On 27th March I started a birthday campaign. I gave up receiving birthday gifts. Instead, I've been asking for $10 (about £7 /9Euros) or more to raise funds for clean water in developing countries. I started the first phase of the campaign by putting $360 of my own money, as you'll see on:
http://mycharitywater.org/soniashah

The second phase till end of June has just started
http://mycharitywater.org/soniashah2012

The BEST PART:100% of ALL donations go directly toward water projects and NOT towards the admin and maintenance of the charities. It goes directly to the people who are really in need. And about 18 months after this campaign ends, charity: water will show us where and how every dollar we raised ended up helping in the field. We'll see GPS coordinates, photos and more details about the communities we've impacted.

on 31st March (my birthday), almost $2400 had been raised just in 4 days by generous people from various sources : ), the start of making this campaign successful, but there's more that needs to be collected.
I just wanted to make my birthday matter this year, so I thought I'd involve as many people celebrating my birthday to make a significant difference to others.

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.

If you'd like to be a STAR as part of these celebrations, please join me and help me continue by participating in the campaign

http://mycharitywater.org/soniashah2012

to make a real difference to others, thanks to your generosity!

A MASSIVE THANK YOU TO ALL those who have become part of this celebration and participated in this campaign.