October 29th is my birthday, and I'm turning 29 (YIKES!). And this year, I'm sharing my birthday with charity: water to help bring clean drinking water to people in sub-Saharan Africa.

I spent 2 months volunteering in a rural village in Tanzania several years ago and witnessed firsthand the human/social effects of not having potable water. This cause is near and dear to me, and I hope you can help!

charity: water is also celebrating their fifth birthday, and has already helped 2 million people get access to safe water. But this year, they want to accelerate their impact by purchasing a new drilling rig and the equipment it takes to dig even more wells for villages in need.

So to help, I'm giving up my birthday gifts and asking for $29 (or more if you believe in the cause) from everyone I know. 100% of the money will fund the equipment to drill wells for people in northern Ethiopia.

That's not all -- charity: water will mount a GPS device to the drilling rig we fund -- so we'll be able to follow it from village to village once the work gets under way! Each drilling rig can help bring clean water to 80 new villages each year, and help 40,000 people get clean water.

I had the pleasure of meeting the founder in San Francisco last spring, and his story could be like any of ours - he had a great job in NYC and realized he wanted to do more. We have clean drinking water, so should everyone! I would love if you could help.

~S