Charity Water

Nicolette Turza 10/9/13 On October 9th I attended the colloquium “Charity Water,” by Cubby Graham. In this colloquium, Graham talked about 800 million people who didn’t have access to clean, safe drinking water. Diseases such as e. Coli, Salmonella typhi, and schistosoma were found in the water that they were drinking from. They shared the same water with the animals as well. People were also battling with leaches stuck in their throat from drinking the water. Graham talked about this one little girl from India that kept vomiting the water she was drinking. Graham wanted to know what exactly was making her vomit every time she drank the water. Graham and his crew brought back her bottled water into their lab and looked at the water under the microscope and found that there were live organisms living in the water. Not only Graham but also a lot of people knew they had to do something about this. There were many solutions such as hand-dug wells, rain catchments, pond filters, drilled wells, spring protections, and BioSand filters to help filter clean water. Many countries agreed to get help from them but many refused because of costs and environmental factors. It all started with a birthday on September 7, 2006. One of Graham’s co-workers gave up his birthday to raise money for charity water. Instead of asking people at his party to give him presents, he asked everyone to give him $20. Graham and his campaign became popular through the Internet each year. People started giving up their birthday to raise money. People also did other things to raise money. You can do anything to raise money for charity water. “It was no longer our story, it was their story”