Show Your Gratitude for Clean Water By Giving It to Others
Austin has clean water again, but millions of Africans do not. You can help change that just by registering for the 2018 Run for the Water. Make a short 5K run, a longer 10-mile run, or bring your family to the Kids K in beautiful downtown Austin Nov. 4, and you can change someone's life forever.
And if you don't want to run, you can still support water for Burundi, Africa by giving directly to the Gazelle Foundation.
Life in Austin was inconvenient this past week, with the city requiring everyone to boil tap water before use. Restaurant workers, teachers, business owners and citizens of all backgrounds had to strategize about their water use and find workarounds, all just to get access to water.
As bad as this was, the week also showed how blessed we are. For many of us, this was our first experience with a water shortage. The week also drove home how much we take for granted daily access to clean, healthful water.
People in rural Burundi don't have that luxury. Thousands of them live under a permanent "boil water notice." And their water challenges are more difficult than finding ways to purify tap water.
For starters, they don't have water three feet from their beds. Rural Burundians walk an average of three to four miles a day to obtain their daily water supply.
Most of the women and children hauling this water do it on foot, lugging heavy containers. It's a back-breaking daily chore that really puts Austin's recent water crisis in perspective.
So if you're feeling grateful for the return of clean tap water to Austin – or if you live someplace that always has clean tap water – consider what you can do to show your gratitude by helping someone who lives under a lifelong water shortage.
By running just three miles in the Run for the Water, you could raise enough money to help someone in Burundi never have to walk that same distance for water again.
Your fundraising will help Burundians build the pipes and infrastructure to bring clean water to an entire community. That’s how the Gazelle Foundation operates, working with local stakeholders to bring clean water one village at a time.
The Gazelle Foundation is thrilled to have clean tap water back in Austin. Our members live here and run here. We love Central Texas' natural resources as much as anyone.
We also hope that everyone thankful for water will consider paying that gratitude forward by giving the gift of clean water to someone in need.
Make a donation or register to run 5 kilometers, 10 miles or for the Kids K, and you can change someone's life forever.
Run for yourself. Run to show joy and gratitude. Run for the water.