Our family has been trying for a while to think of some way that our family can help others. For the last year, God has put the country of Africa on our family's heart. I've never in my 39 years of life thought about any country other than the good old United States. But for some reason our family's heart strings have been pulled towards that Country. There are so many different ways that we could help this Country, but Charity Water is a unique organization, in that they scope out places in Third World Countries where the people do not have access to clean drinking water. In many cases, women and children are responsible for walking sometimes up to 3 hours one way just to get dirty water for their family.

Charity Water can actually tell it better than me:

"Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease, and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Many people in the developing world, usually women and children, walk more than three hours every day to fetch water that is likely to make them sick. Those hours are crucial, preventing many from working or attending school. Additionally, collecting water puts them at greater risk of sexual harassment and assault. Children are especially vulnerable to the consequences of unsafe water.  Of the 42,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and a lack of basic sanitation, 90% are children under 5 years old."

Here's the great thing... 100% of all donations go directly to building a water well in a community. How great is that? They say it takes about $5000 to build a well. So that's our goal! $5,000 can build a freshwater well in a village and provide 250+ people with clean drinking water. We want to build a water well in Africa for people so that they can have clean water and prevent diseases, so that children and parents won't die from these diseases. Here's another great thing... they are gonna give us the GPS of exactly where our water well is that we are going to fund and we will actually be able to see it. It's awesome! Here's one more great thing...we know friends that have a foundation called KALEO (http://www.kaleofoundation.org) that has committed to MATCHING whatever funds we raise! Wow!

So this is what we would love for you to do... please go to charitywater.org and check it out because it is ONE COOL website. Here is our link where you can give a tax deductible donation and 100% of what you give goes straight to building a well. You can also track our progress here!

www.mycharitywater.org/letsbuildawell

We would love it if you gave $1 or $5, but I will tell you that $20 will give one person clean water for 20 years.
Thanks for letting us get the word out. Thanks for helping in a cause that our family is passionate about. And thanks for helping to teach our kids that our little community can rally together to help others even as far as Africa.
Blessings,
Derek, Heather, Brooks, Halle Caroline, and Ellison Cheatham