Sorry to all your you were were waiting on your toes for the following post! I apologize for annoucing it late!
During the upcoming Christmas season, many of our hearts are filled with joy, celebration, and happiness. But there are many other people here in around the world, and even here in Calgary, that aren’t as blessed as we are.
Often at some point during the day, I am reminded of how truly lucky we are. I have never had to carry water from a well, I simply hold my glass under the tap and turn the faucet. I have never had to dig through garbage to search for food, I am able to afford it at the grocery store. And never have I felt the sickening pain of a hungry stomach and not had some food to quench my “hunger”, which we both know isn’t true hunger, it’s just gluttony.
This Christmas I have decided to make a change. If you watched the video I posted in the previous post, statistics show that Americans spend over 450 BILLION DOLLARS on Christmas every year. I am not against Christmas in any way, shape, or form, but I think that it can be a little ridiculous sometimes. Do I really need that sweater? Or did I really need that remote control car when I was a kid? Or that Sega Game Gear? Yes they were fun toys, and I enjoyed them immensely, but the reality is that in another part of the world, the money used to purchase those gifts could have saved another childs life.
Shall I tell you the sad news before or after the good news? How about before? Statistics also show that the cost of making clean water available to EVERYONE is a meer 10 Billion dollars. I don’t know exactly how precise these numbers are, or how they are measured, but does it really matter? Even if they are off by 100 billion dollars, that number would still be attainable and millions of lives could be saved.
The human body is approximately 55-60% water. Imagine if the only water you had access to was filthy, disgusting, disease ridden water. You need water to stay hydrated, to survive, but you also cannot live with disease. You understand what the problem is here, don’t you?
So I have decided to make a small difference. Many photographers I know are participating in a program called Cans for Comments, where they donate 1 can of food to a local foodbank for every comment their blog receives. I applaud them for doing this, and I would also participate, except I feel that I have been called to do something different this year.
For every comment my blog receives over the next 16 days (until December 25th), I will be donating $3 to a foundation called The Water Project. The Water Project (http://thewaterproject.org/) is a foundation that partners with those who wish to donate in order to provide clean water to those who need it. The comments may be on this post or on any other post, but only genuine comments will be accepted. No spam.
So please, comment away! It doesn’t take much to type a few words or tell a friend about what is happening here. Send a link to your friends, your family, or your co-workers and tell them what’s going on - I want to help and you can help me.
Since I have never been to Africa or any third world country before, I figured I would share a shot of what all water should be like, the water we all experience in North Amercia and that we all take for granted.
Please, let’s stop taking our blessing for granted and start sharing.
Thanks,
Mark
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