Every day, 5,000 children under the age of 5 die from water-related illnesses. Let's change that.

Dear Friends and Colleagues New and Old,

Please take 1 minute 23 seconds to empathize with the magnitude of their dreams and compare that to the luxury we have to pursue ours:

https://vimeo.com/53191452

Last year, your generosities raised $989.26 for my 2013 birthday campaign:

http://my.charitywater.org/tom-fang-birthday-campaign-2013

The money has already been sent to Rwanda and have gone to work on the ground. Once the projects are finished, they will prove it with photos and GPS.

100% of this money went directly toward providing 15 people with clean drinking water, for LIFE. Imagine living all your life on this earth and one day receiving a gift like that. A gift for you and all your loved ones so that they may enjoy a healthy life.

It’s amazing that something seemingly so insignificant and so...expected for you and I can have such a monumental effect on another person’s life. One billion of our counterparts are without clean drinking water. They’re suffering. Their children are suffering. And we need to help.

That’s why this year, I am giving up my birthday once again to ask you for a contribution so that we can give this gift, which costs so little to us, to 50 more people. To give them life. To give them dreams.

As I reflect upon my life this past year, I found that I often complained about different things in my life that I wasn't satisfied with. Things never seem quite good enough. It's the ambition and perfectionist in me that I can't get rid of.

But as I sit here, quietly on a Sunday morning, putting things into better perspective, as I often do after droughts of it, I once again realize just how lucky I have it in comparison.

I think we often go on with our busy lives, oblivious to the rest of the world. Our realities of other lives in other parts of the world obfuscated by the tunnel vision of our microcosms. In comparison, many of our “problems” seem laughable.

In building my own business, my entire focus has been striving for improvement every day. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I realized it’s all basically selfish endeavors to better my own life. What have I done to give thanks to this world? Very few things, honestly.

That’s why, once a year, I want to do at least a little something to leave the world a better than I found it. Let’s all strive for that, and remember to cherish the lives that we do have.

My birthday is on May 8th, and I am hoping to exceed the modest goal of $1,000, which would bring another 50 men, women, and children clean drinking water for a lifetime.

It would make me so genuinely happy if you could help me out in contributing a small gift for this cause.

Thank you for reading, and my sincerest gratitude in advance.

Yours,

Tom Fang

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P.S. If you contribute to my campaign, you can count on me contributing to your Charity Water birthday campaign :)

P.P.S Every penny (yes, 100%) of your contribution will go directly to the water projects on the ground.

If you're not familiar with Charity Water, they don't use any of your donations to cover overhead. The operational expenses are from private donors, foundations and sponsors to cover everything from staff salaries to basic office systems to office rent and supplies.