OK guys, so here is the deal: My birthday is this may 22nd. I'm turning 21. For these last three years I've been trying to do something with my birthday other than family giving me gifts. Don't get me wrong, I love presents, and there's nothing wrong with doing a birthday the traditional way. But here's the thing: I refuse to let an opportunity like this go away without trying my best to help those in need.

Maybe you've already watched that little video over there, but this is the bottom line: People all over can't get clean water. They have no sinks to turn on, and they especially have no bottled water just sitting around. What they have to do is hike for miles, go to a dirty pond, and fill up their 5 gallon jerrycans of water, and then hike all the way back.

Oh, and this isn't the men who are doing this, I'm talking about women and children having to do this.

Oh, and when I say "dirty water" this is what I mean: The water is filled with mud, bacteria, and even insect larva. The best way they can filter it? Run the water though a rag. And that insect larva? It hatches inside the people. Latrines are literally filled with parasitic worms that live inside these people.

Because children have to spend so much time gathering water, and because everyone is always sick all the time from the water they spend so long to gather, there is no way they can go to school. They have no education, not because it isn't available, it's because nobody can afford the time to do it.

So that's the problem. The solution? This charity. Well it's one solution anyways, but it's the solution I'm supporting. Here's some basic math for you: The amount of money it takes to give one person water for twenty years? $20. The amount of money it takes to buy somebody a video game? $50.

That's why I'm asking my family to take the money they would have spent on my birthday presents and put it towards this. And this extends to all my friends as well. Maybe you can't afford $21. That's no problem, really. If you want to give, even if it's only $1 that's perfectly fine. I just want to make a difference. And I need you guys in order to do that.

The fact is, giving someone water, and therefore a better life, is so much better than any sort of physical birthday gift I could ever be given.