Bad Community Charity:Water Fundraiser - we want your donations!

In S1E25 we had the Reverso Debate Final. My friend, compadre, and competitor, @jeremy, both agreed to donate to Charity:Water and we thought this could be a good opportunity for the Bad a Voltage community to also contribute to a great cause.

Go to https://my.charitywater.org/bad-voltage-charitywater and contribute…we are looking to raise at least $1500, and every penny you donate is currently being matched so your contribution is doubled.

Let’s do this, folks!

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@jonobacon glad to see you have manned up I’m more than happy to match yours and @jeremy 's donation. It’s a great cause and I think as a small but caring community we can make a real difference.

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Much appreciated @WarrenHill!

–jeremy

Clean water and sanitation saves more life then any doctor or hospital could ever hope too. Clean water and sanitation generate more wealth, then any other investment.

Agreed about 2.2 million people die each year as a result of diarrhoea almost exclusively in the poorer nations of this world. Almost all of which will be a direct result of drinking unclean water. $20 can ensure someone has access to clean water for life. The charity Jeremy has chosen has found someone prepared to to double our donations so as far as we are concerned that’s $10.

To be honest I had never heard of charity:water until Jeremy suggested it but I have worked with similar charities in the past and I know one guy with a few plumbing supplies and the assistance a few locals can really improve matters. My own personal experience was working for WaterAid in Ethiopia.

I won’t go on because I know I can come across like the guy from the charity saying “Give us your fucking money”, but please do even small amounts make a real difference. If someone does not have to travel several hours to get (unclean) water they can go to school and I’m sure given the level of interest we share in technology I don’t need to explain the importance of education.

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Before cities like London and Hamburg had clean water separated from sewer, they would periodically have outbreaks of cholera and dysentery, that would kill something like 1000 people in just a few months. After WW2 their was a dramatic rise in outbreaks of cholera and dysentery in Europa. We have not seen outbreaks of cholera and dysentery in west Europa since the 1948is . Their can not be any doubt about cause and effect.

Please correct me, if I’m wrong about this.

You are not wrong the link between contaminated water and disease as been clear since the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak when John Snow was able to trace a cholera outbreak to a single water pump in the Soho area of London.

The science is well understood we know how to save lives with very little money just by providing access to safe water by, for example, drilling a well. Or by filtration you might like to check out this TED Talks video: Michael Pritchard: How to make filthy water drinkable to see how.

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I was homeless for a time and lived in the woods. My most precious piece of kit was my water filter. If you are ill, it is very difficult to ensure warmth, shelter and good hygiene for one self.

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Just contributed. Amongst other things the ‘matching’ of the contribution by a Water Fundraiser sponsor is just awesome. We are now at 44% of the target hmm any chance that the tactics used in the reverso debate to gain votes can be channelled here?

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As a kid I remember being taunted by my brother

Diarrhoea, diarrhoea … When it comes from your bum like a bullet from a gun, diarrhoea.

living in the UK I had access to the NHS so was given antibiotics for the infection and electrolyte drink to replace the water, salts and minerals I was losing. Needless to say I recovered quickly.

A few years later,about 15 years ago, I volunteered to help the charity WaterAid and hand drilled a number of wells in Ethiopia. When I got to one village where I was going to drill a well a little boy told me his sister had just died from diarrhoea.

Diarrhoea, diarrhoea … When it’s just killed your sister and you’re really going to miss her, diarrhoea.

Does not have the same ring about it … does it?

This last line was used, a few years ago, in the UK as part of an advert for a charity. I’m not sure which one but it may have been Save The Children.

Over 100 people a second get diarrhoea and around 2.2 million people die each year.

Please, if you can give, give if not and you have twitter send a tweet. The problem may be too big to eradicate but we can make a real difference to peoples lives.

Just filtering water through two layers of clean cotton or silk, reduce the risk of infection by something like 80 percent. It is not rocket sciences. When people shit in the same river that they collect water from, bad things happen. Even a new born pig knows not to defecate in the nest.

I’ve just checked and we are just over half way to our initial target.

Come on folks, lay down some cash for a good cause!

Come on guys you can pay $10 for a coffee in new York or, possibly, to save a life. I know I’m going on here but I know what a difference we can make: I’ve seen it with my own eyes.

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I know this is a good cause - but where’s the accountability and transparency of this organisation ?

–jeremy

@jeremy Anything that takes 5½ million to get donations- I consider to be beyond the pale of accountable.

A charity is typically considered highly effective if their program expenses are >75%. charity:water is 83%. Charity Navigator rates them at 97.05/100 based on Financial and Accountability & Transparency and CharityWatch gives them an A rating.

–jeremy

… considered highly effective by whom ?

I wouldn’t start a charity just to keep people employed. Charity is not jobs, charity IS effective end-execution, which is a consummation of peoples’ good will.

These charities should have an investment arm (all of them) and invest to solve “these problems” over the next 100 years.
It’s the same problem with the bail-outs (co-incincidently) - if you put 3% a year of all deposits into a central bank, then come the credit-crunch which happens every 100 years (so far each century), then you’d save the industry.
I.e. BOTH of them.

American and conglomerate charities (which are just companies at the end of the day) just don’t get it.

@jeremy You probably don’t agree with what I’ve just written, but if you can get the Memorandum of Association for this charity I shall assess whether or not they are truly ‘open’ and good to their word.
but I’d like to continue the discussion with you as you seem a man of integrity.

saying that on the face of it, I’m proud of what they’ve achieved.