Hello and welcome to my charity: water birthday campaign! As you may or may not know, I'm turning 22 on May 7th. This means I have two weeks to reach my goal of $222. (See what I did there? I am sure I am the first person ever to think of that!) Instead of gifts or a get-together this year, I'd really love if my friends and family would donate a few dollars to this campaign. My goal is $222, but I think we can raise even more!

There are a lot of charities out there, and they pretty much all do great work. So why did I choose charity: water? First of all, it's one of the best-run charities out there, especially when it comes to transparency. EVERY DONATION goes to projects in the field, so you can be sure that your money is going straight to building a well. From there, there are updates on exactly what your money is helping to do - from the location of the well to the stories of the people who will benefit from it. Everything else - office space, pay roll - comes from a few generous private donors.

(And don't worry about the lifespan of the wells - people in the community are taught to take care of it and make repairs, and if there's a problem that's too big to fix, charity: water will be back on the scene to help.)

Second, the work charity: water does is INCREDIBLY important, and they are really improving quality of life for people all over the world. Clean water is just not something we think about, not really. Hell, having ANY water available at all is not something we consider. There are millions of people around the world who ration out their water - laundry and bathing can't happen on the amount water from one trip, and at least some of it has to be used for cooking every day.

Not to mention the time lost retrieving the water - many people, mostly women, spend entire days walking miles to a source of water that is contaminated and dirty, wait in line for hours, and then lug back as much as they can to their homes. Many times, children miss school because of lack of bathing or filthy uniforms, and eventually they may drop out to help their mothers carry water. It goes even beyond the obvious problem of not having enough clean water to use - the water crisis disempowers women and steals education from their children.

But I don't want to guilt you. I hate that tactic. We have clean water that's available 24 hours a day, and that's great! Let's help everyone have the same experience!