A Drop can Make a Difference

Today is World Water Day, a day first designated by the United Nations on March 22, 1993. After a United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, participants and advocates recommended an annual international observance for water. Each year, UN-Water highlights and advocates against a current or future challenge for water and sanitation around the world. This year, with the theme “water and jobs” UN-Water is advocating for the 1.5 billion people, nearly half of the world’s workers, that work in water-related sectors but still “are often not recognized or protected by basic labour rights.” By advocating for these people and highlighting this issue, UN-Water focuses “on how enough quantity and quality of water can change workers' lives and livelihoods - and even transform societies and economies.” We rarely think about our dependence on water. We use and consume water at our leisure. We can pull a bath almost instantaneously, creating a therapeutic oasis for ourselves after a long day at work. We can run to the kitchen to fill up a glass of clean, uncontaminated, filtered drinking water, without even giving it another thought. We can leave the faucet in the bathroom running while we quickly do something else. We can throw out a glass of water that has been sitting on our desk for days, or a bottle of water that we left sitting in our car for a little too long. But, on World Water Day, we might be a little more mindful of the ways that we consume and depend on water. If only for a day, we might turn off our faucets while we brush our teeth. We might drink that day-old water that has been sitting on our nightstand. We might appreciate where our water comes from and how it is so easily accessible to us. While we should not allow our mindfulness of how we consume and use water to flow from a sentiment of guilt, we should always encourage ourselves and one another to use our influence, uniqueness, and passion to create worthwhile and impactful habits. When we collectively use our influence and our mindfulness, we may be able to change lives around the world. When we are mindful, we begin to notice that the appreciation of water is made worthwhile in any action, big or small. We, then, will be able to see and believe in the product of change even as we turn off a faucet when we are not using it or when we buy a bottle of water that directly contributes to transforming societies around the world. When we use our own uniqueness to contribute to a worldwide community dedicated to ending the global water crisis, we will come to know that every drop makes a difference.But, on World Water Day, we might also challenge ourselves to appreciate water in other, unconventional ways. One organization that actively, passionately, and transformatively works with communities in order to eradicate the global water crisis is Generosity.org. Since is start, Generosity.org has funded over 727 water projects, providing roughly 413,000 people with clean drinking water. But, these water projects have been built collectively by people who have believed that their drop can make a difference in the world. Where 663 million people around the world do not have access to clean drinking water, Generosity.org is working to empower and transform communities. Going further than merely installing water projects in various communities, Generosity.org equips and teaches the people of these communities to manage and maintain the water projects. With each drop, these projects are changing lives. But, with each project, there are movers and shakers that unite to offer their talents, passion, and resources in order to build them from the ground up. This team of global advocates, of world changers, starts with you. When you realize that your drop can make a difference, you begin to take action to empower people around the world. One of these ways is by donating to a water project, a family, or even one person in order to provide them with clean drinking water. Another way is to partner with the talents and passions of your friends and family through fundraising. Generosity.org makes this fundraising option tangible and wholly influential through their Us for Us campaign which invites individual creativity and infectious passion that inspires transformation throughout the world. An easy and tangible way that you can take action to empower people and communities around the world is simply by purchasing a water bottle. Generosity Beverages and Generosity Water, a for-profit business selling the highest quality alkaline bottled water with a perfect pH balance of 10.0, has funded three wells since its establishment this past August. But, more than a business that provides the best quality water, each water bottle sold enhances the quality of life and sustains the wellbeing of communities around the world. With every purchase of a Generosity Water bottle, two people are provided with clean drinking water for a month. See, these collective drops, these dynamic ripples, are making a powerful, transparent, and effective difference in the world.So, how will you celebrate World Water Day? How will see that your drop makes a difference? Maybe start by committing to appreciating water a little more each day- finishing that entire bottle of water, turning off the faucet, donating to a water project, purchasing a bottle that directly impacts a community, taking a swim in the ocean, exploring the lengths to where a river’s flow ends, marveling at the powerful and captivating beauty of a waterfall. To see your drop make a difference, you can commit to celebrating water every day by joining with Generosity.org's 365 campaign- by giving $1 a day for the next 365 days, you can celebrate the impact access to clean water has every day. In any way that you appreciate the essentiality of water, know that your influence, passion, ambition, creativity, and strength shape your drop to make a profound difference in the world. More than that, know that your drop, in unison with all other drops, sends out a ripple effect to positively transform lives around the world.

A Woman's World

Today is International Women’s Day. It is a day where we can celebrate the worldwide achievement of women, but also a day where we can challenge ourselves to “be aware [that] progress has slowed in many places across the world, so urgent action is needed to accelerate gender parity.” This year’s theme is centers on the pledge for parity. The Oxford English Dictionary defines parity as “equality or equivalence, especially as regards status, pay, or value.” Honoring this interpretation of parity, International Women’s Day 2016 seeks to illuminate the progress by which women in this global community continue to progressively contribute to societal, political, economic, cultural, and individual achievement. However, despite much to celebrate, International Women’s Day also seeks to convict people across the world that there is much yet to achieve. A study conducted by the World Economic Forum “predicted in 2014 that it would take until 2095 to achieve global gender parity. Then one year later in 2015, they estimated that a slowdown in the already glacial pace of progress meant the gender gap wouldn't close entirely until 2133.” However, by pledging for parity, “[e]veryone - men and women - can pledge to take a concrete step to help achieve gender parity more quickly - whether to help women and girls achieve their ambitions, call for gender-balanced leadership, respect and value difference, develop more inclusive and flexible cultures or root out workplace bias.” As a woman, I find it easy to align myself with the mission and ambitions of this day. But, this day, as it stands as pillar for worldwide transformation and the achievement of gender equity, is not only relevant for women. Each of us, men and women, can relate to the goals of a global women’s rights movement. Why? Because we are all human. Each of us, at some point in our lives, has realized the weight and value of our inherent rights. We have had instances and moments that have defined the significance of these rights- instances where we have experienced these rights to have been threatened, to have become partially lost, or wholly erased; moments where we have dedicated our lives to fighting for and achieving these rights for ourselves and for those like us. Therefore, since we have all experienced the importance of these inherent human rights, the ambitions of International Women’s Day should be no less vital for the flourishment of our global community. In joining together to achieve gender equity, we may come to realize that each of us possess a unique voice, each of our hearts are burdened by a specific issue or cause, and each of our souls are ignited by a distinct purpose. See, the beauty of our collective global community is that we can use each of our individualities to affect world-change. When we come together to advance the cause and ambitions of a certain group of people, we give strength to that cause in order to catapult it to fruition. For these reasons, we join together to acknowledge the purpose, celebrate the achievements, and advance the ambitions of International Women’s Day. With this year’s theme, pledge for parity, you can apply your individual passions, strengths, and talents towards achieving gender equity by focusing on one of five vital advancements: help women and girls achieve their ambitions, challenge conscious and unconscious bias, call for gender-balanced leadership, value women and men’s contributions equally, and create inclusive, flexible cultures. From my experiences abroad, to my passion in the study of my major, to the enriching friendships that have influenced my life, I was led to pledge to help women and girls achieve their ambitions. For me, this pledge reflects the personal ambitions, longings, and influences that have been placed on my heart. By committing to my pledge, I was humbled by the experiences that have allowed my path to cross with the paths of women and girls in Mexico, Honduras, South Africa, and Uganda. I was enlightened of the various conversations that I have had with these women and girls in developing countries around the world and the way in which they trusted me with their stories. I was reminded of how their individual accounts of bravery, perseverance and achievement, however great or small, has inspired me to use my voice to support their dreams, passions, and talents. But, by committing to my pledge, I was also reminded of all the ways that women in my life have inspired the pursuit of my own dreams, challenged my ability to push past individually or socially constructed parameters, and contribute my unique personhood to the world’s achievements. One of these women is my best friend, Nimah, who is currently on a Fulbright Scholarship, teaching English and implementing artistic practices to students in Kolkata, India. Over the past eight months, I have been encouraged and inspired to watch her gentleness, kindness, empathy, compassion, and selflessness in shaping the dreams and ambitions of her group of students. I have been amazed to see how she has been challenged, how she has triumphed, and how she has grown in sharing her life, light, and heart with her students. On this day, along with many others, I celebrate the incredible women like Nimah who are enlightening the world around them. In turn, I am inspired to use whatever passions, strengths, talents, and ideas that I have to uniquely and positively influence the world around me. To me, that is the beauty that is threaded throughout the goals and ambitions of this day- that, together, our strengths and dreams can inspire one another to change the world. So, today, celebrate what makes you unique by offering that uniqueness, that strength, and that undeniable spirit to enable the voices of women and girls around the world. Today, be reminded that your voices are powerful, that your dreams carry undeniable weight, and that your passions burn effervescently with a flame that cannot be quenched so that you can pass on your torch to those around the world whose light may be dimmed. Today, use your own experiences, fearlessly define your own dreams, and unapologetically exceed any limitations crafted by yourself or by others so that you may inspire women and girls around the world to do the same. Today, celebrate a woman's world. 

“We must tell girls their voices are important.”- Malala Yousafzai