Tag Archives: clean water

Donate to Clean Water, Get a Free Book

Clean Water for EliroseClean Water for Elirose is a great little children’s book explaining the problem of dirty water around the world. I plugged the book before when it was a Kickstarter project and now the author, Twin Citizen Ariah Fine, is working hard to fund a clean water well. He’s trying to raise $5,000 through charity: water, a task I know well, and he’s offering to give a copy of Clean Water for Elirose for donating any amount to his charity: water project.

That’s a great deal: Give clean water, get a free book.

If you already have a copy (like me!) or don’t need one, Ariah will give your free copy to a classroom.

You can check out the book and read the entire thing online.

Consider making a donation. charity: water does amazing work and it’s always worthwhile supporting them. Plus: good book. Book projects like this definitely need to be supported and generous souls like Ariah who put so much sweat and tears into a project and then give it all away deserve your support.

Here’s a great video of Ariah’s kids getting ready to give away some books:

Mudula Mamas Raise $50K for Clean Water

On Sunday the Mudula Mamas competed in a triathlon in Dallas and raised more than $50,000 for clean water in Mudula, Ethiopia. All three of the Mudula Mamas are mothers of children born in Mudula and the money will provide one-third of the total funding needed for the Mudula Water project.

I was pushing the project hard last week, including a special push for matching funds on the Ethiopian holiday of Meskel (which we easily secured).

You can see pictures and learn more about the Mudula Mamas on the Facebook page, which thanks to this effort went from something like a few dozen fans to more than 800 (it sure helps when some kind souls offer to donate $1 per ‘like’).

Thanks to everybody who donated and helped spread the word. I’ve been a little too busy to really get behind some charity efforts in the past year or so, and while I didn’t even do that much for this effort, it’s encouraging to see people give in support of clean water in Ethiopia.

When Milo gets older and starts asking questions about Ethiopia I want him to know that we still care about his homeland. That’s why I get involved in projects like this.

Meskel Match

MeskelToday is Meskel. What’s Meskel? It’s an Ethiopian religious festival celebrating the discovery of the “true cross” in the fourth century. They celebrate by dancing, feasting and lighting huge bonfires.

The legends associated with the true cross are kind of bizarre, but this is my favorite snippet:

According to the Ethiopian legend, when people get close to the piece of the True Cross it made them naked by its powerful light. Because of this, a decision was made to bury it at the mountain of Gishen Mariam monastery in Wollo region.

It’s a big event in Ethiopia and if you search Twitter for “Meskel” you’ll get a taste for how people celebrate. There are indeed massive bonfires, good food and not all the celebrations are in Ethiopia.

The Match
We’re celebrating with the Mudula Mamas—three moms of children born in Mudula, Ethiopia, who are running a triathlon this weekend—by raising money for clean water through Mudula Water. Today we’re doing a Meskel Match. If we can raise $1,500 today we’ll match it. Will you help us celebrate Meskel and donate?

Update: We’ve raised more than $1,800 today and scored the $1,500 match. That’s more than $3,000 for clean water in one day! And that puts us that much closer to scoring the extra $8,000 from Janus. Thanks for your support and continue to cheer the Mudula Mamas on. They race on Sunday and will keep raising support through Saturday at noon. Melkam Meskel!