A personal story on water

After I wrote a post on this topic for a different blog, wherein I shared my experiences with water, I thought, geesh, I at least owe you a story.

As a child growing up in the foreign service, I lived in Honduras, Poland, and Brazil. In none of these countries did potable (drinking) water come from the tap. In Honduras, water had to be boiled first. In Poland, it had to be boiled (distilled, we had a distiller) and then filtered, to take out heavy metals such as cadmium that lived in the tap water. I was fortunate to live in situations where the water was treated, and I didn’t get sick. I don't remember how water was treated in Brazil, but I'm pretty sure we didn't drink what came from the tap.

Please consider donating. And consider blogging about it, if you have a blog. Let's pass this on. It's important. See post below for all the particulars, or click on this link to Laura's blog.

water water everywhere, and not a drop to drink

This is from Pistachio, the Twitter nom of Laura Fitton, a Boston mom and consultant:

I want to make a big difference. To save kids lives. It’s a tough year though. I don’t want to ask much of any one person. I realized just $2 from each of my Twitter readers would be $25,000. If everyone who reads this - YOU - gives just $2, Charity: Water can build an entire water project for a school or hospital in Africa.

Read her entire post here.

It's a pretty easy set-up. You sign up for TipJoy, you can access your paypal funds and donate as small as 25 cents ($2 per person is our goal) but of course, as big as your dreams and budget allow.

Three easy steps from Laura's blog:

1. Sign up for tipjoy at: http://tipjoy.com/createaccount/platform/twitter/. You have the option to sign up using only your twitter credentials.
2. Copy and paste this Tweet: p$2 @wellwishes to build wells and save children’s lives (via @tipjoy)
3. Be sure you have funded your Tipjoy account. Start with as little as $5 and tip it to whomever you wish.

Direct: You can donate ANY amount via credit card or PayPal right at the Charity: Water site. (they ask for a minimum $10 donation.)

This is from a Washington Post article on clean water. Read the entire article if you have a chance, it's written by Jan Eliasson, former Swedish ambassador to the United States, the president of the United Nations General Assembly and Retired Rear Admiral Susan Blumenthal, a physician, who served as assistant surgeon general of the United States.

Water is essential to all aspects of life, yet 99 percent of water on Earth is unsafe or unavailable to drink. About 1.2 billion people globally lack safe water to consume and 2.6 billion do not have access to adequate sanitation. There are also stark comparisons: Just one flush of a toilet in the West uses more water than most Africans have to perform an entire day's washing, cleaning, cooking and drinking.

What Laura wants to do is within the realms of possibility, if each of her Twitter followers step up with $2. Will you join us in this dream, for something so simple as water, something most of us take so much for granted every single day?