Last month our water bill was $116.
$116 to provide our family of five clean water for showers, to wash clothes, wash dishes, flush potties, wash hands, drink or any other water related activities.
When I want a drink, I walk to the fridge where I fill my glass with ice and filtered water. If I want to wash my hands, I walk to one of our many sinks, and with a twist of a knob, I have cool, fresh water.
It’s just that simple.
But it’s not so simple for many people in the world.
In Africa, there are 320 million people who don’t have access to clean water.
Once you start throwing around numbers that big, it’s hard to grasp the enormity. So, imagine the population of New York state (19.57 million), California (38.04 million), Texas (26.06 million) and Florida (19.32 million). When you add them all together you get 102.99 million people. Now multiply it by 3, then throw in another 12 million, and we’re about there.
Three New Yorks, three Californias, three Texases, and three Floridas. Can your mind comprehend that? Mine can’t.
What can we do about that – you might ask?
Thanks for asking. I’m going to tell you.
I submitted a story to a group called CausePub. They publish books and use the proceeds of the sales to help a particular cause. In this case they partnered with Blood: Water Mission to help bring clean water to Africa.
There was a voting and selection process, but long story short, my story was accepted. It’s the story about visiting the prison for the first time – “Grace Greater Than Our Sin.” It will be published in the book along with many other inspiring stories about getting off the couch and making a difference.
The name of the book is Couch Rebels: Because Stories Like These Aren’t Told by Potatoes. The book costs $10.
And if you purchase a copy, you will personally provide water (via Blood: Water Mission) to three people in Africa for one whole year.
$10 for a year’s worth of water. Sure beats my $116 for a month!
The book is only available in an e-book. But don’t worry, if you don’t own a Kindle, you can download a free app for your iPhone or iPad. Click HERE for the app. I promise this will be $10 well spent.
Click HERE to buy the book. You’ll just submit your email saying you want to buy the book. The book will release on August 14, and if we all go and buy it that day, it will get on Amazon’s best seller list, so more people will have interest and help bring clean water to Africa.
Here are some more stats from CausePub’s site:
Without clean water…
-Many individuals spend 20 hours per week hauling water
-Water-related diseases take the lives of 2,000 children daily
-Communities are stuck in poverty
and poverty spreads HIV/AIDS and other diseases quickly
So, what do you say? Will you help?
*image credits: hands, book cover
