I recently watched a documentary on water which told the story of more than one billion people being without clean safe drinking water. It showed people walking long distances just to retrieve brown water from a hole. It showed children having no choice but to drink water from a stream into which sewage is dumped. It showed how so many children—thousands every day!—die because the only water they had to drink was contaminated.

Then it struck me: I can take just a few steps across my apartment, turn on the tap and drink clean safe water all day long, and I give it no real thought; clean water for most Americans is just a given. Why shouldn't every human being on Earth have the same thing? Why should children suffer and die from drinking dirty water when clean water is just beneath their feet? Water resources and education for first-world citizens is a given, but not so for those in third-world countries. They need our help, and it is our responsibility to fellow human beings to give it. After reading more about this issue I've learned how the lack of clean water prevents children from going to school, and prevents adults from working, and thus keeping so many people trapped in a cycle of gut wrenching poverty and suffering. By simply giving them clean water, their lives can be improved dramatically by enabling them to stay healthy through school and work. So I've been in contact with the folks at The Water Project and they feel the same way. By donating to The Water Project, I know that my money will be used to dig wells so that families across Africa and South America can drink and bathe in clean water.