Thursday, December 5, 2013

Water for Christmas

It has been sooooo long since I wrote anything on here....WOW. It's funny how life changes. When I first started this blog it was a way for me to keep positive during a tough time and then life wasn't so tough and then life got super busy and I didn't "need" this blog anymore you could say. What has driven me back to this blog is, I need to get the word out about a bill in Congress that REALLY needs passed and I need everyone's help to accomplish this. 

{Nearly 1 billion people lack access to clean drinking water, and some 2.5 billion people do not have access to proper sanitation.}
{Dirty water and inadequate sanitation access, combined with other hygiene issues, cause the deaths of more than 4,000 children under the age of 5 every day. That’s more than the under-5 deaths resulting from AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined.}
Isn't this sad? I take for granted the H2O I have access to hourly. Very rarely do I think how lucky I am to have this clean, drinkable, healthy H2O. I wake up in the morning, make my coffee and go to the bathroom. Later I take my hot shower and brush my teeth. If I absolutely have to I'll do the dishes and drink some H2O. Never once do I thank God for this necessity or think how lucky I am to have it. 
This past August, the Water for the World Act was introduced in Congress. This is a bipartisan bill that will not require any additional money, but has the potential to bring big change to the estimated 768 million people who live without access to clean water and the 2.5 billion without access to proper sanitation facilities.
  • Help to direct funds for clean water, sanitation and hygiene to the countries and communities most in need, recognizing evidence that the biggest benefit comes from helping the people living in greatest poverty.
  • Advance best practices in bringing clean water and sanitation to communities, including better monitoring and evaluation.
  • Improve the United State’s approach to safe water, sanitation and hygiene by building upon the current strategy and requiring transparency in how and why focus countries are selected, the results and challenges of each program and conducting regular reviews of progress.
Check this video out to see how important H2O is to every human being. It's only 3 minutes long and explains what happens when women and children don't need to walk miles and hours a day to obtain dirty, tainted H2O. 

World Vision is one of the organizations leading the charge for this bill. Their goal is 30,000 signatures. I know this is obtainable! It only takes a minute or two to fill out the form asking your representatives to back this bill but will make the difference in millions of lives. Please sign and then forward on. 

Check this website out  and this website and this website for more information about the Water for the World Act. 

This Christmas give the gift of H2O. It can't be beat!