So what is My Charity: Water all about?
MyCharity:Water’s vision is simple and ambitious: clean,
safe drinking water for everyone on the planet.
ALMOST A BILLION PEOPLE STILL LIVE WITHOUT CLEAN
WATER.
4,100 CHILDREN DIE EACH DAY FROM WATER RELATED
ILLNESSES.
One of the initiatives was to ‘pledge’ your
birthday. You sign up for the campaign
to ‘Pledge my Birthday’ to help raise funds for a clean water project.
Birthdays. We all have them. Starting a birthday campaign was easy. Instead of
birthday presents, just ask your family and friends to donate to clean water
projects for your big day. 100% of the money raised went to the building of
clean water projects around the world, where we began to help change
lives! It didn’t get any simpler than that! So I created my account and was sent an email
stating closer to my birthday I would be sent further information. I could then pass that on to my friends and
family and get my birthday present money rolling in for some-one in need for a
basic we take for granted.
Clean drinking water.
The month of September, when I started my campaign was
pledged to Rwanda at the time. I was
hoping to raise 5,000USD so that I could send my birthday present to 250 happy
people in a Rwandan village. You don’t get an option on which country you’re
given and at the end of the day, people are in need all over the world for
clean drinking water, so that didn’t matter to me at the time, though I was
still travelling at the time and with a move to the African continent on the
horizon is was nice that it was an African country. My thinking at the time was if all my friends
on Facebook donated $5 each we would have enough for 1 well, $10 each would
give us 2 wells and also benefit 500 people! But I started small and hoped
that we could obtain our first target of $5000.00.
Have you ever said, "I'm dying of thirst?"
If so, I bet you didn't really mean it.
If you're like me, you don't spend too much time thinking about water -- it's everywhere we go. When we're thirsty, we flip a handle or push a button. When we're dirty, we twist a shower knob. When our garden needs watering, when our pasta needs to be boiled, when we use the bathroom -- water is just there for the taking. But for almost 800 million people on the planet, it's not. Millions of women and children have to walk hours each day to get water from muddy ponds and rivers. And much of that water is infested with bacteria, parasites or leeches. When I learned that an average of $20 can give someone access to clean, safe water, I decided to start a campaign to help. My goal was to raise $5000.00 charity: water that would then pass 100% of the money to directly to fund the water projects in the field. Even better, when the projects are completed, they would show me just where our money went. That's right -- we'll be able to see the GPS coordinates photos and other details about the community we've impacted!
Work in some of the most remote areas of the world is carried out. Our partners face logistical, technical, cultural, political obstacles -- and still work hard to finish your project within 18 months. Here's where the money goes:
If so, I bet you didn't really mean it.
If you're like me, you don't spend too much time thinking about water -- it's everywhere we go. When we're thirsty, we flip a handle or push a button. When we're dirty, we twist a shower knob. When our garden needs watering, when our pasta needs to be boiled, when we use the bathroom -- water is just there for the taking. But for almost 800 million people on the planet, it's not. Millions of women and children have to walk hours each day to get water from muddy ponds and rivers. And much of that water is infested with bacteria, parasites or leeches. When I learned that an average of $20 can give someone access to clean, safe water, I decided to start a campaign to help. My goal was to raise $5000.00 charity: water that would then pass 100% of the money to directly to fund the water projects in the field. Even better, when the projects are completed, they would show me just where our money went. That's right -- we'll be able to see the GPS coordinates photos and other details about the community we've impacted!
Work in some of the most remote areas of the world is carried out. Our partners face logistical, technical, cultural, political obstacles -- and still work hard to finish your project within 18 months. Here's where the money goes:
Preparation: Site evaluation, hydrogeological studies
Training: Community preparation and training seminars
Hardware: Cement, pipes, pump heads, site clearing
Staff on the ground: Drillers, engineers, hydrologists,
drivers
Reporting: Digital cameras, GPS devices, internet costs
This was my first fund raising effort and I even though I
didn’t reach the 5,000 target I had hoped for, I did manage to raise 1,085USD,
with help from all my friends and I have recently been updated on where the
money and project currently stand. I
wanted to share this with the people who did donate and to also share the
website in the hope that maybe other people would like to pledge their own
birthdays and then in turn help more people in the world to have access to
clean drinking water. So again, a big
MASSIVE THANKS again to the 31 people who helped me raise the money and I
wanted to update you on where our campaign was at.
The money we raised has been sent to Rwanda. Last year I joined the September
Campaign and fundraised to bring clean water to people in the Rulindo District in Rwanda and
we raised 1,085USD.
OUR PROJECT TIMELINE.
Building water and sanitation projects is a
time-consuming business. We allow 18 months because we don't consider a project
complete until we know that all of its components are in place and working for
the best of the community. Here's a timeline of what happens during the 18
months.
LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR WORK IN RWANDA.
Almost 11 million people live in Rwanda, and about 35%
don't have access to clean, safe drinking water. But Rulindo, where these
projects are being built, is one of the poorest districts in Rwanda, and water
access is much lower there -- 70% of people live without clean water.
Thanks to you, our local partner, Water for People, is hard at work on 7 large-scale gravity-fed systems with 106 tap stands that will serve almost 26,000 people. But the solution doesn't stop at the tap. To ensure that water continues to flow long after we're gone, these systems will be built and managed through an innovative public-private partnership.
Once your water projects have been fully completed, our partners will go back and collect GPS coordinates, photos and other details about each community using their new water source. Then, they'll send all of the data to us. We'll verify everything and create an online completion report so you can see the impact you made.
THE RULINDO DISTRICT
WORKING IN THE LAND OF A THOUSAND HILLS
Our field partner, Water For People - Rwanda, works closely with the local government, organizations and skilled workers throughout water project implementation in an effort to provide everyone in Rulindo with safe drinking water and improved sanitation. Coordinating with the local government ensures that the work fits with regional development plans. By hiring local skilled workers, these projects are helping to support the economy.
Our field partner, Water For People - Rwanda, works closely with the local government, organizations and skilled workers throughout water project implementation in an effort to provide everyone in Rulindo with safe drinking water and improved sanitation. Coordinating with the local government ensures that the work fits with regional development plans. By hiring local skilled workers, these projects are helping to support the economy.
Rulindo's mountainous terrain poses challenges. Large scale gravity-fed systems are required to drag piping schemes into the villages. The community must then negotiate land needed to construct pumping stations. Once the pumping stations have been completed, our partners construct retaining walls to safely house the four electrical pumps inside of a pumping station. This station will move the water through a network of pipes to the villages, clinics, and schools.
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1-3 MONTHS -We send your money to the field.
3-6 MONTHS - Our partners get permits, supplies, pick sites
& begin the work.
6-9 MONTHS -Our partners collect midterm reports &
send us the information.
9-12 MONTHS - Our partners finish the work & train
the communities to manage their water point.
**THIS IS WHERE WE ARE CURRENTLY AT**
12-15 MONTHS -Our partners collect final photos, GPS &
community information.
15-18 MONTHS -We receive completion reports, verify the
data, assign your dollars to projects & send you your report.
I can't wait to report back and show you the impact our campaign
made for those in need when we get the final details and pictures so I can show
you where our money went and the difference we have made to people that we don’t
know and who we will never meet but they know that people cared enough to help
them have a better quality of life with clean water and know that we have
literally changed lives for a village in Rwanda.
Without you this project could not have been possible.
Colleen Cairns
Anonymous x 2
Andrew Crofts
Hunter Hadley
Laura Gant
Danielle Busuttil
Tracy Carsburg
Michael Sydenham
The Papster
Sean McGrath
Jodie Ryan
Miyuki Sato
Jo Jo C
JoAnn Bradish
Ferraro Massimo
Kate Sladdin
Marina Kadlubowski
Jude Mills
Julia Elton Bott
Pamela Suhr
Robert Poole
Simon Hooker
Jamie Anderson
Paul Mills
Kaitlin Ellis
Lisa Jones
Lisa Farrugia
Michele McEachern
Anyone interested in pledging their birthday, you can do
so on http://mycharitywater.org
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