This year’s September Campaign is focused on Rwanda, where we’re
raising money to give clean water to 26,000 people in Rulindo District.
To overcome the worst of humanity after the 1994 genocide, they
had to reimagine justice and redefine Rwanda’s place in the world.
Meet the survivors, leaders, and workers who are building solutions to
the country’s biggest problems and replacing poverty with prosperity.
The death of a leader is always traumatic. When the Prime Minister of Ethiopia passed away earlier this week, his native region of Tigray virtually shut down.
That’s where our Water Program Development Leader, Christy Scazzero, found herself yesterday, surrounded by the surreal scene of public mourning. As part of a three-week site tour, Christy was visiting our partners at REST (Relief Society of Tigray) when Meles Zenawi, 57, died unexpectedly.
So when every last person in the city of Mekelle walked to the towering war memorial to mourn, Christy joined REST’s delegation. She called the experience incredible. And by joining REST’s staff during this emotional time, she got to know our biggest implementing partners just a little better.
Mourners walk to the war memorial in Mekelle, Ethiopia.
We’re turning six. To celebrate, we launched the September Campaign to bring clean water to the people of Rwanda.
From tragedy to triumph, Rwandans have rebuilt their country faster than anyone thought possible. Now, they’re working to give clean water to every single person. You can help.
In one night, EastLake Community Church raised $709,034 for charity: water. At Drinks4Drinks, a benefit concert, Pastor Ryan Meeks jokingly suggested they reversed the first miracle of Jesus by turning wine into water.
The Herding Cats warm up the crowd at Drinks4Drinks.
The EastLake community underwrote the entire event so they could uphold our 100% model and send every penny of the funds raised that night straight to the field. With it, we’ll help our partners, Samaritan’s Purse, teach families in Cambodia to build their own biosand filters (BSFs). We’ll also train communities on health, sanitation, and hygiene and show them how to take care of those filters for years to come.
In 2010, a church we’d never heard of popped up on our radar. They were trying to raise $16,000 to build wells through a campaign called Drinks4Drinks. That year, they went on to raise over $400,000, giving clean water to 12,500 people in Central African Republic. (Check out their water projects.)
In December 2011, EastLake was the biggest sponsor of our annual charity: ball and gave $100,000 to fund our operations. Twenty-eight church members flew to New York to attend the event and rushed the stage during the live auction, promising to match Tyler Perry’s $500,000 pledge to fund water projects in Cambodia.
On August 3, 2012, EastLake hosted their second Drinks4Drinks to raise the $500,000 they pledged in December. Over 2,700 people packed the church hall that had been converted into a concert venue, decorated with LED lights and a four-foot tall disco ball. The parking lot was transformed into a biergarten serving local brews to the jeans and T-shirt-clad crowd, many of whom hadn’t set foot in a church for years.
In between sets by the cover band, The Herding Cats, Pastors Ryan Meeks and Jeremy Johnson hosted a live auction. At the end of the night they had raised enough to provide 54,541 people in Cambodia with access to clean water and exceeded their goal by $209,034!
But this isn’t a one-off event. EastLake has woven charity: water into their ministry and mission. This “church for the rest of us” makes clean water projects a budget line item and gives $5 to charity: water in honor of every first-time visitor. They even have two foosball tables in the children’s ministry area that cost 25 cents per game–all proceeds go to charity: water.
Pastor Ryan, easily moved to tears, urges his church to be “doers of the Word [the Bible] and not hearers only.” EastLake will continue to fundraise as a community though campaigns started on Drinks4Drinks.com through the end of the year.
-Stacie Zellmer, School and Faith Liaison
charity: water
Yesterday, on the one year anniversary of Rachel’s death, our staff took her mom and grandparents to Ethiopia to visit some of the 37,000 people Rachel helped. Watch the video:
Tekloini Assefa stood in the middle of a huge crowd, surrounded by Ethiopian priests, mothers, and children. Rachel Beckwith’s mom, Samantha, Rachel’s grandparents, and others in our group sat listening. We had all flown halfway around the world just two days earlier to visit some of the 149 communities Rachel helped in the north of Ethiopia.
A little over a year ago, Rachel was your average nine-year-old. She loved Taylor Swift and had a secret crush on Justin Bieber, although she’d never admit it. She had a loving family and a heart that wanted to solve every problem she saw in this world. Once, she cut off all her hair and donated it to make wigs for kids who had cancer. So when she sat in church one day and heard Scott Harrison from charity: water give a talk about how kids her age in Africa didn’t have clean water to drink, she immediately decided to help.
With her mom’s encouragement, she created a fundraising page on mycharitywater.org, telling her family and friends that she didn’t want presents for her ninth birthday. Instead, she asked them to donate $9, as she was turning 9. Rachel wanted kids like her to have clean water to drink.
She had a big goal: to raise $300 and give 15 people clean drinking water. She fell a little short, raising $220, and told her mom that she’d try harder next year.
A month later, Rachel died from injuries sustained in a tragic car accident on highway I-90 near Seattle, Washington. A trailer had jack-knifed into a logging truck, sending logs tumbling down the freeway. More than a dozen cars were caught in the pile-up, and the trailer smashed into the back of Rachel’s car. She was the only person in her family critically injured, and on July 23rd, 2011, she was taken off life support.
When the news spread about Rachel’s story and her birthday wish, people all around the world began to donate on her page. Some gave $9, some $19, leaving comments like “This is the rest of my month’s salary…..” A month later, 30,000 people had given more than $1.2 million.
All of us at charity: water were blown away by the generosity. The comments and notes that were left on Rachel’s page caused many tears in the coming months, and Rachel’s story continues to inspire us today.
Last year, we sent 100% of the money from Rachel’s campaign to our partners in Tigray, Ethiopia, and they began to construct water projects for people in need. We made a promise to Rachel’s mom that one day she’d come with us to Ethiopia to meet some of the people Rachel’s wish had helped.
Yesterday, we fulfilled that promise.
On the one-year anniversary of Rachel’s death, we woke up early, at 5:30 A.M. We piled into Land Rovers and began the two-hour drive to Kal Habel village in the north of Ethiopia. We heard the community had planned both a memorial service in Rachel’s honor and a celebration of her life.
We didn’t know it then, but honor would become the theme of our entire day.
First, we visited a church. The priests there knew all about our arrival, and they knew Rachel’s story. They told us they had been up since midnight, praying that God would keep Rachel’s soul in peace. A photo of Rachel stood on the ledge, surrounded by candles. We paused, listening to the priests recite their prayers, singing ancient Ethiopian hymns over Samantha and her parents.
From the church, we walked to a new well nearby that was funded by Rachel’s donations. We cut the ribbon and watched water splash into bright yellow jerry cans. This water didn’t have dirt or leeches in it, and it didn’t carry deadly disease. It wasn’t far away from people’s homes, and they didn’t have to walk for hours to find it. It was right there, in their village, and it was crystal clear. To prove it, Samantha took a long drink.
The children wrote notes about Rachel, and handed them one by one to Samantha. A famous priest read a poem he wrote especially for the occasion, and then the village gave gifts to Rachel’s family. A mother from the village made a speech and said Rachel’s story would be a lesson to their children. She said that all the mothers in her village were praying for Samantha. Another community sectioned off a plot of land and called it Rachel’s Park. They invited Samantha and her grandparents each to plant a tree in Rachel’s memory.
Near the well, our local partners, Relief Society of Tigray (REST), commissioned a marble sign. It read “Rachel’s great dream, kindness and vision of a better world will live with and among us forever.” Her photo was nested in the marble, a permanent fixture in Kal Habel village. It will serve as a reminder to all the mothers who draw water from this well that a mother’s tragic loss and a child’s dream brought clean water to their village.
37,000 people in more than 100 villages will drink clean water because of Rachel’s wish.
-Viktoria Harrison, Creative Director
charity: water
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