SCOTT HARRISON'S BLOG
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Clean Water at 176 feet. Watch the first Twestival well drilled.
- Posted on 04.13.09
Related causes: Health, Human Rights
Mai Nebri, Ethiopia. April 11, 1:30 P.M.
It started with a 140-character tweet on January 8. And a few hours ago, in a remote Ethiopian village, hundreds cheered as clean water shot from the ground. The sight was a familiar one for us, but this well was special. Here's why.
On February 12, people from 202 cities around the world came together for charity: water using a micro-blogging tool called Twitter. The global event was called Twestival, and was organized in less than four weeks completely by volunteers.
More than 10,000 individual donors contributed just shy of $250,000 - enough for 50 villages and 12,500 people to get clean water. As always, 100% of the money will fund water projects. Overwhelmed by the generosity and passion of the Twitter community, we couldn't wait to show their impact in real-time and answer the question, "What can this money really do?" So today, with lead Twestival organizer Amanda Rose and the help of satellite partner Evosat, we shot, edited,...Read More -
The Budde Family Well.
- Posted on 02.19.09
Related causes: Community
In preparation for the fall launch of our Water for Schools program, I had the pleasure of traveling to Ethiopia a few weeks ago with four fathers and five of their daughters, ages 9-13. One of the dads, Shawn Budde, has been volunteering as a strategy consultant with charity: water for over 6 months and has been a huge blessing to us.
On this trip, I had a surprise for him. I was going to take him and his daughters to a well he'd helped fund through the borninseptember.org campaign. Filming them at the Adiayfela school was one of the high points of 2009. I remember smiling through tears as we saw the handmade signs that read "We love for Budde family" and listened to speeches. We asked Shawn to write about his experience.
As so many of you have contributed to the more than 1,247 water projects we've now funded, I ask you to put yourself in his shoes and imagine the many celebrations around the world ! you've made possible like this one. I hope the video and words will inspire...Read More -
The mission of Twestival.
- Posted on 02.06.09
Related causes: Community
Right now 1.1 billion people on the planet don't have access to safe, clean drinking water. That's one in six of us. Many communities in developing nations often have a plentiful supply of clean drinking water just below the ground, but no way to get to it. This is where charity: water and their partner organizations come in. Drilling a well can cost from $4,000 - $12,000 USD and many living on less than $1 a day cannot afford one in their community, even if the money is combined.
On 12 February 2009, 100+ international cities will be hosting a Twestival to bring Twitter communities together in an effort to raise money for charity: water. Twestival is organized 100% by volunteers around the world and 100% of the money raised from these events will go directly to support charity: water projects. By rallying together globally, under short timescales, for a single aim on the same day, the Twestival hopes to bring awareness to this global crisis.
Please support the Twestival effor...Read More -
Orissa, India. 58,345 hours for clean water.
- Posted on 01.09.09
Related causes: Health
I jumped back, but too late, as coconut juice splashed all over my jeans. The upside-down transfer from coconut to steel cup hadn't factored in the volume differential.
I sat on a plastic chair in the Engreda Village Baptist church, tucked away in the rural hills of Eastern India. Men and women of the community had gathered here to thank us for funding a piped water system that brought clean and safe drinking water down from a new well in the mountains.
41-year-old Junash was the one that spilled on me, but I didn't mind, and drank two cups of the warm juice. A few minutes earlier, he'd made a speech about what happened here.
I learned that the 567 residents of Engreda had big problems with water. Their primary source for years had been a polluted stream in the valley beneath the village, which I saw a few moments later.
"In the stream, we would remove a little bit of sand, and the water would ooze out into it. We used to drink that, and the children and adults used to g...Read More -
Happy Holidays - The mud is gone.
- Posted on 12.29.08
Related causes: Health
When we started charity: water a little over two years ago, the first thing we did was build six wells in Uganda and take pictures of them to prove the work being done with your money.
We've been doing that ever since.
Two and a half years on, your generosity has helped us raise more than $8 million and fund 1,030 water projects in 13 developing nations. You've helped us believe that it might just be possible to bring clean and safe drinking water to every single person on earth.
This Holiday season, we want to do what we do best - we want to tell you one more story before the year ends.
Gasi Springs, Ethiopia.
When we first showed you pictures from Gasi Springs in March, it was a contaminated mud pit. Women huddled ankle deep in toxic water most of us wouldn't dare step in, let alone drink. But the people here didn't have a choice.
We immediately committed to the project, and asked our partners to expedite the work to get Gasi the clean water they so desperately n...Read More
