Bitcoin to Bring Water to Ethiopia

[RunForWater]

Run for Water is an organization that has been involved in a movement that has activated thousands of people to become ambassadors, creating awareness about global water-drinking conditions. Fighting for the basic right that everyone is entitled to clean and accessible drinking water Ethiopia, Africa is Run for Water’s first destination. For 12 years, over 100,000 lives in 50 plus communities have been changed by the simple gift of clean water, reducing and preventing illness and death. As these communities are empowered to thrive independently, they are led out of injustice and poverty

Run for Water was seeking innovative ways to spread its reach and awareness more globally, and discovered the huge benefits of bitcoin for philanthropic purposes. Since December 2018, Run for Water has partnered with BitGive to host the fundraising campaign on GiveTrack- BitGive’s first non-profit Bitcoin Donation Platform. The opportunity to fundraise in bitcoin on the platform allows us to enhance transparency by educating donors with user-friendly and high-level evidence-based reporting.

We are honoured to be working with the entire team at BitGive, and very excited to expand to a global and digital network that is using technology and innovation as a force for social impact!

For over a decade, Run for Water has fundraised over $3 million dollars and has helped tens of thousands of people by bringing clean water to Ethiopian villages. This project is specifically focused on helping the community of Waraba by providing an underground freshwater spring-well. Currently, the community is using the local river as a water source, causing illness and serious water-borne diseases that are particularly aggressive with children. This will be the first project partnering with BitGive in the hopes of funding the entire clean water project utilising bitcoin and blockchain technology.


We've started the Waraba development and will be providing updates on progress shortly! While we have some great traction with the campaign thus far, we still need the crypto community's help in reaching our goal.

Please check out the Waraba project on GiveTrack and donate today: https://www.givetrack.org/project-details/9/Water-for-Waraba
Check out our blog post here to learn more about the community of Waraba: https://www.bitgivefoundation.org/guest-blog-water-for-waraba-series-part-1-waraba-anticipating-water/

Thank you for your support, and for helping us be part of this revolution in philanthropy!

[TimeBits]

Is there any way to donate to the people donating, that would be cool. This like a gofund me for bitcoin, I like it.

[Abolaji11]

This is a very wonderful innovative project that seek to give clean and good water to the masses. I will surely read more about this organization and I will be willing to contribute my quota to the organization.

[BitGiveOrg]

Is there any way to donate to the people donating, that would be cool. This like a gofund me for bitcoin, I like it.

Hi and thanks for commenting! We do not have a way to donate to donors. I'm not sure I understand the need for donating to the people that donate. Is the ask to donate bitcoin to someone that has already donated bitcoin to a project on GiveTrack? Or is the ask to give bitcoin to someone who will then donate that bitcoin to a project on GiveTrack?

Apologies for the confusion.

All the best,

Jay
BitGive

[Jet Cash]

I think we need to stop drawing water from under the ground, it is causing some major problems, and increasing desertification. The Chinese are starting to provide desalination plants, and this would seem to be a better solution. It provides a pretty marginal reduction in sea levels, but more importantly, it starts to replace the groundwater, and can lead to reforestation if managed correctly.

[Ayiranorea]

I think we need to stop drawing water from under the ground, it is causing some major problems, and increasing desertification. The Chinese are starting to provide desalination plants, and this would seem to be a better solution. It provides a pretty marginal reduction in sea levels, but more importantly, it starts to replace the groundwater, and can lead to reforestation if managed correctly.

Throughout the world there is scarcity of water. Country's that have planned infrastructure for the rain water harvesting were the one that fulfills their needs unlike any climate change. The groundwater level keeps going down, but desalination can't be made effective in all the countries. In my country we've desalination plants, but lack of perfect infrastructure plan has caused scarcity of water as we haven't got regular rainfall percentage.

[d5000]

I just searched for the Waraba town and first I thought it didn't exist outside the "Run for Water" campaign. But the FAO mentions it as a village in Amhara region, so the project could be legit (one has to be cautious here in the Bitcoin community, due to all the bad experiences ...).

Mainly I searched for it to know about the climate of the region, to answer @Jet Cash's post. It seems however a pretty green place, so I guess it could have a humid climate (which seems to be confirmed by the Wikipedia entry about Amhara region), and thus desalination wouldn't be an option for it (anyway, Ethiopia has no coastline, so there aren't any significant saltwater resources). Anyway, if the intention of the project is to improve the water supply technology, any efficiency improvement is also a step in the correct direction as this way less water gets lost on the way to the consumers.

BTW: What could be cool woud be a subforum for donation requests like these, I searched in the Marketplace and there doesn't seem such a category. The problem with "Bitcoin Discussion" is that threads with serious intentions get often buried under trivial topics, and it isn't also really the place for these topics.

[RunForWater]

I just searched for the Waraba town and first I thought it didn't exist outside the "Run for Water" campaign. But the FAO mentions it as a village in Amhara region, so the project could be legit (one has to be cautious here in the Bitcoin community, due to all the bad experiences ...).

Mainly I searched for it to know about the climate of the region, to answer @Jet Cash's post. It seems however a pretty green place, so I guess it could have a humid climate (which seems to be confirmed by the Wikipedia entry about Amhara region), and thus desalination wouldn't be an option for it (anyway, Ethiopia has no coastline, so there aren't any significant saltwater resources). Anyway, if the intention of the project is to improve the water supply technology, any efficiency improvement is also a step in the correct direction as this way less water gets lost on the way to the consumers.

BTW: What could be cool woud be a subforum for donation requests like these, I searched in the Marketplace and there doesn't seem such a category. The problem with "Bitcoin Discussion" is that threads with serious intentions get often buried under trivial topics, and it isn't also really the place for these topics

Thanks for your interest in the community and doing your due diligence...that is important!

The community of Waraba is in the Oromia region and it's GPS coordinates are 5°07'20.8"N 40°57'05.9"E  (this can be found on the GiveTrack: https://www.givetrack.org/project-details/9/Water-for-Waraba). It is a very remote community, which is why it can be challenging to find on a map and to find information about online. We, in partnership with imagine1day in Ethiopia, identified Waraba as the community to work with after an in-depth survey with the community. While the government provides baseline data on each community, imagine1day goes above and beyond by going into each community to assess their needs. Waraba was identified as one of the most vulnerable communities based on its lack of access to any clean water source. The community has been asking its local government for support to get a water source a long time, but the government said they weren't able to provide the funds for at least 5 years. The stream they are currently relying on is shared with the animals and is often contaminated, meaning that 5 years is extending the serious risk to the community too long!

I understand that there are alternatives to providing water in different regions around the world, but the local water engineers in Ethiopia are the ones who create a feasible and sustainable system for each community. The community itself is involved in the process from the very beginning; moreover, they are part of planning, designing, implementing, decision making, monitoring and evaluating the project at all stages. This sense of ownership is critical to the longterm maintenance of the system.

We did just have a few of the Run for Water representatives visit the community, so if you have any specific questions I am happy to get the answer for you 

[yesyes18]

It's awesome you guys are trying to showcases Bitcoin for a good cause. at least this will help create some sort of awareness in Ethiopia for people to know that bitcoin can serve a whole lotta functions. Good job done. i hope to see ghis foundation trending in many other African countries as well.

[AmoreJaz]

I just searched for the Waraba town and first I thought it didn't exist outside the "Run for Water" campaign. But the FAO mentions it as a village in Amhara region, so the project could be legit (one has to be cautious here in the Bitcoin community, due to all the bad experiences ...).

Mainly I searched for it to know about the climate of the region, to answer @Jet Cash's post. It seems however a pretty green place, so I guess it could have a humid climate (which seems to be confirmed by the Wikipedia entry about Amhara region), and thus desalination wouldn't be an option for it (anyway, Ethiopia has no coastline, so there aren't any significant saltwater resources). Anyway, if the intention of the project is to improve the water supply technology, any efficiency improvement is also a step in the correct direction as this way less water gets lost on the way to the consumers.

BTW: What could be cool woud be a subforum for donation requests like these, I searched in the Marketplace and there doesn't seem such a category. The problem with "Bitcoin Discussion" is that threads with serious intentions get often buried under trivial topics, and it isn't also really the place for these topics.

i do agree with the fact that this kind of initiative will just be forgotten and buried. maybe move it to marketplace > service announcements (the closest that i think of) -https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=84.0

also this type of crowdsourcing needs good exposure not only in this community but other communities or platforms that might get interested in donating some of their extra cash to fulfil the mission of the project. a noble work but sometimes they are often ignored by capable individuals.

[RunForWater]

This is a very wonderful innovative project that seek to give clean and good water to the masses. I will surely read more about this organization and I will be willing to contribute my quota to the organization.

Thank you so much, the easiest place to do so is: https://www.givetrack.org/project-details/9/Water-for-Waraba
Let me know if you have any challenges or questions 

[RunForWater]

It's awesome you guys are trying to showcases Bitcoin for a good cause. at least this will help create some sort of awareness in Ethiopia for people to know that bitcoin can serve a whole lotta functions. Good job done. i hope to see ghis foundation trending in many other African countries as well.

We couldn't agree more! We're excited about the long term opportunities to expand the usage of Bitcoin from end-to-end in philanthrophy (from donor to water engineer in our case). BitGive and GiveTrack have done an excellent job setting up the infrastructure but now we need to get on the ground and work with the communities and the individuals. One of the biggest challenges we have seen in the best is setting up a bank and a bank account for the beneficiaries so they can receive the funds for their work. This is extremely important what empowering local works; however, Bitcoin allows for a new way to empower the individuals and streamline the access and flow of value! This project is our first step in expanding awareness in Ethiopia, and with the hope that this fundraising campaign is successful, we think it's the start of a long term revolution in the community and many others!!

Thanks for your support.

[Kakmakr]

I already donated a lot of money to https://thewaterproject.org/donate-bitcoin and what I like about their service is that they are accepting 4 other Alt coins for donations too.  I got some FREE fork coins after the Bitcoin fork and I donated a lot of the BCash that I received to their water projects.    <They also generate a receipt that you can use for tax purposes>

I see your site wants you to login with Social media accounts and that might be an option that some people would want to avoid. Staying anonymous, helps people to prevent situations where information about them might get into the wrong hands <scammers> and that they might get bombarded with fake sites that wants "donations" for fake projects.     

[Mpamaegbu]

I think we need to stop drawing water from under the ground, it is causing some major problems, and increasing desertification. The Chinese are starting to provide desalination plants, and this would seem to be a better solution. It provides a pretty marginal reduction in sea levels, but more importantly, it starts to replace the groundwater, and can lead to reforestation if managed correctly.

The earth is suspended on water. Drawing from the ground seems plausible, especially where the borehole option is mostly available to Africa (Ethiopia is in Africa).

I see your site wants you to login with Social media accounts and that might be an option that some people would want to avoid. Staying anonymous, helps people to prevent situations where information about them might get into the wrong hands <scammers> and that they might get bombarded with fake sites that wants "donations" for fake projects.     

I also observed that too and wondered if a fresh account would get an attention when it has to do with monetary donations. But I think the OP is getting attention already. It's a welcome development.

[oleg681010]

I have long said that bitcoin can save the world. This is a good example of one use case

[SirLancelot]

I have long said that bitcoin can save the world. This is a good example of one use case

The impact of bitcoin on the world would have gone more than this if all those moneys generated by the projects that have been established were actually used. There has been lots of great concept that those altcoins had, and if they had been well utilized, government would have felt the positive impact of it heavily.

This a very good project and this shows that the team are really serious and dedicated, this kind of project is actually a unique one because water is what people need to survive, and people who are being supported by this project would really be happy to have a liberation of what they have been longing for long time ago. I will actually be very glad to support this project also provided they promise to be transparent and do exactly has they have promised.

[CVD]

A small contribution can seriously change the lives of many people. Not everyone was lucky in geographical location and the situation will only worsen. So this is a good start.

[buwaytress]

Every little bit helps, and if it's a different way for Bitcoin to make its mark, no matter how small, I'm all for it. Got friends from there, would love to visit one day, maybe check out the project.

BitGive is awesome btw!

P.S. OP: Move this to Projects, maybe more traction there. Can get buried in this section.

[kryptqnick]

It's great that you accept donations in Bitcoin. Your project indeed sounds like a very important one. I live in a third world country, but access to clean drinkable water is just something we take for granted and tend to overuse. It's even hard to imagine how people leave in the distant and more geographically unfortunate regions, lacking such a simple and absolutely necessary thing for life as water. You being open to Bitcoin is nice, because such projects can help to make Bitcoin's reputation better. After all, it's money, and money can be used for all sorts of things.
Good luck!

[RunForWater]

I have long said that bitcoin can save the world. This is a good example of one use case

We couldn't agree more, thank you for your support!