Got an extra dollar lying around? How about using that pocket change to pay for something we so often take for granted — water?
At any restaurant, we usually sit down, place our napkins in our laps and take a sip of clear, refreshing water. And that cold glass of H20 is usually ours free of charge. That is not that case for the majority of the third world, where water is scarce and purified water expensive, but in the coming week, the D.C. restaurants are doing their part to serve both food and the worldwide community.
Next week, restaurants around the country will ask patrons to donate at least $1 for the water they usually drink for free toward the United Nations Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF) “Tap Project” in an effort to provide clean and safe drinking water for children of third- world nations. According to the Tap Project Web site, www.tapproject.org, the campaign kicked off in New York City last March and will be hosted across the country in major cities, from March 16-22, this year.
During this campaign, members of Georgetown’s UNICEF group said they plan to fundraise and raise awareness from March 16-22 as part of the United Nation’s World Water Week. They said UNICEF’s mission is to increase access to clean water resources and sanitation facilities and encourage hygienic habits in over 90 countries around the globe.
Nichole Lim (SFS ’10), the fundraising chair of UNICEF-Georgetown, helped recruit restaurant owners in the Georgetown area for the Tap Project. Once UNICEF-Georgetown learned that the United Nations’program would become a nationwide event, Lim said the club “jumped at the opportunity to get involved with such a big project and do what we can to make it a success in D.C.” This year, UNICEF-Georgetown hopes to raise at least $2,000 by the end of the academic year, and Lim estimated that major U.S. cities will raise around $100,000 individually, which New York City raised within one day last year. In the future, the Tap Project will be the main source of donations for UNICEF and World Water Day, according to its mission statement.
Lim highlighted the project’s contributions, which call attention to the problem of access to clean and safe drinking water in the world. She remarked, “Here in the Unites States., we enjoy safe water straight from the tap. But the truth is that lack of clean and accessible drinking water is the second largest worldwide killer of children under age five. By participating in this project and agreeing to pay just that $1 for tap water you would normally enjoy for free, you are effectively providing one child with enough drinking water for 40 days.” The minimum $1 donation also provides 100 water purification tablets for children in crises or one day’s worth of safe drinking water for forty children.
Vice president of UNICEF-Georgetown Jay Lin (COL ’09) said that the project can positively affect the lives of both Georgetown students and those in third -world countries.. “In developed countries like the United States, clean drinking water is often taken for granted,” he said. “After you have some alcoholic beverage, your friend readily hands you a cup of water to help you avoid a hangover the next day. After strenuous exercise, you go straight to the water fountain to quench your thirst without a second thought.”
However, he was careful to note that “in less developed countries, there is no cup of water waiting there for them to drink. There is also no water fountain providing clean drinking water. Water is almost always the most pressing need, not only in the wake of a disaster, in the developing countries.”
“What if you could save an underprivileged child by simply going out to eat? This is what the Tap Project is about. …This is the impact each one of us can make during the Tap Project week,” Lin said. Some of the participating Georgetown restaurants include popular spots such as 1789, Bangkok Bistro, Bangkok Joe’s, Daily Grill, Pizza Paradiso and Zed’s Ethiopian Cuisine. Lim also hopes more restaurants will continue to enroll as they get closer to World Water Week.
Maureen Hirsch, director of marketing for Clyde’s Restaurant Group, which includes 1789, heard about the campaign through a local chef’s wife. She said she became interested in the cause and thought customers would benefit from making donations to the Tap Project.
“I think customers will feel some sort of feel-good thing out of it,” she said. “It’s a very small donation. …so people don’t think have to think about it. People like doing small things and small things add up. …so adding a dollar is so insignificant, but in the end it certainly helps.”
Lin said UNICEF estimates that over one billion people worldwide have little or no access to safe water and that one in five of them are children. Nearly 6,000 children, every day, die of thirst or water-related diseases, namely pneumonia and diarrhea. Lin said that to put it in perspective, about 2,000 people were killed by Hurricane Katrina, but three times more children die every day worldwide. Almost 6,000 people in Thailand died from the Asian Tsunami in 2004, but that many children die every single day as a result of preventable or treatable causes.
The Tap Project also coincides with the Unites Nation’s official World Water Day, Mar. 28. UN member states dedicate the day to educating the public through conferences, lectures and panels on the preservation and maintenance of water resources.
According to the Tap Project Web site, this year’s theme for World Water Day is the “Year of Sanitation,” with the goal of improving sanitation facilities in developing countries.
In Red Square, Georgetown-UNICEF will sell bottled water individually and in bulk with the goal of fundraising at least $1,000 for the U.S. Fund for UNICEF during World Water Week.
“We hope everyone will keep an eye out as we begin sales for a chance to help save children’s lives and learn more about global water and sanitation issues,” Lim said.
Cheers.