This year’s World Water Day campaign hits home

Hi {NAME}, My name is Suzie Kim and I lead the Development Operations team here at charity: water, which means I get to spend my days supporting our fundraising teams and ensuring that we make good on every donor promise. I love working with amazing people toward a meaningful goal — a journey I’m proud to be on with you. I’m sending you this note because we’re just days away from World Water Day, and for weeks, we’ve been on a mission to honor the world’s women and girls by ending their walks for water. Without those daily walks, women and girls get about 70 minutes back each day. The theme of this year’s World Water Day hit home for me — as in, my actual home. Because as a working mom, there’s truly never enough time in the day. Every parent is juggling a million competing priorities: from work deadlines to school pickups to getting dinner on the table. I can’t imagine adding walks for water to my calendar. Walking for water isn’t something I have to factor into my daily schedule, but for millions of people, that’s not the case. Women and girls around the world lose 200 million hours every day walking for water. Some will even lose decades of their lives to preventable waterborne diseases. Having universal access to a basic water service would save women 77 million working days per year. The burden women and girls carry each day is infuriating. Every walk for water is an opportunity lost for their communities and the world. Still, I remain encouraged by how real and simple the solution is. With access to clean water, the walk ends. This is truly a problem we can solve together. Last week, we asked you to answer the question, “What would you do with an extra 70 minutes each day?” Here are just a few of the many heartfelt responses we received. "I'd LOVE to have more time for creativity!" - Kirsten "I'd sit outside - in sunshine or rain - take a deep breath, and open the books so little time has driven me away from." - Catarina "Helping my elderly neighbors with shopping." - Nancy "I would study Turkish so I could communicate better with my new family." - Meaghan "Baking and cooking yummy Italian food for the people I love." - Cris We may not all want to spend our extra 70 minutes the same way, but we can all agree on one thing: Time is an invaluable gift. It costs just $40 to end one walk for water and give someone 70 minutes back in their day. Donating takes less than a minute, but you’ll provide someone with an additional 425 hours — or 15 days — each year. You can donate online now to clear women and girls’ calendars: [( I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Nicholas Kristof in his empowering book Half the Sky: “Women aren’t the problem, but the solution. The plight of girls is no more a tragedy than an opportunity.” Thank you for taking the time to read this email. It was a pleasure to pop into your inbox and share this update with you. Here’s to clearing more calendars together. Happy (early) World Water Day! — Suzie Kim --- (If you no longer want to receive messages like this from us, you can unsubscribe [here](