For those with a THIRST for knowledge - Part II

What an awesome day! I was able to:

• schedule a meeting with a member of a local Rotary group that might be able to network me with some donations/campaign help
• starting an email conversation with a group based in the U.K. that deals with adventure trips tied to fundraising drives - possible discount?!
• worked out my incentive structure for different donor levels (get excited about that, I've got a bunch of cool ideas for a "giving back" program once my campaign gets going)
• sent a hard-copy of my project proposal (upon request) to REI headquarters! (Maybe they, too, can help me out with gear!

It's already like a second job to organize all this stuff but I sure am enjoying it! I am getting a bunch of positive feedback and am really looking forward to starting my fundraiser once I have all my ducks in a row.

Ducks...? Seriously? I'm going to the Serengeti and I can't think of a cooler animal than ducks!?

Once I get all my Crested Cranes in a row.

Ok! Time to jump into some water stats!

I did some research on improved water access and sanitation utilities. Here is some data that I was able to get off of the WHO/ UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation statistics website. Sorry for the size (use command/control + to make it bigger)

I really wanted to copy and paste these tables so you can see how these levels changed over time. The gist of the matter is, compared to the universal water access and sanitation of the U.S., these two reference countries in Africa come up dismally short as the rest of the world progresses. Tanzania and Kenya finished 2012 with 53.2% and 61.7% national access to clean water, respectively. Sanitation utilities are even worse. Only 12.2% of Tanzania's population can access a toilet or a sink, and the statistic is only slightly higher in Kenya with 29.6% access.

The main driver for this disparity is the presence of sanitation facilities. Even if a country has clean water, it is immediately contaminated by open defecation and the lack of any waste management.

This is why I am starting to correspond with that group in the U.K. (through their Dig Deep Challenge) in which they work toward bettering the second half of the water crisis: keeping water clean. 

Solving this issue is such a holistic endeavor and I am loving learning about all the different facets.

More soon!

Peace, Water, and Climbing,

Chris