Please take a moment, get up from wherever you are sitting, walk to any source of water near you and please don’t turn on the water. Wasting water on what I’m suggesting doesn’t make sense, as water is precious. There is never a drop to waste. Ever.
But you can make that decision by simply walking to the faucet and not turning the handle.
What if that decision involved walking for an hour or more, each way, to get the most water you could possibly carry by yourself. Each and every day. Without end, regardless of the other demands placed upon you by your family, your community, yourself. Now make that a requirement for every young girl who must pass on education because her job is to get the water the family needs. Every day, without end.
Roughly 2 billion people in our world, a quarter of the world’s population, live with that reality. They do not have access to clean, safe water for their families easily at hand.
What about sanitation? Most of us are keenly aware that sanitation is vital to human health, and yet in 2022, 5.25% of the global population were practicing open defecation. This is significantly reduced from 21.42% found in 2000 but still accounts for 422 million people.
These are reasons that Water, Sanitation and Hygiene are the focus for the month of March in our Rotary World and the reason why Water, Sanitation and Hygiene are one of the 7 Areas of Focus with The Rotary Foundation. I am so incredibly proud of all the projects, through International Service and through Global Grants, that our clubs, our member Rotarians, participate in every single day and every single year. We are making a real difference, the difference between ignorance and education for young girls especially. They are the ones who must help get the water from whatever source is available (and hope that the source is clean). They are the ones that can lose several days of school each month because of lack of adequate facilities. Clean water is keeping children between birth and 5 years of age alive – alive – because of clean water.
When you donate to Rotary, in any way you might care to donate, you are sharing with all of your Rotary friends the life-changing power of Rotary to bring clean water, hygiene and sanitation to communities that need our help. You are making a life-saving decision to help. And when you actively participate in an International Service Project or a Global Grant, you are putting your Time, Talent and Treasure to wonderful work. You are being a Rotarian.
Thank you for putting your Hope in Action and for helping to share The Magic of Rotary.
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