fact, 56 percent of all the sickness in the developing world comes
from dirty water,” he says.
This realization has led Harrison to his life purpose: help
provide access to clean water to people who need it most. Two
years after he volunteered for Mercy Ships, he founded charity:
water.
In Their Words
Help tell other people’s story.
“The story that has impacted me the most on a visceral level is
the story from Ethiopia of a 13-year-old girl named Letekeros,”
Harrison says. Letekeros’ daily routine included an early morning
walk for water. She would get up daily while it was still pitch black
outside, grabbed her clay pot and met up with her friend.
Together, they would walk down a steep ravine so they could wait
in line for hours to fill their jars with water.
One day on her way back home, she slipped and fell, then
dropping and breaking her clay pot. She watched in horror as
water slipped out into the dust. Not only did she waste eight
hours trying to get the water she accidentally spilled, but worse,
the clay pot was a valuable asset for the family.
The “shame of her carelessness” and the consequence of
leaving her mother and sister without water was too much for her
to bear. “She took the rope and untangled it from the handle of
the clay pot, threw it over a tree branch and hung herself,”
Harrison recounts her story.
“This story hit me at such a deep level. This is not about the
663 million people who are drinking bad water because of where
they were born. It’s not about this huge statistics, but it’s about little
girls with names, and feelings and hopes and dreams,” he says.
Invite people into the story.
One of the creative fundraising ideas initiated by charity:water is
the idea to donate birthdays. On the first year anniversary of the
organization, Harrison gave up his birthday and asked people to
give a monetary gift equivalent to his age. The idea soon caught
on and people from all walks of life started donating birthdays to
help bring clean water all over the world.
Perhaps the most powerful story yet is that of nine-year-old
Rachel Beckwith, whose last wish was to give up her birthday to
raise funds for charity: water. She was killed in a car accident
shortly after her ninth birthday. Her goal was to raise US$300 for
charity:water. Word of her generosity spread like wildfire and
through people’s donations all over the world, up to US$1.2
million was raised in her memory.
“What this tells us as an organization is that, this story
doesn’t belong to us. This is not charity: water’s story. This is the
story of our community,” he says. “And we need to keep inviting
people into this to bring the best of themselves, whether it’s their
birthday or their crazy idea.” n
“As I do each year I want to remind you of your power.
Every day you have the opportunity and the obligation,
from my point of view, to help your clients by going
beyond the healing therapies and services you offer. I
want you to be leaders, counselors, advisers and
friends to your clients, their families and communities.”
DEBORAH SZEKELY • Rancho La Puerta and
WELLNESS WARRIOR Founder
“It’s the aliveness and purity of the food that ignites the
aliveness and purity within us. It’s the subtlety and
complexity of real taste—not taste covered up or
accentuated by salt or sugar or preservative—that
excite the internal systems within us or reorganize
themselves in a healthier, more vibrant pattern.”
ALICE WATERS • Chez Panisse Founder and 2015 ISPA
Alex Szekely Humanitarian Award Recipient
December 2015
n
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