$51 -- it's adding up

I promised when I started NaBloPoMo that I would make a charitable donation for every comment I received this month. So far, I've received 51 comments. That's $51 dollars for a good cause. 11 more days. I'd like to reach 100 comments. $100 dollars for 100 comments.

I said that I would donate to a cause dedicated to helping eradicate hunger and water scarcity. A few facts about water scarcity on our planet:
Each year more than five million people die from water-related disease.

2.5 billion people still lack access to improved sanitation, including 1.2 billion people who still have no facilities at all.
Every 15 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease.
Millions of women and children spend several hours a day collecting water from distant, often polluted sources.
At any given time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from a water-related disease.

These facts come from the website of the organization I have chosen to donate to: Water Partners International.

Water Partners is a non-profit dedicated exclusively to helping provide safe drinking water and sanitation to people in eight developing nations: Bangladesh, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Honduras, Guatemala, India, Kenya, and the Philippines. The organization partners with other organizations 'on the ground' in these countries and also offers micro-loans to villages to build their own water infrastructure.

Here is an indication of how funding can help Water Partners Int'l provide people in need with safe water:

$25: provides someone with access to safe drinking water for life.
$150: meets the water needs of an entire family.
$200: provides a household water tap and toilet to a family in Honduras.
$1,000: provides public water points and latrines to a village of 400 in Bangladesh.
$5,000: covers construction of a spring protection system for a village in Ethiopia.
$10,000: Provides water hook-ups and toilets to 300 people in an urban slum in India.
$20,000: covers the cost of a deep borehole well for an entire village in Kenya.

Isn't it amazing what so little money can do?