Last Monday, around 8pm I walked into a small coffee shop in Oklahoma City. Most nights “The Bean and Leaf” is a sleepy restaurant tucked between a liquor store and a closed down burger joint, but that night it was positively humming with activity.

The place was packed from wall to wall for Classen High School’s “Wish Week” Open Mic Night. “Wish Week” is five beautiful days where the students of Classen come together and put on a variety of amazing events and crazy fundraisers to raise money for clean water.

Throughout the night there were songs, poems, and some really impressive art work all created by the students at Classen. To be honest, not all of it was “American Idol” perfect. It didn’t have to be. There were plenty of wrong notes, miffed lyrics, and shaky hands delivering poems in public that were written in private. But the night was so much bigger than that, the things that brought us together more grand. Out of tune guitars were soon fixed and there was never an awkward silence that didn’t receive a reassuring laugh and cheer from the crowd.

Last Monday, for about 3 hours, we were a family. What mattered was a cause that brought us together. Every piece of art, every stanza, every song (good and bad) was our way of dreaming up a new world together. A world where every one has access to something as simple, beautiful, and powerful as clean water. Our open mic night had become the overture for a symphony about to play out across the world.

Students of Classen SAS Wish Week Fundraising Crew

By this Friday, the students of this small inner city high school are going to have raised their goal of $10,000. I won’t be surprised if they beat it. Their power comes from a community who are beginning to realize their creative potential to do good in the world around them.

My hope is that you would join us in doing the same.

To support the students of Classen SAS Wish Week donate here » 

You can start your own Wish Week or other campaign too…

Learn about Wishing Well

–
Ryan Groves
Wishing Well

Rylie’s Girl Scout troop worked together to learn about the water crisis and contribute to a well project.

Have you ever felt like you can’t possibly make a difference? Oftentimes we feel powerless to make any lasting impact in the world we live in, but 4th grader Rylie refused to believe that.  She educated others and brought people together with the common goal of raising money to build a well.  Rylie proves that together we can do great things and shows that the power of determination can be stronger than any perceived obstacle.

Rylie first became involved with the Water Project in 2011 while her Brownie troop was working on a badge.  The girls learned about the scarcity of clean water in much of the world, and they contributed funds from their cookies sales to the project.  Their contribution in and of itself is wonderful, but what is most impressive is the knowledge that Rylie carried forward from that experience.

Last year her 4th grade class studied the global impact of clean water, and the children were overwhelmed by the problem.  They wanted to do something to help, but they felt there was no way they could make an impact.  That is, until Rylie stepped forward and told her story.

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Alex and Murray are cycling from Johannesburg to northern Lake Victoria.

In February of this year, Alex Antrobus and Murray Beaumont, two young South Africans, began cycling 10,000km through sub-Saharan Africa to experience what life in rural Africa – and the struggle for fresh water – are really like.  One of their goals is to help raise over $15,000 to support a water project!  Another was to visit some of our work…

“On the journey we will visit some of the communities that have been reached by development NGOs like The Water Project, who provide funding and management to build wells, boreholes and other water providing infrastructure. We will also be visiting some of the communities that have yet to be reached and seeing how desperate they are for life giving water.”

Above: Alex and Murray charted their bike course and then over-laid our GPS-mapped water points to plan a couple stops along their route.

Children wash hands at a TWP Project site.

Just this past week they arrived at one our of favorite new partners in Kenya – IcFEM.  We are so pleased to hear first hand accounts from water projects we recently funded.  It’s obvious how they are helping in the communities IcFEM serves.  The Amazi Awethu team noted…

“In several communities people living near to the schools [where projects have been installed] have been able to open small businesses thanks to the pumps – like vegetable gardens and brick manufacturers… As an organisation, IcFEM seems to be making real progress in empowering the Kimilili community to help itself. “

The Water Project began work with IcFEM late last year by providing funds to not only build wells, but also to hire and train staff in water and sanitation (WaSH).  We are greatly expanding our work with IcFEM in 2012-13 with 42 water projects planned alongside over 100 hygiene interventions at local schools.  It looks to be quite exciting and your donations make it possible.

You don’t want to miss the rest of what Alex and Murray found when they stopped by.

Click here to continue reading on their blog »

Libby and her Mom Meg have something in common.  They love to bake.  In fact, they even have their own web site where folks in the Hamilton, Ohio area can order freshly baked muffins and cupcakes to be delivered to your door. Check them out here:http://flourpowertreats.weebly.com/index.html

But what makes Libby so cool is that she has used her love for baking as a way to raise money to bring clean water to a community in Africa.  Muffin Mondays she calls them.

Every Monday since early October Libby has delivered freshly baked muffins to the Teacher’s Room at her school in Harrison.  Flavors vary each week and have included Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, Granola, Blueberry, and Cinnamon Apple Crumble.  Wrapped in clear plastic wrap so the tantalizing goodness can be seen, each muffin is labeled with this equally clear message … these muffins don’t only taste good, they DO good.

They taste good, and do good!

Each muffin is only $1, but that $1 is a gateway to clean water.  Libby’s loyal teachers and fans have been doing their part by ordering their muffins each week, and Libby and her family are gaining momentum toward their goal to fund a well.

What about the rest of Libby’s family?  Well, Dad holds the invaluable (and lucky) role of being an official taste tester; and sister Maggie is helping out in the kitchen measuring out yummy ingredients.  The inspiration of all this family fun?  Libby’s Grandmother, who has seen first-hand the need for clean water during mission trips to Africa.  Her stories shared with Mother Meg and Granddaughter Libby stirred up the passion for clean water that led the Graham family to bake treats that will turn into taps (or more likely pumps) of clean water.

So my only question?  If Monday’s are for muffins, what about Tuesday and the rest of the week?!

To track Libby’s progress, see the family fundraising page here: http://thewaterproject.org/community/profile/meg-graham

“Every day we make something, we learn something, and we try to love people.”

That’s the goal, every day, for the Lowe family from Abilene, Texas.

We met Matt, Amy and their two children, Liam and Mary when they called recently about starting a fundraising page so that Liam, pictured here with Dad, could love people by helping build wells in Africa.

As we read through Liam’s page, we met a remarkable young man who has spent many months over the last year battling leukemia in a Texas hospital.  Things had been going well.  Liam had even recently been home for a month in Abilene, in remission.

But Liam soon spiked a fever that just wouldn’t go away.  While checking up on the fever and a few other symptoms in the emergency room, they discovered his cancer was back.

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Faith in Action Overflows to Four Communities

Students at Southwest Chicago Christian School in Tinley Park, Illinois have been learning about the lack of clean water available to people throughout the world.   As Principal Terry Huizenga wrote, “After hearing that one out of every six people in the world do not have access to clean water and that often women and young children walk more than five miles a day in order to obtain water, students decided to take action.”

In the spirit of the school’s vision statement, “A Christ-Centered Learning Community Intent on Restoring God’s World,” the students raised $26,000.   Students ranging from kindergarten to eighth grade participated in a walkathon in the fall of the 2010-2011 school year, with the purpose of raising awareness and funds for people in developing nations who lack safe drinking water.  The result?  Four communities will have clean water … three in Kenya, and one in Rwanda.  Now that’s faith in action.

But the students didn’t stop at fundraising; they also took time to care about the communities on a greater level.  “As Southwest Christian partnered with the Water Project for this important work, they have also been praying that the communities who receive the wells will come to know the love of Christ through their gift of clean water. “, says Principal Huizenga.

Check out the well projects in Kenya and Rwanda that are possible because of students taking action and making a difference:

See their Projects Here

You can host a walkathon in your community too.  Contact us for a guide of helpful tips to planning this type of event.

Strangest fundraiser ever?

We may never know… but Kevin Cline and friends sure got our attention with this one.  You simply have to watch!

You may be wondering…

Was this a waste of water? Maybe.   But, here’s a stunner.  A 10 hour shower only uses about 1,500 gallons of water.  That’s less than is needed to produce one hamburger!*

So, we think it was worth it.  Kevin raised over $1,000 in just 10 hours.  You can see how the 1,500 gallons was put to good use here >>

*Source: http://ga2.er.usgs.gov/edu/edu-activity-watercontent.cfm

What do you think … is four-years-old too young to make a difference for someone living without reliable access to clean water?  If you think so, then we’d have to say … think again!

Silver, who lives in Utah, is making a difference – one ‘facebadge’ at a time.  His Dad, Justin, tells us that Silver “…saw a PSA about kids drinking water from mud puddles. He got really mad …”

When something makes you mad, it’s often a sign that there is something wrong, something that needs to change.  Silver sure understands that principle, because he took his ‘mad’ and turned it into action.  Now, Silver and Justin (also known as Papa Silver) have a Facebook page where they sell Silver’s mini works of art to help others.

What is a ‘face badge’?  We didn’t know either…  So we checked it out (and you should too).  Silver draws happy faces, sad faces, scary faces, angry faces; and with the help of his Dad makes them into laminated pins that you can wear as a badge with the emotion of your choice.  You can order one yourself!  We sure did…

And the next time you feel discouraged that you can’t do anything about the problems we face as a global community, look over at that facebadge you got from Silver and be reminded,  no one is too young (or too old) to make a difference.  And no effort is too small to count.

Here is Silver and Papa Silver’s Facebook page… check it out!

http://www.facebook.com/facebadge