Over three quarters of a billion people on our planet don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water.
That is 1 in 9 of us and as a result 4,400 children die everyday from diseases related to contaminated drinking water. However when you bring safe water into a community, disease drops by upwards of 88% overnight. Childhood mortality drops by 99% almost overnight.
As a 19 year old college student with no money, Seth Maxwell was moved by a photo from a friend’s missionary trip to Uganda and was inspired to take action. After months of research and meetings with organizations, Seth gathered together 7 of his friends, pooled together $70.00 and purchased 1000 bottles of water.
Taking to the streets their idea was to give away free water in exchange for donations and to get people talking about the global water crisis. Not only did Seth’s team raise awareness but they were also able to turn their $70.00 investment into $1700.00 in donations and fund their first rehabilitation of a fresh water well.
After that successful day they were pleased with their good deed and had every intention of going to back to normal college life. However after a week of calls asking their “organization” to speak at colleges and churches they decided to continue.
In their first month the group raised over $12,000 and now they tour the country speaking to children about life without safe water. When they leave students are equipped to take action and start their own fundraisers to make a real impact on the issue.
In just over 5 years The THIRST PROJECT has raised over 6 million dollars and funded projects to provide over 100,000 people with fresh water. The need is great though and we can no longer ignore the #1 global killer of children.
