Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from everyone at WWTFG. Today is also a day for reflection for all of those who just ask for safe water each year. Our goal by next Christmas is to provide safe water to at least 500 people. Our campaign will be on the ground finally in 3 weeks! The shirts made by Gosa for Good are completed, so if you would like to help support us(100% of the proceeds go to WWTFG) you can contact me and I'll deliver it to you or you can order a shirt over the online store.

Peace to all and enjoy your holiday season,
Christian

1 Month Anniversary

We are all pleased to announce the 1 month anniversary of WWTFG. It has been a success so far, raising over $1,5000 and informing thousands of the crisis and the campaign. Over this past month we have released the WWTFG x Gosa Campaign which is on track to sell hundreds of shirts, we informed 1,567 people in 1 day of the crisis and my campaign on Facebook and what I love most, we got a lot of people out of their comfort zone to make a difference. I have been told by multiple 50 year old people that their mid life crisis is seeing what I'm doing and using it as an inspiration to make a positive impact. I have also been told by 10 year old kids that I'm their inspiration to become something better and because of me they want to help others. I have been very busy, in the process of launching Ordinary Celebrities, working on finals, Behind my Brown Eyes and getting ready to take WWTFG worldwide. Thank you everyone who has taken the initiative to really get involved in this past month!

Peace to All,
Christian

Campaign Photos

Progress

I'd like to thank everyone who participated in Water Wednesday last week, it was a great success as I was able to triple my goal of educating and informing 500 people of the crisis as well as my campaign to help it too. This campaign was able to reach 11 different countries in just 1 day! My first professional interview was published today, special thanks to Cedric Hodgeman of UBELONG. The online store is officially up so if you live outside of South Jersey and want to benefit WaterWeTakingForGranted, you can now order a t-shirt! I've been shortlisted for TEDxPhnom Penh so we'll see if I'm one of the people selected to speak at 1 of Cambodia's biggest conferences. The fund raising has been going pretty well but I know we can do A LOT better. Every dollar counts and is much appreciated by not only me but by the peoples whose lives you will be saving. This year, I'll be running a birthday campaign where people can donate 19 dollars to my initiative for my 19th birthday, which I'll be in Phnom Penh for.


Here are some campaigns WaterWeTakingForGranted loves.








Peace to All,
Christian

Water Wednesday Facts

Find a fact, make it your status/tweet, get friends to do the same!

-Water kills more children then anything else in the world.
-More than one billion people do not have access to safe water.
-About 1.8 million children die every year due to diarrheal diseases.
-Water kills more people then HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and TB COMBINED!
-Providing safe, clean, drinkable water can reduce deadly diarrhea and other devastating diseases by about 50%.
-Over 10% of Cambodian children die before their 1st birthday due to waterborne diseases.
-An African or Asian women in a developing country walks on average 3.2 miles to fetch "water".
-8% of rural Cambodia has access to basic sanitation.
-More than 1.2 billion people gained access to improved drinking water between 1990 and 2004 through NGO efforts like mine.!
-A child dies every 20 seconds due to a waterborne disease.
-The UN wants to cut the number of people who lack access to safe drinking water in half by 2015.
-Someone had the idea of getting people to donate 25 dollars for his 25th birthday, it got such a great response that he committed his life to the fight and has raised over 5 million dollars giving safe drinking water to over 258,000 people to date.
-I can tell if you read the whole thing right now because you would be informed I have a really mean cat.


Thank you to all who participate today!

Water You Doing To Make A Difference? Get Involved!!!

Weeks of tireless nights but it looks like some of the hard work is starting to pay off just a little bit! I recently teamed up with Gosa to create a t-shirt for my 1st fund-raising campaign. The shirt and more info on how to purchase one can be seen here. Special thanks to Sean Connors who put a lot of work into the campaign and continues to work very hard with WWTFG. I was recently interviewed by UBELONG and was recognized by NetImpact, so it seems like this mission is getting decent feedback. I'm working hard with Lisa Ballantine to create a Filter Pure Factory in Cambodia. Succeeding in this will not only guarantee some of the most excellent and cost efficient ceramic filters for citizens of Phnom Penh but it will keep women busy and employed. I aim to find a group of 8-10 women who are not only hard workers but who are vocal leaders in their communities so they can tell people about how effective the product is and about how using filters can save their lives.(some people living there don't recognize this) These filters are only $20 and last for at least 5 years and make 99.9% of water safe to drink after a half hour. I've been working on local campaigns to get people informed and involved and this Wednesday, I'll be launching a campaign to see how many people can become informed of my mission and the crisis in 1 day through networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. I urge ALL to repost and get your friends to repost. Lets make it known on these sites for 1 day that we all care about making a difference! If you don't have a lot of time to help out, a simple view of my website and repost takes all of 5 seconds. So on Water Wednesday, December 9th, I urge you to raise your voice on Facebook and Twitter and be vocal that you think Safe Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation is a Human Right that all should receive!!!
Thank You,
Christian

How I Plan To Use Water To Reach Some Of The UN MDG's

For those who are unfamiliar with the UN MDG's, they're the Millennium Development Goals that were developed by the UN and their partners. They broke 8 categories down that they outlined and plan to change by 2015. For more info: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

Goal 4 is to reduce the Child Mortality Rate and it specifically says reducing the Under 25 mortality rate by 2/3. Through my project, I can help out some of the 16,000 kids that die a day due to hunger related causes and the 5,000 who die a day due to water-borne illnesses.(That's 1 every 5 seconds to hunger and 1 every 20 seconds to unsafe water) Using safe drinking water can not only eliminate the water borne illnesses like dirrahea that kills an unnecessary 1.8 million a year but it can help make food to eliminate the deaths caused by hunger. Using hand soap and water will cut the deaths to diarrhea by over 40%. They also want to cut the number in 1/2 of people who lack access to safe drinking water by 2015 and I'll be doing everything I can to make sure that I fulfill at least that part of the MDG's. Water can be used to tackle a lot of these MDG's if you take a step back and look at it from a simpler approach. If these people are drinking clean water and using clean water to farm and cook the food they eat, it will attribute to cutting the number in 1/2 of people who live under $1 a day. If they're healthy, they'll be more productive and jobs as focused on in Target 1B can be accessible to women who want to make safe drinking water products like ceramic filters. Not only will they produce them but they will be community leaders in telling people how effective they are and how they can be used to save lives. This model employs, educates and save lives!!! The people in these developing countries need to know how to build the products that can save their lives so they don't need to be so dependent on Foreign Aid. This applies to everything, people who want to help in these countries need to tell people who live there how things can be fixed so when volunteers leave, a citizen of that country carries what you told them so life goes on without the constant aid. (Schooling, Technology, Farming, etc.) This model also tackles another 2 goals in Universal Education and Global Partnership because we're teaming up with the people who know the country best, with the issues we know most, giving them the answers to the problems that affect them. People in these countries don't know the issues that affect them! When I was in Masiphumelele, a white man came into a clinic and when he found out he had HIV his reply was, "I thought only coloreds could get that!" All in all, many of the MDG's begin and end with safe drinking water and that's why I'll be able to make a difference on a lot of the different goals at once.

Peace to All,
Christian

A Recent Update

I've been working hard to get young people involved, specifically with what they love to do to help my cause out. I'm giving just about every kid a chance to help me out in someway or another. Water We Taking for Granted has teamed up with local clothing designer, Gosa to create our 1st shirt. All the money made from these shirts will benefit my projects and I'll be adding a Facebook group for all those interested in buying them by the end of this weekend. I've been collaborating with local artists who plan to create art that they'll sell to benefit my campaign while also doing local art activism(WWTFG does not in any way support this). I've mapped out a trail for a simulator-esque walk that will show you just how far women and children walk in developing countries to get potentially unsafe water. We will walk 1.6 miles out to a lake full of mucky water and 1.6 miles back with a container of contaminated water just like most African and Asian women do. I would like most participants to donate money or find someone to sponsor them like most "Walk/Marathons" do and I'll be posting the date for it very soon. Decemeber 8th will be our Water Wednesday on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter where we try to spread the word not only about my organization but for the crisis on water in general as well. I've been extremely busy applying for grants and funding to expand this project so hopefully some of that works out so this "movementization" can grow. Today, I used a purification method to create my 1st liter of safe drinking water which I'll upload pictures from soon. If you're even somewhat interested in getting involved send me a message and I'll see how I can use your talents.

As Usual,
Christian

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is a great day to be grateful for those who mean the most to you and to be thankful for everything that we're fortunate to have. Tonight at 8PM on CNN, 10 people just like you and me will be showcased for what they're doing to change the world. Here's a video of my mentor, Mr. Doc Hendley who was on the show last year speaking on safe drinking water and other topics. Water you doing to make a difference in this world?

What Your Money Can Do

I'm not one to ask or beg but the only way this issue is going to be solved is with money. I'm making absolutely no money off of anything donated and I'll upload how your money is being put to use frequently. Here are a few idea's of how your money can make a serious and lasting impact.

-$1 provides safe drinking water to a child for 40 days.
-$7 treats over 350 liters of water.
-$10 provides a filter for a whole family.
-$15 provides a purifying instrument.
-$69 provides over 10,000 purification tablets which would make 50,000 liters of clean water.
-$75 can provide a frequent source of water of 4,300 liters in an area like Phnom Penh where it rains a lot but using purified rain water.
-$100 makes a a small community system pump mainly used for irrigating crops.
-$250 creates a pump system for a community.
-$500 installs a water pump which eliminates long walks for women and children to fetch water and provides a safe and constant supply.














The donate tab is next to the section next to help me if you want to use a credit card. If you're in South Jersey you can meet up with me or I'll come to your house to get the money.

Thank You Everyone,
Christian

My Travels Abroad

I spent a decent amount of time volunteering in the townships outside of Cape Town specifically, Masiphumelele's Ukhanyo Primary School and came to notice that there was only 1 little old and rusty pipe to provide the water for the whole school. Since then, I've become an advocate even more than ever for access to safe water worldwide and am going to take this platform next semester to Phnom Penh, Cambodia on a full blown campaign. Decades of conflict have seriously damaged Phnom Penh's water supply infrastructure and today only about 35% of the people get its water from improvised drinking water sources. The numbers are gruesome and the statistics are horrific but people must realize the impact water has. Over 10% of kids die before their 1st Birthday due to water borne illnesses in Cambodia,rural sanitation is at under 8% so people dispose of their waste anywhere which is quickly ruining the water they need to depend on. With that being said, I intend to develop outlines for teachers to use for a 2 to 3 day seminar in school to teach kids about water and in after school hours teach those in the villages the same. By using hand-soap in schools and in public we can decrease dirrheal diseases by over 40%. At the seminars, jobs can be offered for those willing to dig new wells that can be used for safe and un-contaminated water. With the right funding, we can build a well and have test kits to make sure the water is clean and for those who really need immediate water in the most desperate areas, we can hand out purification tablets which makes contaminated water, safe in less than a 1/2 hour. If we can develop more wells, we can save local women a lot of time who usually walk 6 kilometers to fetch water a day. After we see improvements, we can talk to the farmers about improving their systems and how much water they can use a day. I'll be working on this project 8 hours a day, 6 days a week for 4 months so the work is very serious for a very serious topic. After I return home from Phnom Penh, I'll be home for about a month before I head off to 1 of Cambodia's neighbor's, Vang, Vieng, Laos for 2 months doing similar work and creating UBelong's very first after school sports program!




Left: Lone pipe in SA for school, Middle: School "Toilet", Right: Khmer child pumping water

What the Future of this Blog will Bring

Before I start off my 1st post, I'd like to thank my mentor, Mr. Cedric Hodgeman, for the knowledge and opportunities he's given me. Also special thanks to Lynsey Allen, Theo Molestone, Dr. Raul Roman and everyone else who's helped me out along the way. All the statistics on this site are from reliable sources such as the UN, UNICEF, WHO, drinkingwater.org. If you question a statistic, I'll send you a link.

This blog will give you the opportunity to...
-Follow me as I embark abroad to provide people with un-contaminated water and the knowledge behind the topic.
-See where your donations actually go and how they're being used.
-Stay up to date with progress worldwide on this issue.
-Get involved both domestically and internationally to help this cause.
-Become knowledgeable on 1 of the most important Human Rights issues affecting us today.

As usual,
Christian