There are 800 million people in the world living without access to clean water. Let's change that!

My 22nd birthday, the capstone to the best year of my life so far, is almost here. I celebrated my last birthday while studying medical anthropology abroad at Oxford. My year then only got better by becoming an Intel for Change ambassador, traveling to Kenya, working creatively on water and sanitation issues in India, staying in India for a course on minority studies, beginning my senior year at Stanford, starting a collegiate jump rope club, staffing at the German Haus I've always dreamed of living in and most recently speaking at UNICEF and the Consumer Electronics Show. Next, I'll be traveling to Cambodia for the class Design for Extreme Affordability! Best of all, I've been humbly overwhelmed and empowered by the support of friends, family, loves, coworkers, and even strangers throughout all these experiences.

I have everything I could want. For my birthday this year, please don't give me presents. What I really want--the reason I want to keep turning a year older every year--is to contribute to seeing the end of extreme poverty in my lifetime.

I'm asking for my age in dollars from everyone I know. Every penny of the money raised will directly fund clean water projects in developing countries. Even better, charity: water will show us exactly which projects we funded once they've been fully completed (which takes about 18 months). That means we'll know the locations and names of the communities we helped.

I’m choosing to focus on water issues because of my Intel for Change experience in Kenya and because of a talk Scott Harrison, the founder of charity: water, recently gave at Stanford. I’ve always admired charity: water for their focus on good design and 100% donation structure, but this talk is the icing on the cake. I highly recommend a listen: http://bit.ly/1bBfzR4

In Kenya I got to feel what it's like to carry 50+ pounds of water for kilometer-long walks and to hear the stories of girls who can't go to school because their duty is to fetch water--not even filtered water--for three to eight hours every day. On the other hand, I also got to meet the incredible Kenyan girls who do have access to clean water and thus get to excel with the opportunity of education. Even though there is excellent video footage from my water walk in Kenya (http://bit.ly/1hWgAJf), I understand the power of first-hand experiences to get people to feel more connected to a cause. That’s why I’m also hosting a January water walk event at Stanford. Anyone on campus will have the chance to fill up a yellow charity: water jerry-can at one of our iconic fountains and lug it over to another fountain. For each recorded walk, an extra $22 will be donated this campaign. Look out for those event details and please participate!

Help me reach my goal. Please donate to my birthday campaign!