Sep13

More People In The World Have A Mobile Phone Than A Toilet

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More People In The World Have A Mobile Phone Than A Toilet

This is one of the facts that Water.org is working to change.  Since 2009 is has helped hundreds of communities in Africa, Asia, and Central America gain access to safe water and sanitation. All of the projects that are supported by Water.org are self-sustaining, with organizational and financial structures in place to allow communities to independently operate and maintain them. Projects have an active water committee governing the operation of the water system, and users paying a water bill to cover the costs of operating and maintaining the water system.   I am working with The Mission List  on the 10 Days 10 Lives campaign to help raise funds to provide clean water, and awareness about the water crisis.  Our collective goal was to raise enough to provide 100 people   clean water for life through Water.org programs. We are thrilled to have surpassed our goal, but there is still more work to be done.  884 Million People in the world lack access to clean water.  It seems overwhelming, but just think, if we all collectively worked for solutions to the water crisis, many lives of those who die from water related illnesses each year could be saved.  If you would like to help you can start your own campaign to keep the progress going.

To see all the good in the world that Water.org is doing, check out the below links to countries where Water.org has active programs.

Photo provided by Water.org

Asia

Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, Water.org offers both grant and WaterCredit programs, and is addressing safe water needs in both rural and urban areas. Our urban program focuses on the slums of the capital city, Dhaka. Our rural program is located in Rajshahi and Manikganj Districts.

India. Water.org’s program in India provides safe drinking water and adequate sanitation facilities to the families living in five states – Andhrah Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, and Tamil Nadu. Water.org offers both grant and WaterCredit programs in India.

Philippines. Water.org’s program in the Philippines began in 2003 with a project in Barangay Villahermosa. Currently, Water.org does not have active programs in the Philippines.

Latin America & the Caribbean

El Salvador. Water.org has completed two rural water and sanitation projects serving over 1,200 people in the communities of Caulote and Las Americas. These communities are located in the department of Cuscatlán, located approximately 20 miles northeast of San Salvador. The new water systems in El Salvador are spring-fed pumped systems. Currently, Water.org does not have active programs in El Salvador.

Guatemala. Our projects in Guatemala are located in the department of Quiché. Quiché is in the Western highlands of the country. Because of the high prevalence of mountain streams in the Guatemalan highlands, all of our water solutions in Guatemala are spring-fed gravity flow systems. Currently, Water.org does not have active programs in Guatemala.

Haiti. Haiti is one of the poorest nations on earth. Half of its citizens lack access to clean water and only one in five have a toilet. At the 2009 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting, Water.org announced its commitment to reach 50,000 Haitians with clean water and sanitation over the next three years.

Honduras. Water.org has helped more than 40 Honduran communities build their own safe water systems. Our program in Honduras focuses on the Departments of Lempira and Intibuca, in western Honduras. The once heavily forested Departments now suffer from deforestation. This has led to extreme depletion of the local water tables, forcing women and children to walk long distances to collect water for their families. Currently, Water.org does not have active programs in Honduras.

 

Africa

Ethiopia. Our program in Tigray, Ethiopia is serving 32,000 people in 76 communities and six schools. Tigray is a region in northern Ethiopia that borders on Sudan. Tigray is often one of the regions that is hardest hit by drought and crop failure.

Ghana. Program activities in Ghana take place in the Volta and Upper East regions, located in the southeast and northern parts of the country, respectively. Activities include community-based water, sanitation, and hygiene education programs.

Kenya. Water.org is working in the Kisumu region of Kenya. Located on the equator, Kisumu’s climate is hot all year. Much of Nyanza Province, where Water.org is working, is semi-arid and is subject to severe drought. Most people obtain their drinking water from Lake Victoria, seasonal rivers and streams, and hand-dug wells. All of these sources are contaminated. Women and children walk up to six kilometers each day to haul water, a task that can take three hours. Water is not only contaminated at its source but also from the way it is transported and stored.

Uganda. Water.org’s projects in Uganda are a mixture of grant and WaterCredit projects in urban and semi-rural communities located close to Kampala. More than 40% of people in the greater Kampala area live in unplanned settlements. Of those residents, only 17% have access to piped water. Many people use springs and other surface sources that are highly contaminated due to poor drainage and little regulation of waste disposal.

*All above information provided on Water.org Projects comes from the Water.org website.

Sep12

Party With A Purpose; Alex & Ani for Water.org

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Party With A Purpose; Alex & Ani for Water.org

 

Bloggers from The Mission LIst; Carla Molina of Petit Rhody, Laura Rossi of Mysocalledsensorylife & Elizabeth Atalay of Documama host the Alex & Ani Party with a Purpose for Water.org

A few of my own favorite charms

While working on the Water.org campaign for The Mission List  fellow bloggers Laura Rossi, Carla Molina and I realized we all lived in the same area.  We decided to get together and try to augment our social media fundraising efforts with an Alex & Ani Party With A Purpose.  Alex & Ani is a fabulous local company that we love to support not only for their amazing jewelry line, but their positive energy philosophy as well.  An entire division of the company is devoted to Charity By Design which supports various charities through the sales of specifically designed charm bangles for each group.

Their Parties With A Purpose are another way the company gives back.  Parties are hosted in the stores and provide a unique shopping experience that enables the Charity By Design department of Alex and Ani to raise funds and awareness for various charities.  Events are generally two hours long (6-8 p.m. or 7-9 p.m.), and the company donates 15% of event sales to the designated charity.  Co-branded evites are created by Alex and Ani for event promotion, and lite bites and positive energy punch are provided by the store.

 

 

We are thrilled with the results of our Party With A Purpose held at the Alex & Ani Chapel View Store at the company’s headquarters.  In just two hours of shopping and fun we were able raise over $500.00 to be donated directly to Water.org.

Every $25.00 donated provides clean water for life to someone.  That means we just provided 22 people clean water for life!

We are so grateful to all of those who turned out to support Water.org at our Party With A Purpose, and to those of you who have donated  on-line or helped to spread the word by re-tweeting and re-posting our social media efforts.  We have three days left to reach our goal of bringing 100 people clean water for life, and we are so close to being able to do just that.  If you missed our Party With A Purpose but would still like to help us reach that goal, you can still do so on The Mission List fundraising page.

 

Sep11

Fashion Week NYC; Moms On A Mission

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Fashion Week NYC; Moms On A Mission

Click on the photo to see Lisa Rinna dance down the runway and the end of the show.

Last night I got to live out my fantasy of attending a New York Fashion Week show that combined fashion with my passion for causes that benefit mothers and children.  The Strut,  Moms with a Mission fashion show showcased supermoms instead of supermodels. Women like Devi Thomas, the director of the United Nations Foundation’s Shot@Life Campaign,  Chrysula Winegar of “When You Wake Up A Mother, You Wake Up The World”, Holly Pavlika of Momentum.bigfuel.com, and the founders of Strut Denise Albert and Melissa Gerstein all walked the runway with celebrity mom Lisa Rinna.  I joined World Moms Blog founder Jennifer Burden and fellow World Moms Blog Contributer Maman Aya to watch the show, and enjoy the electric atmosphere. We loved the fantastic people watching inside the tents at Lincoln Center, and a fabulous after party at the swanky Empire hotel.

I may not be walking down the catwalk this week but I am a Mom on a Mission myself, working with The Mission List  on our 10 Days 10 Lives campaign for Water.org.  We are working to raise awareness and bring clean drinking water and the dignity of sanitation to women and children around the world.

You can help by spreading the word , donating to our fundraiser ,  start your own fundraiser,  or just learning more about the water crisis. Together we can make a difference.

 Just $25 brings clean water for life to one person, and our goal by the end of our ten days is to provide clean water to at least ten people. I’d love for you to join me.

Now I need to track down the leather leggings one of the models walked down the runway in! I am obsessed!

Sep9

A Long Time Ago In The Congo

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A Long Time Ago In The Congo

Years ago in The Congo, I was waiting in line to collect water when my friend snapped this picture.   Finding a water source, collecting water, and then carrying the heavy full jugs back to camp were part of the daily necessity in many of the areas we went through in Africa.   We would then boil it or treat it with iodine tablets to make sure it was potable, an intestinal parasite could be deadly for us so far from medical facilities, as it still is today for much of the world population.

The Author Collecting Water in The Congo

Girls Carrying Yellow Water Jugs in The Congo Photo by Elizabeth Atalay

Like these young girls in this village in the Congo:

millions of women are prohibited from accomplishing little more than survival. Not because of a lack of ambition, or ability, but because of a lack of safe water and adequate sanitation. Millions of women and children in the developing world spend untold hours daily, collecting water from distant, often polluted sources, then return to their villages carrying their filled 40 pound jerry cans on their backs. – water.org

Women collecting water in The Congo Photo by Elizabeth Atalay

I returned home from six months of overland travel through the African continent changed by my experience.  Yet I easily slipped back into the ease of turning on the tap for water, showering daily, and the luxury of a flush toilet instead of the woods.  The women from those areas without any of the above, and their daughters, continue to struggle with those daily inconveniences. Water.org has transformed hundreds of communities in Africa, South Asia, and Central America by providing access to safe water and sanitation.  Water.org works with local partners to deliver innovative solutions for long-term success. Its microfinance-based WaterCredit Initiative is pioneering sustainable giving in the sector.

I have joined The Mission List and Water.org in a ten day challenge to raise awareness about water issues, and help raise funds to change peoples lives. If we work together we can end this crisis in our lifetime. Only $25 brings one person clean water for life. My goal is in ten days to provide water for life to at least ten people. I’d love for you to join me by spreading the word, donating to The Mission List fundraiser, starting your own fundraiser, or just learning more about the water crisis. Together we can make a difference.

 

Sep8

The Eye Of Water

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The Eye Of Water

Because of my half Turkish Husband and my affinity for the Evil Eye , the weird and wonderful Eye of Water Fountain fascinated me.  Located in Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square PA it was built in 1968, and inspired by a similar fountain seen in Costa Rica, Central America. It sits above the reservoir that serves the main fountain garden of the once grand estate that is now a park.  5,000 gallons of water flow over the eye and are recycled per minute.  It is quite a stunning sight to see.

Quite a luxury in a world where a population 3x that of the entire of the United States of America lacks water. What we have in abundance, women around the globe spend a collective 200 million hours a day collecting for their families use.

I have joined The Mission List and Water.org in a ten day challenge to raise awareness about water issues, and help raise funds to change peoples lives. If we work together we can end this crisis in our lifetime. Only $25 brings one person clean water for life. My goal is in ten days to provide water for life to at least ten people. I’d love for you to join me by spreading the word, donating to The Mission List fundraiser, starting your own fundraiser, or just learning more about the water crisis. Together we can make a difference.