On 08/31/2011, I'm turning 25. And this year, I'm sharing my birthday with charity: water to help bring clean drinking water to people in need.

charity: water is also celebrating their fifth birthday, and has already helped 2 million people get access to safe water. But this year, they want to accelerate their impact by purchasing a new drilling rig and the equipment it takes to dig even more wells for villages in need.

Almost a billion people in the world are living without clean water -- but how much are they really living? Millions contract deadly diseases from contaminated water. 30,000 people will die this week alone. The lucky ones won't, but still have to walk hours each day to get dirty water for their families.

So to help, I'm giving up my birthday gifts and asking for $25 from everyone I know. 100% of the money will fund the equipment to drill wells for people in northern Ethiopia.

That's not all -- charity: water will mount a GPS device to drilling rig we fund -- so we'll be able to follow it from village to village once the work gets under way!

Join me -- each drilling rig can help bring clean water to 80 new villages each year, and help 40,000 people get clean water.