21,099 Days of Drinking Water

Thanks to everyone that cared enough to help my friend Erin in the Change Agent Give Health Blogivation contest. When we started rallying the last 2 or 3 days of the contest she was sitting at around 500 votes and in the last couple days she got nearly 1000 more votes ending with 1483 votes. She was 15 votes behind the 3rd place blogger. All was not lost though as all the votes from all the bloggers helped get 21,099 days of drinking water to those in developing countries provided by P & G Give Health. You can check out the contest site HERE. Thanks again friends.

Water: We Take it for Granted

It’s amazing how much we take water for granted here in the United States. I have 3 toilets in my house. 3 Showers. 4 sinks. 1 Dish Washer. 1 Washing Machine. And at least 2 outdoor water spickets. I work at a campus with 100s of bathrooms, water fountains for drinking water, and a sprinkler system.

So it’s hard to believe that there are “884 million people that lack access to safe water supplies; approximately one in eight people.” and “3.575 million people die each year from water-related disease.” People are dying from water and the lack of a place to take care of human waste properly. All while we can simply turn a faucet in our home to get a glass of water and turn to the fridge to drop in some fresh ice cubes. “An American taking a five-minute shower uses more water than a typical person in a developing country slum uses in a whole day.”

Quotes taken from here: Water.org

Now why am I talking about this? Well, I’ve got a friend that has been involved with these water issues for a few years now. She’s traveled to many of these areas with poor water quality to bring them filters and teach them about proper sanitation. You can check her blog out here! Erin Swanson I’m writing in particular to plug a contest she is currently entered. The winner of the contest will get $15,000 donated to their charity of choice. Erin’s would be Water.org. You can read some of her blog and check out Water.org’s mission statement etc. to see more about what they do. The cool thing about this contest is that every vote for her blog P&G (The sponsors of this contest) will be donating a days worth of drinking water (2L) to someone in a developing country. So even if she doesn’t win your vote is still helping!

To vote just visit her site. HERE! At the top of this blog post you’ll see a little widget that says, “VOTE FOR THIS BLOGGER” Just enter your email address and click that button. You’ll receive an email and all you have to do is confirm your vote and you’re done. You can do this once a day and the contest ends on the 27th.

She’s currently in 4th place and needs something like 2,000 votes to surpass the leader…who will also continue to be getting votes. So if you like what you see spread the word and lets help her win this thing. If not we helped get some drinking water to a few hundred people. She’s currently got 595 votes!

Again here are the links.
Erin’s Blog
Water.org
Water Facts

*Pictures taken by Erin Swanson in her travels to Bangladesh