The Adventure Project

Our Chief, Becky Straw, is featured today in the Grovo Experts Series! Check out the latest video: “Making Social Enterprise Work.”

What’s Causing Water Shortages in Ghana and Nigeria?

Every day, millions of people across a wide swath of West Africa struggle to get access to clean and safe drinking water. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 1,000 people in the region die each day from illnesses related to unsafe water.

In this PBS production, investigative journalists Ameto Akepe and Samuel Agyemang have gone into two communities to uncover why water is not being delivered to their citizens. Journalist Ameto Akepe from Nigeria explains that although there is a community water source in Makurdi, what the community really lacks is a water treatment plant and more importantly a distribution system to deliver water to homes. Samuel Agyemang from Ghana tells a similar story of poor access to pipelines due to municipal corruption in the community of Teshie.

In two of the biggest and richest nations of the region, Nigeria and Ghana, pollution, political unrest, and corruption have contributed to water shortages for decades. The water shortages hamper development by causing fatal and economic strain for women and children who often spend hours waiting to pay for piped water that may or may not be contaminated. Agyemang believes the only way to receive clean and piped water is to continue to pressure the authorities as he has vowed to do until “he and everyone living in neighborhoods across Accra have access to safe, clean water 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Want to do something huge today, in honor of World Water Day? Donate to help create jobs for 90 local mechanics, providing clean water for nearly half a million people. Or join our campaign and make your friends donate. Either or, you’ll be making a splash on World Water Day.

How To Be A Philanthropist In The 21st Century

“Philanthropy is not a question of how much you give, but how you give.” - Dame Stephanie Shirley, The Shirley Foundation

“That’s the business of philanthropy: investing in institutions, investing in people. And allowing those institutions and those people to go on to create great innovations, great solutions, and great new ideas for the next century.” - Dr. Salvatore LaSpada, Institute For Philanthropy

Give a stove this holiday season and help change lives.