Shutterstock Wells in Ethiopia

In 2010, Shutterstock teamed up with charity: water to fund six water projects to benefit villages in the Amhara region of Ethiopia. Shutterstock is committed to working with charity: water to help provide access for men, women and children to one of life’s basic needs: clean, safe water.

charity: water is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. 100% of public donations directly fund water projects.
Video by Shutterstock

SHUTTERSTOCK + charity: water


The Shutterstock community is renowned for its creativity – from our subscribers, who use our imagery and footage to convey messages and tell stories, to our base of talented submitters who created the work you see above – we represent individuals worldwide who bring ideas to life.

The creative spirit lies at the heart of our partnership with charity: water. Since January 2010, Shutterstock has made a lasting difference in the lives of hundreds of people in the Amhara region of Northern Ethiopia by providing the life-changing gift of clean, safe drinking water through a series of funded water projects.

These water projects can help the lives of men such as Muche Alemu, who no longer have to experience the pain of watching family members, including his own daughter, die from waterborne diseases, which claim the lives of 4,500 children on average worldwide each day. Before Shutterstock’s well came to Alemu’s village of Casie Chibechiba, he and his family had to walk for hours to a stagnant, murky pond to collect drinking water.

“Water was always our biggest fear because it made our village sick, and there was nothing we could do,” said Alemu. “But now, I do not worry anymore. We have no more sickness from water, no more children dying because they cannot find clean water to drink.” Alemu’s story is the result of Shutterstock’s partnership with charity: water, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries. To date, Shutterstock’s wells have helped approximately 1,500 people like Alemu in villages throughout Ethiopia.
The water crisis.
663 million people on our planet lack access to safe, clean drinking water. That's 1 in 10 of us. 80% of all disease is attributable to the lack of water and basic sanitation. Unsafe water claims more lives each year than war. Learn more >
How you can help.
You can help by funding clean water projects in Ethiopia and other countries across Africa and Asia. A water project can bring clean and safe drinking water to a community of 200 people. School water projects can change the lives of over 500 students. Sponsor a project >
Proving it on Google Earth.
charity: water proves every well built using photos, video, and GPS coordinates plotted on Google Earth. charity: water staff visit projects on the ground, monitoring the work being done with your money. See the wells on Google Earth >