Social Media Enlisted to Provide Water in Developing Countries

I live on a river, in an area of usually abundant rainfall and with “town supply” water literally on tap.

It’s hard for me to imagine what it must be like to live where it is a challenge to find enough water in a day for just basic necessities of staying alive in a reasonably healthy manner. And where even what water might be available is just as likely to be seriously, life-threateningly polluted.

Thanks to my friend Paul Chaney, my attention and no doubt that of many others of our social media colleagues has been drawn to a  campaign to raise $50,000 to help dig wells in developing countries. The campaign has been initiated by word of mouth marketing maestro Andy Sernovitz – @sernovitz on Twitter.

Andy is partnering with with charity: water, to use the power of social media and recommendations to bring clean, safe drinking water to developing nations.

Andy’s campaign aims to raise $50,000 and build wells in 10 villages.

I’m joining Paul Chaney’s team to raise $5,000 to build one of those.

The math is straightforward:

• $20 gives a person clean, safe water for 20 years
• $5,000 builds a well that gives clean, safe water to an entire village for 20 years

Think of the health impact – literally saving lives and extending life expectancy.

To find out more about the campaign and details of how to donate, go to http://gaspedal.com/water .

Let’s chip in.

Des Walsh

Business coach and digital entrepreneur. With coach training from Coachville.com and its Graduate School of Coaching, and a founding member of the International Association of Coaching, Des has been coaching business owners and entrepreneurs for the past 20 years. Over the same period he has also been actively engaged in promoting the business opportunities of the digital economy. He is a certified Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) coach, and a certified specialist in social media strategy and affiliate marketing.