Every day, 1,400 kids under the age of 5 die from water-related illnesses. Let's help change that!

For the past 2 years, I’ve decided to celebrate my birthday in a different way.
I’ve been lucky enough to be born and raised in this western world. I haven’t been in a position where I’ve my life has been in danger and I’ve never lacked basic resources to live.

When it comes to material comfort, there’s nothing I really need and I’m living a happy and fulfilled life. So since 2013, I’ve decided to celebrate my birthday by trying to help others. It’s worked well the first few times: in 2013, we’ve raised over $1500 and brought clean water to 225 people. And in 2014, we’ve raised nearly $1200, and saved about 200 lives!

This year, I’ll turn 24 on February 9th, and to celebrate, I’ve set a goal to raise $2400.

Once again, whether you’re a close friend whom I’ve known for years, or whether we’ve met online, I’m not usually the type of person who would ask for a gift. However this is for a really good cause and it matters a lot to me.

Did you know that almost a billion people on the planet don't have access to clean drinking water? Every day, 1,400 kids die from water-related illnesses before they reach their fifth birthday. But it doesn't have to be that way. There are simple solutions like drilled wells, spring protections and BioSand filters that help provide clean water to communities around the world.

100% of every dollar you donate to my birthday campaign will be used to build clean water projects in developing countries. charity: water funds their operating costs separately through a group of private donors, so 100% of all public donations will go directly to people in need.

************ How to Help************

- The best way to help is also the simplest: to achieve my goal of raising $2400, I need donations. So if you’d like to help, as a birthday present, please donate to my campaign here!

- I’ve also set up an email newsletter in English which you can sign up to here: http://bitly.com/1As7PgV (I have a separate one for french-speaking friends and family members available at http://tibz.co/fr). By subscribing to this newsletter, you'll receive more information about the campaign itself, including updates about the project, details behind my motivations, and more behind the scenes stuff behind how I'm trying to work on this campaign and get the word out!

- Finally, another very simple way to help out is just to share this campaign with the people around you, whether it’s a post on your favourite social networks (I’m at @iTibz on Twitter by the way), or you can also talk about it with your friends, family or coworkers!

Thanks again for taking the time to read this post! I hope to hear more from you soon and will be sure to send an update about the campaign very soon!

—Thibault