Do you celebrate your birthday in September? If you do, like me, how about considering giving up your birthday to help support charity:water, a non-profit organisation bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations.
They run a September campaign every year, asking people to give up their birthdays and to ask for donations instead of gifts. They use 100% of the money donated to build water projects. We take water for granted and it's appalling that one in eight people don't have access to clean water.
Watch these beautifully shot and touching videos explaining the plight of the Bayaka, an African Pygmy tribe in Central African Republic. They were one of the last hunter-gatherer societies in the world until the logging industry pushed them out of the forest. Now, they’re learning to live on the outskirts of villages, where they face rejection and abuse by locals who see them as animals who belong in the jungle. Many Bayaka live without clean water, and this year's campaign aims to bring clean and safe drinking water to every one of them.
I for one will be asking my family and friends to donate. Hope you can do the same. You can donate here.
Birthdays can change the world.
See how the Bayaka live and the problems they face as they adjust to a new way of life.
www.charitywater.org/september
Friday, September 3, 2010 at 12:25AM 
