Birthdays have always been about stuff. Stuff you may not want, stuff you may not need, and often you don't even remember what you got the year before.

So this year, I'm giving my birthday up.

I'm turning 26 years old, and instead of asking for gifts, I'm asking for donations to charity: water. Every cent of which goes to building freshwater wells for people in developing nations.

A billion people in the world are living without clean water - but how much are they really living? Millions contract deadly diseases from contaminated water. 45,000 people will die this week alone. The lucky ones won't, but still walk hours each day to get dirty water to give to their families.

My birthday wish this year is not for gifts; it's to give clean and safe drinking water to some of the billion living without it. I want to make my birthday matter this year.

Please join me.

Many thanks and hugs,

Heidz

please note: Because of charity: water's unique model, 100% of all donations go directly to direct water projects costs, and each donation is "proved" and tracked to the village it helped when projects are complete.