[Update: We've already raised $500 so far (counting matching program) . We have $700 more to go. Please don't feel obligated to give a large amount. Even $5 helps. Thanks again!]

This fall, I'm looking to get a new set of wheels. They're not for me, though -- they're for bringing life's most basic need to people currently living without it.

I want to help fund a drilling rig to bring clean water to people in northern Ethiopia.

Almost a billion people on the planet live without safe water to drink. The solution is sometimes right under their feet, in freshwater aquifers deep underground. But you can't get to it by digging with shovels. You need a powerful drilling rig to reach hundreds of feet into the earth.

That's where we come in.

charity: water is turning five this September. To date, they've helped bring clean drinking water to more than 2 million people -- but now, they're stepping it up. They have three rigs operating at full capacity in Northern Ethiopia, but aren't going fast enough. To really have impact on the water crisis, charity: water needs to start funding the equipment necessary to get more work done on the ground.

Join me, and together we can help fund an FS 250 drilling rig and equipment for charity: water's partners in northern Ethiopia. 100% of what we raise will go toward this new rig, which can drill 80 wells each year. That means we can help 40,000 more people each year get access to clean water!

There's a bonus -- charity: water is going to mount a GPS device to the drilling rig we help fund, so we'll be able to follow it from village to village once the work gets under way!

The drilling team in Ethiopia is ready and villages without clean water are waiting. Please join me in making clean water a reality for those in need.