By Stephanie Weaver, Founder and Executive Director, ADFT

I have signed up to participate in the Clean Water Blogivation campaign. The topic of the blog is “Why you are (or would like to be) a Clean Water Change Agent”. If my blog receives the most votes, I will win an opportunity to join Dr. Greg Allgood on a clean water expedition to Africa and a $15,000 donation to my favorite charity tackling water issues. Read on to learn why I have devoted myself for the past 22 months to being a clean water change agent.

[Limit one vote per person/email address per day.  A voter may only use one email address to vote.  The blogger with the most eligible votes as of 11:59:59 PM ET on 8/27/10 will win the Grand Prize, subject to verification of eligibility.]

Almost one billion people lack clean drinking water. As a result, every 20 seconds a child dies of a water-related disease. The moment I learned this changed my life, and hopefully, as time goes on, this moment will end up changing the lives of thousands of others as well. I have never felt a stronger sense of injustice then when I learned that almost a billion people are deprived of a basic human right and are forced to drink either nothing at all, or water that is so ridden with dirt and disease it kills them. I learned this information while reading a photo documentary on CNN.com. The images of the people forced to drink contaminated water that were pictured in the photo-documentary have remained burned in my mind ever since.

After reading the article on CNN.com, I immediately started researching the issue further and learned that $30 can bring clean water for life to someone who is suffering greatly – meaning that $60 I might spend on a few drinks and a dinner could instead provide a lifetime of health and life to TWO people in great need. Upon realizing this, I became frustrated and disappointed in myself for going 22 years without realizing the scope and urgency of this issue and for using my good fortune to further benefit myself rather than those less fortunate than me. I became inspired to start using what I had to help those who had not, and to encourage others to join me. I grew determined to share this urgent issue with as many others as I could, and inspire them to follow me into action. And so, at the age of 22, I decided to start a non-profit organization called A Drink for Tomorrow, which is committed to raising money and awareness in order to bring clean, safe water to impoverished communities. Since its founding less than two years ago, A Drink for Tomorrow (ADFT) has been able to fully fund clean water projects in India, Haiti, Botswana and Lesotho, Africa -projects that once completed, will bring clean water for 20-30 years to almost 1000 people.

While starting and running the organization has been invigorating and exciting and something I am immensely passionate about, it has also required many sacrifices. Everyone involved with the organization, including myself, works or attends school full time outside of their role with ADFT; no one receives any pay. I had to make financial sacrifices to cover ADFT’s start up costs, and I have had to sacrifice a great deal of time that could have been spent with friends, on vacation, or relaxing. But I realize that no amount of sacrifice I could make to help bring clean water to those in dire need would ever put me in a position where I can even begin to understand the strife that the people I’m working to help have to deal with on a daily basis. I will never have to walk almost four miles in bare feet in the hot sun and haul gallons of water for hours so that my family can have something to drink – whether or not it is clean. I will never have to drink water contaminated with animal feces, parasites, bacteria, dirt and disease.

Just as those without access to clean water did nothing to deserve their lot, I did nothing to earn the comfortable lifestyle I was born into. I believe that to whom much is given, much is expected, and so I have set high expectations for myself to give back as much as possible to those in great need. Having only ever read and heard firsthand accounts about, or seen pictures of those I am trying to serve through A Drink for Tomorrow, I feel that actually visiting Africa on a clean water expedition would inspire me all the more to continue making sacrifices to help those without this basic human right. If a photograph can inspire me to spend the past two years doing everything in my power to combat this issue, I can only imagine how much a true memory imprinted in my mind would drive forward my commitment to this endeavor.

Every time you vote for/share this blog post, Proctor and Gamble will donate a day of clean, safe water to a person in a developing country. If my blog post gets the most votes, not only would I be able to accompany Dr. Greg Allgood on a clean water expedition to Africa, but I would win $15,000 to be donated to A Drink for Tomorrow – which would allow ADFT to take a large step forward in our ability to provide clean water to impoverished communities.