Charity: Water & Spreading Ideas

May 8, 2009 – 9:12 am

Recently I linked to The Girl Effect video. Today I want to share a video produced by Charity: Water. Charity: Water was founded by Scott Harrison who was on the Bringing Philanthropy Online panel with me at the Council on Foundations conference. Scott was a photo journalist before founding Charity: Water and his background becomes obvious as you notice how effectively his nonprofit uses photos and videos to spread the idea that clean water is a high priority need for the developing world.

Here’s the video:

 

Charity: Water isn’t just showing photos that pull on your heartstrings. They are using storytelling to convey the very real underlying statistics that prove their argument. And then they are giving you an immediate way to take tangible steps towards fixing the problem.

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2 Comments

  1. Shelley Maddex says:
    May 9, 2009 at 8:04 am

    Thank you for bringing a critical issue to the attention of your readers. While a worthy cause it makes a harmful assumption-that all Americans have access to clean water (see the org’s mission stmt).

    In fact thousands right now and everyday in the US don’t have the luxury of clean drinking water. Look at the everyday existance of the people of Appalachia who have the privledge of drinking water contaminated with coal slurry injection. Coal Slurry produced by the industry that provides the fuel that powers our homes, our appliances, our offices.

    Here are two poignant examples of their daily struggle:

    One Legislator tries to bring awareness to the WV House floor:

    http://www.wvpubcast.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=8603

    The Prenter WV Penny trick: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aLaH9bxzNU

    From the charity:water website

    “Most of us have never really been thirsty. We’ve never had to leave our houses and walk 5 miles to fetch water. We simply turn on the tap, and water comes out. Clean. Yet more than 1.1 billion people on the planet don’t have clean water.”

    Yes, but there are thousands upon thousands that suffer the same miscarriage of justice right in our own backyard. Let’s not forget our fellow Americans either.

  2. Sean Stannard-Stockton says:
    May 11, 2009 at 7:27 am

    Thanks for pointing this out Shelley. Good points.