Chairty Water paper

Water.
By Anna Babcox

Charity Water was founded by Scott Harrison, a former night club designer, in 2006. Charity Water is devoted solely to providing clean water and sanitation to impoverished African communities.

 
The Story.

In 2004 Scott Harrison found himself at the age of twenty-eight in the middle of a selfish career.

“I realized I was the most selfish, sycophantic and miserable human being,” he recalled. “I was the worst person I knew.”

    After converting back to his childhood Christian faith he decided to devote his life to the poor. Later that year, he volunteered as a photographer for a hospital ship. The ship sailed around the coast of Liberia offering free medical care, providing surgeries to those with cleft lips, cleft palates, and tumors. When briefly on land they would visit the villages and homes of their patients. Slowly they were introduced to the huge drinking water problem that was common with all of their patients. This unclean water became the source of these terrible deformities, illnesses, and flesh eating diseases. Upon return to New york city a friend of his bought him a drink that cost $16. It was a stark reality that brought it all together for Scott. $16 was enough to feed a family in Liberia, for a month.
    For his 31st birthday he decided to do something really groundbreaking. He created Charity Water, asking that on his birthday, instead of giving him gifts, that his friends would each give $20 for the cause. What a birthday party it was, on that one night, his 31st birthday, his friends and family had raised enough to build 6 wells in Uganda. 

Now what? It's 2011 now.

What does Charity Water really do?

 Charity Water has one simple philosophy. 100% of donations, work hours, profits, and gifts goes directly to charity water projects. Projects like, building wells and clean sanitation in rural village communities in Africa and Asia, and providing schools with clean sanitation and toilets       

Is water really all that important?

 The obvious answer is yes, water is very important. You can only live for three days without water. But the main issue here is not the absence of water, but the inhumane conditions of the drinking water that is available. Even though this water is poisonous in the long run, the people have to drink it to survive. You could liken the situation to being stranded on a deserted island with only hepatitis to drink, and typhoid to eat.     
These are the facts (according to charitywater.com):  

• 80% of all world disease is caused by unclean water.
• 4,500 children will die today from water-related disease.
• Half of the worlds schools do not have clean water and toilets.
• One billion people on the planet go without clean drinking water (1/7th of the world population). That is one person in every seven. 
• 40 billion hours are wasted in Africa just waiting for dirty water.
  
  

What does this project mean to me? In  the summer of 2009 I was sent on a church mission trip. I practiced, and prepared my sermons, endured almost 10 different immunizations, and sped through my 8th grade school year waiting for that flight to Tanzania. Little did I know, my mission trip mornings (instead of vacationing) would be spent in treating the ill, attempting to nurse, and scraping by without a translator. A doctor from the United Kingdom had signed up and joined the mission trip. He preached his sermons in the evening and worked at a local clinic all day. But, he needed help. I can not begin to express the shear numbers of illnesses, caused by dehydration and/or polluted filthy water, we encountered. Barely out of grade school, I had fully expected to find little starving children, running around begging for the crumbs of my granola bar. Instead I was shocked to find a community, not starving, but parched. Even more surprised where we, when we saw the village elders try to hide the problem from us. They would buy US, the Americans, bottled water and made their little village look like a haven of perfection. It wasn't until the first two weeks of our month there, that we realized the serious water shortage. For this reason, the Charity Water program has captivated my attention.                              

In four years Charity Water has brought clean water to nearly 1 million people. As of 2009 more than 1,500 well have been dug, that has given more than 820,00 people clean drinking water. It puts the children back in school, and transforms the health of these communities.
There is still so much to do. Still millions of impoverished people, human beings, are living without the basic element of life. You can help change this.
Charitywater.org is a great way to find out how to get involved, but my personal favorite is the simple gift of a birthday. It's the way Charity Water was created. For one year, instead of inventorying your pile of presents, you can know that because of your birthday an entire village now lives with clean water. Go to  http://mycharitywater.org/p/signin  and  learn how you can give up your birthday. The concept is simple. This year instead of sending out your birthday wish list you can ask your friends and family to donate the  price of your gift (or your age in dollars) toward the cause.

“In an age when man has forgotten his origins and is blind even to his most essential needs for survival, water along with other resources has become the victim of his indifference”

-Rachel Carson

Works Cited

Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. New York: Houghton Miller, 2002  
Charity: Water. October 4, 2010
            <http://www.charitywater.org>
Kristof, Nicholas D. “Clean, Sexy Water.“ The New York Times  11 Jul. 2009   

            <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/opinion/12kristof.html>

Jennifer Connelly in charity: water Clean Water Africa PSA . 2008   

            <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AqlLyLeJuQ>