Stats

When researching our W4C project, we came across the statistic that it would cost 10 billion dollars to give the whole world clean water. 10 billion. It's the stat that caught my attention...that got my passion ignited. It kept me up at night. That seems totally attainable. I almost think I let the statistic take the place of the actual faces....the human beings that were dying from lack of clean water.
So the good news is that W4C is catching on like crazy. With everyone jumping on board, there have been a lot more questions popping up. One of them being, "Is $10 billion really accurate?"
We found this statistic through a very reliable organization. Actually, a partner of charity: water. And as we have looked into it more, we have found it to be inaccurate. We when first heard this, I can honestly say that my stomach dropped. This is really what we had based all of our hand-outs on and part of what got me excited. I dreaded the thought of changing it.
But then I started thinking about it realistically. It is a NUMBER. A dollar amount. It has NOTHING to do with the people who are quite literally dying by the thousands every single day. It takes absolutely nothing away from the fact that mothers are burying their children every single day from drinking dirty water. Nothing.
So the number we are given now is 144 billion. The fact remains that we still spend 3 times more on Christmas than it would cost to give clean water to everyone.
I tried relating this to something closer to home. I remember when we were told that Nalani's retina had become detached. We were devastated. We had already gone through 2 surgeries and now were being sent to Detroit for several more. Not once.....not a single time did I think "Well, we are not going to do anything because it is just going to cost too much." Nope. We just did it. And started chipping away at the expenses. And they were not taken care of overnight...trust me. But the fact remained that she needed surgery and we loved her and wanted to give her a shot at having her vision in that eye.
And we want to give those human beings a chance at a long, healthy life.
Water.
They still need water.
So we may not knock out the whole water crisis, but we can make a dent.
We can provide water for a village or a country even.
So we will be changing all our resources to say,
“Americans spend 450 billion dollars at Christmas. It would take a third of that to give the whole world clean water.”
If you have used this statistic, we are asking you to do the same. We in NO WAY want to mislead anyone. And I am sure that the original source by no means intended to mislead. And they have been contacted in hopes of getting the number straightened out as well.
So keep praying.
Keep giving.
Clean water.
It is still so so simple.