Happy World Water Day

From the offices on Varick Street in New York City to the makeshift village on Bowling Green State University's campus, I say thank you to you and to everyone else who's doing something to help advocate and fund-raise on behalf of the world's water crisis. An estimated 4,200 people will die today from water-borne diseases. Just stop for 10 seconds and let that settle. Now think, what can I do in between this years Water Day and next years to make sure that so many people don't die such unnecessary deaths? The number of deaths estimated from 9/11 was 2,752 people. You remember how you felt that day or at least I do as an American, to see death on such a large scale and to think of the heartache of all those who lost a family member that day. The only reason I used that as an example was to show deaths on a large scale on a single day, no comparisons outside of that. All of us have had a family member pass away and you remember the pain you felt on the day that they passed away. Now imagine the 4,200 different families that have to deal with such heartache each day because avoidable and preventable diseases in the water their father, mother, son, daughter, aunt, or uncle drank because they were thirsty, killed them. Dirty water can essentially be labeled the killer while the people who drink it, the victims. Each time these people who are too poor to afford a filter take a sip of their water, they're taking a chance at becoming very sick. Many of the deaths come amongst children because they don't have systems built up against what's in their water yet. Do not me but them a favor and demand safe drinking water and basic sanitation as a basic human right worldwide. The UN wants to reduce the amount of people without the access to the latter in half by 2015. Start playing your part. Today I'd like to also reward my friends who've committed their life to making sure people have access to safe drinking water and latrines who are celebrating today throughout various locations in the world. Anyhow, I've started to do some work here with USAID's MSME Project that offers communities to buy into privatized water systems which has proven very successful, getting over 14,000 families to tap into it so far. Instead of the guerrilla aid tactic offered by so many organizations, it's proven a lot more successful to get families to "pay what they can" to use these resources including latrines and water. It creates jobs, puts money into the pockets of these communities over time and creates the sustainability all organizations are striving for. Although lots of progress is being made in this field, 4,200 today, 4,200 tomorrow and 4,200 every day after that until next Water Day unless we keep acting more and more on this issue.

Fighting Corruption and Supporting Progress

Hello to All,

Sorry for such a long time without a post, I've been incredibly busy with my intern here in PP and also trying to launch Ordinary Celebrities. I have to admit to everyone that I guess I was a bit stubborn and naive with my approach when I first arrived here with where I was going to be funding and building wells. I originally wanted to have wells built in relocation sites like Domnak Troyeng but it's literally impossible for me to do so without A. Having the projects be demolished or B. Getting arrested by armed forces. Living in one of the most corrupt countries in the world, funding anything is hard especially when you're attempting to build in controversial/sensitive areas. It really bothers me to say this but I'm in no position to help these communities, simply put, if they want anything, they're going to need to get it from the UN(supposedly they have 23 agencies here although you never see them at the forefront of anything). The World Bank actually just admitted that their own mistakes have left thousands of families vulnerable for eviction here(woops!). If you want more to learn more about this whole issue or look at media related to it(this is my warning to you that you may feel sick while doing so) "Cambodia For Sale", forced eviction photos, LICADHO 2011 report. Pretty much what I'm trying to say is that I will not be funding wells in relocation sites but instead for communities in very poor rural areas a few hours outside of Phnom Penh. My dreams to build for the people of Dey Krahorm who have had things that they rightfully owned forcefully taken from them like their shelter, running water and electricity have been shattered by the same people who've evicted them. Building at relocation sites would be in a big slap in the face to Hun Sen and companies like 7NG simply because I'm doing the job they should be doing themselves, helping their citizens. Police officers who thrive off corruption here want compensation for anything done at relocation sites(even though they're not doing anything) and I refuse to support corruption. I've been in contact with 2 NGO's who work very rural near Kampot and I will be visiting them next weekend to see what we can work out. To those who've supported me and continue to do so, thank you and I will not let you down. If I can ask for you to do one more thing, it's to spread the word about the illegal forced evictions occurring in Cambodia(and worldwide=China, Brazil, Burma) because I think the reason the government continues to do so with such little regard is because the international public and media have shown little interest that it's a big deal to them. If people put pressure on the governments, they'll think twice about it or maybe even stop doing so. Play a part.

-Christian