My birthday is almost here. I'm not usually very excited about getting older, but this year I'm really thankful to have lived another happy, healthy year.

I recently learned that millions of kids around the world don't live to see their fifth birthday because they don't have access to clean, safe drinking water, and that more people die each year from disease caused by lack of clean water (~3.4 million - Source: http://water.org/water-crisis/water-facts/water/) than from all forms of violence put together, INCLUDING war (~1.6 million - Source: http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/world_report/en/abstract_en.pdf). We can help change that.

I'm asking for my age in dollars from anyone willing to donate. If you don't have $19, please donate what you can. My goal is to raise at least $100.00 by Christmas, 2013. Every penny counts, and every penny of the money raised will directly fund clean water projects in developing countries. charity: water will show us exactly which projects we funded once said projects have been fully completed (which takes about 18 months). That means we'll know the locations and names of the communities we helped.

I'd really appreciate any help in reaching my goal. Thank you, and have a wonderful day.