Charity - Water Related

Thanks for these, Mazy.

When I read of the need for fresh clean water, I'm wondering about the ancient Roman method of transporting water through series of elevated clay structures?  I'm not sure of the availability of fresh water sources and where these elevated structures could be constructed?

Or possibly another way to obtain fresh water is to construct natural pools that do not use chlorine but natural methods of plants and stones to filter water?

I also thought about composting toilets for sanitation.  These don't require water and can be set up anywhere.  But a source of sawdust or other material to aid composting would be needed.

How will he feel about it?

Or is it a way to 'give' him more power, so to make him able to become more exigent ??

We never think of there being a shortage of water world-wide. This is one of Matt Damon's big causes also ENOUGHproject always talks about it. This is causing a lot of problems in undeveloped countries. Disease is so prevalent when there are no fresh drinking water and sanitary toilet facilities.

Matt Damon has a strike against his toilet going on right now until November I think. I signed up awhile back so I don't remember all the details.

Thank God for people like George, John P, Matt, Angelina and all the rest of the celebrities/activists that do so much to help others.

The requests for reform address matters that require urgent attention:

The group presented a series of recommendations to South Sudan government to rectify the situation including an overhaul of the justice ministry; investigating and prosecuting human rights abuses; warning senior army officials against attacks on civilians; setting "clear" oil infrastructure priorities; making schools, medical services and clean water a priority; cutting the size of the army.

No doubt there is extreme corruption and pilfering of governmental funds by high ranking officials. I think with the establishment of a new nation in one of the most troubled conflict zones in the world, there should have been more foreign regulation from the start.

Of course, Kiir may be sabotaged internally, especially since his VP Machar wants to run for office in two years.
The situation is critical and needs foreign intervention, if only to help them help themselves by imposing Western democratic  ideals.

You are right Juliette, there is a lot of corruption; and in my not educated in this matter; opinion things are getting much worse. Even if I don't do a lot of tweeting one I always read the up-dates I get. For the time that I have been watching on a daily basis things seem to be deteriorating.

I hate to be the odd one here, but that nation will never know peace.
This doesn't mean one should stop helping. "Blessed are those that help the weak"

On the water topic - there is another organization that builds wells in countries where water sourcing is difficult.

It's called charitywater.org

What I like about charity water is:

1.  Their organization's adminstrative costs are funded by what they call Angel Donors who want them to be able to use 100% of funds raised for their charitable work with none going to fund the running of the charity

2.  They not only build wells, they train people in the areas where the wells are built to repair and maintain them so they are providing some jobs in those areas.

3.  They are transparent in that all of their funded projects are documented.

4.  They have an interesting campaign where you can give up your birthday to raise money for funds - so even little kids can get involved.  The premise is that instead of buying gifts for the birthday person their friends and family pledge to give the person's age (for instance) in dollars to the charity.  Their website lets you set up this campaign pretty simply.

There was a little girl who gave up her birthday and only wanted to raise a $300 dollars.  She fell short of her goal and told her mom she would try harder the next year.  She was killed in a traffic accident a couple of months later.

People heard about her and started donating.  Her campaign raised over $1.2 million dollars. All of which went to build wells.

There is a short video about it at the link below.

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Water is such an important part of life and if there is a way to help bring more of it to those who need it I'm all for that!  Whether it be Matt's organization or this one or any other!

Bless his heart!



Their Youtube Channel
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Thanks for the vid !

Thanks, Maggy! I love the can-do attitude.

LornaDoone wrote:On the water topic - there is another organization that builds wells in countries where water sourcing is difficult.

It's called charitywater.org

What I like about charity water is:

1.  Their organization's adminstrative costs are funded by what they call Angel Donors who want them to be able to use 100% of funds raised for their charitable work with none going to fund the running of the charity

2.  They not only build wells, they train people in the areas where the wells are built to repair and maintain them so they are providing some jobs in those areas.

3.  They are transparent in that all of their funded projects are documented.

4.  They have an interesting campaign where you can give up your birthday to raise money for funds - so even little kids can get involved.  The premise is that instead of buying gifts for the birthday person their friends and family pledge to give the person's age (for instance) in dollars to the charity.  Their website lets you set up this campaign pretty simply.

There was a little girl who gave up her birthday and only wanted to raise a $300 dollars.  She fell short of her goal and told her mom she would try harder the next year.  She was killed in a traffic accident a couple of months later.

People heard about her and started donating.  Her campaign raised over $1.2 million dollars. All of which went to build wells.

There is a short video about it at the link below.

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Water is such an important part of life and if there is a way to help bring more of it to those who need it I'm all for that!  Whether it be Matt's organization or this one or any other!

This one "charity water" we follow each other on twitter, I follow many of them. Honestly I haven't had a chance to check them out to see what percentage goes to the cause. I do read all articles that I retweet. I think the one with the video "water.org" is Matt's, I think the STRIKE is also on that video. There are several but it is good to know the statistics. Is angel donors an organization or individuals?

Feel so bad for the family of the little girl. Great that she was the cause of raising so much money but I cannot imagine the heartbreak of losing a child. God Bless Them.

Mazy the Angel Donors info is at the link below:

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ANGEL INVESTORS: MICHAEL & XOCHI BIRCH

Our Angel Investors are donors who recognize the impact of a major gift to our operations. Like any startup business, we need investors to believe and invest in our business model. But we can't offer stock options or the promise of a big buyout; instead, our investors' ROI is measured in people served with access to clean water and basic sanitation.

Our largest operations gifts have come from entrepreneur and family man Michael Birch. In 2009, he not only generously donated $1 million in operations funding; he also promised to match funds raised at our annual gala -- again for operations. To date, Michael and his wife Xochi have invested more than $4 million towards charity: water's infrastructure. We're grateful for their belief in our work.

And the organization below (Charity Navigator) rates charities - their methodology on how they reach their ratings is noted on the site:

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Here is Charity Water's rating:

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Matt's Water.org rating

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Thanks for this, Lorna.

You know what lept out at me when I clicked on charity navigator's site? They were asking for donations to keep their organization going. I'm always concerned about any biases when an organization ranks other organizations. So I'm concerned about what biases charity navigator might have if, say, they had a huge donor who was extremely conservative and wanted to skew the rankings towards certain orgs that were conservative leaning?

I'm not saying that's happening here, but just throwing that out there. I remember a few years back hearing about charity navigator and they were ranking conservative leaning organizations higher than most.

It's been awhile, so the memory is fuzzy, but I wanted to throw this out there.

Great cause Damon chose to support.
He also is involved with many others like Not On OUr Watch & ONE, along with Clooney.

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Essential to sustain life. Water may be the most abundant compound on the planet, over 70% of
Earth's surface is covered by it, but ONLY 1% is freshwater.

Thanks Lorna these are good links to have so I can check out the percentage that goes to the actual cause. Thanks again

An article from my newsletter from (water.org)that is on a positive note.

A Toilet For Sumit

“Our previous toilet was a ‘katcha’ toilet made with bamboo sticks. The pit was covered with bamboo thatch. It was too near to the house. During monsoons, the water from the katcha toilet used to flow through the house and spread a foul smell all over the place,” says Sumit Deori, who lives with his wife Purnima Devi in Jorhat district, Assam.

The couple has a one year-old baby boy. They live in a small house next to a rice field. Last year, Sumit, along with 19 other male members of Bishnupur village, formed a Self-Help-Group (SHG) called Aditya SHG to work on common issues faced by people residing in the village. Their group meets once a month and assesses the development work taking place in the village. During one of the meetings, they met the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene program team from ASOMI-- Water.org’s program partner in Assam.

Sumit, who was contemplating building a toilet at his house, learned about Water and Sanitation loan products and got a loan for the construction of a toilet and water point at his household. He says, “A team from ASOMI came from Guwahati to assist [me] in the construction of [the] household toilet. They supervised us with a mason, who recommended a twin-pit toilet structure. The mason said it will take about 25 years for one pit to fill. As there are two pits, this toilet can be used for my entire lifetime,” says Sumit with a smile.

Sumit also attended a training on water and sanitation which helped him understand the various models of toilets, and ways to maintain it for better sanitary practices. “Our new toilet does not need much maintenance. It does not spread smells like our earlier one,” says Sumit’s wife. In the coming few months when the family’s income improves, they intend to construct the walls and roof of the toilet.
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This success story was submitted by Water.org’s partner organization ASOMI, and was made possible by a generous grant from the PepsiCo Foundation.

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Great causes, all of them. Leads me to believe that not all humanity is gone