem Rawat Foundation is going to MATCH it. We now have a chance to raise $20,000 in 24 hours to benefit the Keep It Clean campaign, making it possible to fix broken wells and turn water back on for approximately 600 people each month!
Now....who's with me? Will you help me make a difference for hundreds of people in India this World Water Day? Because you can. Click here to make a donation. Repost this on Facebook or Twitter. Email a link to family and friends. It's that easy.
And WWJD on WWD? I'm thinking He would be all over this. :) In a way, He totally is.
- J
Love this Jenn! You're such a good writer. Can't wait to see what happens on Tuesday!
ReplyDeleteLove, Jenn. So great. Thank you.
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