Dear Friends,

For those without clean water, their only option is to get dirty water. This can mean spending up to 4 dangerous hours walking out, and 4 dangerous hours walking back with a 40 pound jug of water on their backs. Daily. Women and girls are especially affected. And that dirty water that they're bringing back as their only option contains too many diseases to list. Just type "waterborne diseases" into Wikipedia to get an idea.

The statistic to date is that time spent collecting this water equals 40 billion hours per year, or the equivalent of the entire French workforce. Providing clean water means hours saved which translates into things like education, work, and time to raise a family. Sickness and medical expenses are reduced dramatically.

Almost a billion people in the world are living without access to clean water. Millions contract deadly diseases from contaminated water. 30,000 people will die this week alone.

100% of all donations go directly toward water projects. And about 18 months after this campaign ends, charity: water will show us where and how every dollar we raised ended up helping in the field. We'll see GPS coordinates, photos and more details about the communities we've impacted.

Please take a look at the video, maybe spend some time on the site. But most important of all, please donate! My birthday wish is to raise $5,000 - enough money to build a well and help 250 people.

Thanks,
Aurora