Be Hope To Her Retrospective

BH2O+ Day of Recap Video from Nuru International on Vimeo.

Yesterday, Nuruuploaded a video celebrating itsBe Hope To Herevent. This nationwide event was the first event of it's kind Nuru hosted, and after you see the video, I think you will agree with me that it was a HUGE success.

Here's what happened. Women on eleven college campuses walked through the center of their campuses with yellow five gallon buckets and went to a water source to fill them. Then they walked through their campus carrying these buckets on their heads to a final destination where there was a rally, clean water, food, music and a wide variety of fun.

At the same time these women walked, men on these campuses held posters or helped educate folks in other ways.

For over one billion people, this kind of walk is a part of daily life. You can scroll back through my blog entries to see a video that explains this a little bit better too.

Part of the reason why Nuru did this is because it is raising funds for FOUR deep water wells for the people of Kuria, Kenya. Want to help? These wells will cost several thousand to get drilled, but if you want to give and support this endeavor, visit the Nuru website and donate.

Oh, and if you watch the video closely, you just might see a familiar face in it. ;)

It's Happening!!!

"Be Hope to Her" at Stanford

See that photo? There's a link beneath it. I need you to click that link, or this one and go vote this photo as BEST in Peninsula Happenings for the Mercury News in Silicon Valley!

Will you go do that?

There's a story and more info with the photo, but you can read that when you click the link and vote. Thanks for helping out!

The Bucket

It's emerging all over campus at WVU, and making appearances as far west as Stanford and as far north as Boston College and Gonzaga. It's even popping up all over Ball State this week! (Check out this sweet articlefrom BSU's campus paper.

WHat's it all about? It's BH2O+, or "Be Hope To Her" and what it's about is this. THere are over one BILLION people in our world who don't have access to clean drinking water. They can't even get in their car and drive to wal-mart for bottled water. That's right, they've gotta walk and fill up a bucket just like the one you see above. Five gallon bucket, sitting on top of a little girl's head and guess what else. She has to miss school. So she doesn't get an education, and if she doesn't boil the water she acquires, then she and her family can get six. Five gallons of water weighs about 42lbs. Can you imagine carrying that?

But it doesn't have to be this way. There's another possibility. What if they didn't have to walk 30 minutes or more to get water, and what if the water they acquired was clean?

This week, hundreds of women across college campuses here in the states will be walking and raising funds and awareness so wells can be drilled in Kuria, Kenya.

So when you see the bucket on facebook or twitter (or on this blog), take a moment and think about the opportunities we take for granted. Don't let this one pass you by. Be part of sustainable solutions to clean drinking water and even more.

Visit the be hope to her website and join others in confronting this crisis!

Water Girls

Water Girls, originally uploaded by Nuru International.

Over the lenten season, I attempted cut down my purchases of beverages and keep an accurate budget of what I spent during the course of the lenten season on beverages. It was kind of shocking to see how the total came out. I tried to keep track of times that people offered me other drinks (whether it was me or them, somebody had to make the purchase).

As a result, I realized that on average, I probably would have spent about $3/day on beverages. A cup of coffee here, and a soda there, and some juice at this spot all kind of add up. Of course there were days when I probably wouldn't have bought anything, but I think I realized over the course of time that I take for granted that I have all of these choices.

In the end, the amount I donated was a combination of what I would have spent combined with the amount I actually did spend on occasion (there were a few times I downed a coke, a coffee, or a vitamin water), and a little bit on top just to round everything out.

It's been an eye opening time with regard to the access to a variety of beverages and even more so to the availability of clean drinking water at my disposal.

If you get a chance, check out this website, and perhaps take stock of the simple pleasures like water that we all take for granted.

And, if you are so inclined, I encourage you to give to Nuru as well. It's a great organization, and they are planning to drill four deep water wells during the month of May for the 5000 people of Kuria, Kenya.

Will you join me in helping to bring lasting change to the people of Kuria?

Be Hope To Her

Be Hope to Her from Nuru International on Vimeo.

Go ahead and hit that play button above, after you read this blog entry.

In just two weeks, Nuru is launching it's largest grassroots event to date. It's called Be Hope To her, or BH2O+ for short. The event will feature women from 10 college campuses in different parts of the country walking in solidarity with women and young girls in the developing world. Campuses like Boston College, Stanford, Virginia Tech, Ball State University, and good ol' WVU are part of this historic event.

Essentially, here is the issue at hand. There are over one billion people who don't have access to clean drinking water. What this means is that women and girls spend much of their days walking long distances and often standing in line to gain access to a water source. Keep in mind that water is necessary for life (just in case you didn't realize this). Because they spend their days walking to get water for their families, often young women never get an education in these areas. Nuru wants to change that.

Nuru wants to give these women hope and opportunity. And women on college campuses are going to be part of that hope. Nearly 300 people have signed up for the event already, and we still have two weeks before the event takes place. Imagine what a stir will take place as women walk from their dorms and apartments with buckets on their heads, meet in the center of campus, make their way to a water source and walk through the campus in solidarity with each other, and with women and girls around the world.

At the same time as the event, Nuru is raising funds for our deep water wells to be drilled next to schools in Kuria, Kenya. Drilling wells next to the school gives extra incentive for students to go to school and then they can take water home with them at the end of the school day. These wells are not cheap. Another organization, Dry Tears has agreed to raise funds for one of these wells. They are raising $20,000 to bring clean drinking water to the people of Kuria, Kenya. BTW did I mention that Dry Tears was started by HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS?


I'm blogging about this today because I'm totally stoked about this event! I'm blogging because there is still time for you to register for the event, or even make a contribution to Nuru. I'm blogging about this event because YOU AND I have an opportunity to save hundreds of lives and create opportunities for others by getting involved.

Will you visit the Nuru site, or the facebook cause page, and make a donation? Or, better yet, will you register, and join in solidarity with women and girls around the world who do this not just once, but EVERY day.

May you take a moment to make a small contribution to change while you have the opportunity.

Dry Tears

Dry Tears, originally uploaded by chanchanchepon.

I've had a lot of stuff I wanted to blog this week, but I forgot my camera cable in West Virginia and I was in Michigan for a conference with GCM during the week (more on that later). For now, I'd like to introduce a couple of friends I met during the 58 conference . . .

As part of the 58 Conference I had the privilege of picking up a couple of people from the airport. These guys names were Conner and Kyle, and when Conner was a freshman and Kyle was a junior in high school, they started a non-profit called dry tears.

Yep, you read correctly. While they were both in high school, they started a non-profit organization. It all started when Conner was reading a magazine article that was talking about poverty. You see, he found out that there were kids in our world who were so dehydrated that when they cried they didn’t form tears.

Conner and Kyle thought there was something wrong with that, ]so they started raising money and paying for wells to be dug. So far they have been part of over a dozen wells being dug. High school students—changing the world. Can you believe it? They’ve raised thousands of dollars and partnered with organizations like Blood:Water Mission and Living Water International to see wells dug in Sub-Saharan Africa. We’ve already started talking about a future collaboration between them and Nuru International in Kenya.

Beyond changing the world, Conner and Kyle are a couple of really cool guys. Conner is a senior in high school, and Kyle is a sophomore now at University of Georgia. They are passionate about following Jesus and making a difference in our world. These guys are both articulate and intelligent, and they also stayed at my house with me and my roommates this weekend.

Over the course of our time together, we shared a lot of laughs and some great stories. There’s something awesome that happens when brothers dwell together in unity, and with one mind.

I’m glad my friend Tiffany with Invisible Children told me about these guys, and we were able to get them to come to Morgantown. There’s something really motivating to a group of high school and middle school students when they see a couple of their own stepping out to make a change. And that’s exactly what Conner and Kyle are doing. They are making a change.

I know my life will be different as a result of meeting them. They inspired me. Check out their website, and spend some time with them, and I’m sure you’ll be inspired too. May more of our young people (and our old people) awake from the sleep that tells us that our contribution does not matter.

May this note wake you up to the crises in our world and motivate you to do something about them.

Chillin'

Chillin', originally uploaded by chanchanchepon.

These are some cool cats who kick it down at so.zo. I just met Jonathan, but JR, Ricky and Andrew I've known for a while. (left to right)
Andrew is actually my newest roommate.

I just love this place. It is filled with life. I think it might be because the people who frequent it are also filled with life.

connecting

connecting, originally uploaded by chanchanchepon.

I think this is one of my favorite pictures, although it is a little blurry. I forgot my ultrapod III that my brother bought me. People are talking, people are eating, people are surfing the web, and most importantly, people are connecting.

This week at h2o, we talked about our desire for relationships. Here people are embodying the message. Beautiful stuff!!!

So.zo potluck

So.zo potluck, originally uploaded by chanchanchepon.

I've forgotten my camera on many excursions recently, and I've developed a habit of blogging photos. I feel like it makes things a bit more interesting.

Anyhoo, this is a sweet shot of our community space coming alive with food. There was plenty for everyone, and no one went away hungry.

But, there weren't 5000 people there . . .yet.