Water... It's free! Right?

From the FLOW:TheFilm web page:

The latest documentary from the award-winning Irena Salina is an investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis.

Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.

Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question "CAN ANYONE REALLY OWN WATER?"

Beyond identifying the problem, FLOW also gives viewers a look at the people and institutions providing practical solutions to the water crisis and those developing new technologies, which are fast becoming blueprints for a successful global and economic turnaround.

This is dramatic and we need to sit up and pay attention! For the past three years Grow Missions has been providing clean drinking water solutions to rural schools in Kenya. We have provided clean water for over 12,500 children and their families. We use rain water systems for maximum effectiveness and minimal effect on the environment. While these corporations (depicted in FLOW:TheFilm) can not catch nor regulate nor stop the FLOW of water provided from the heavens, we MUST take action before they dry up rivers and streams and increse the number that struggle from lack of clean drinking water.

It is time to take action! Support the efforts to provide the poor and needy with clean drinking water AND support the efforts to stop the privitization of the worlds water resoruces. See the film, you will be surprized!

Ready, Set, DO!

What will it take to get us moving?

In the world of track and field the athletes line up at the start and they call, "Ready!". At this point all the competitors are at the start and ready to take off and compete for the prize. The next call is "Set" and they get into the race position and await the starting gun. With adrenalin pumping, elevated heart rates, and an eye on the competition, all the athletes are ready to go! But in that race, only one can win! They all compete for the prize, but there is only one winner.

But what if the call were different? What if the call was one that goes out to all the athletes, all the citizens, all the members, and in the race, each one can receive a prize. What if, in this race (the race of life), each person can in fact win. The start is the same. We all come to the race. We all line up with our skills and abilities. The call is made, "Ready?"! And we get to the starting line and start to focus. The next call comes, "Set"! And we get in a position to run the race, to make a difference. Then the final call comes. But in this race, the race of life, the call comes as "DO!". Ready, Set, and DO! In the race of life our call is to DO SOMETHING. In this race the same sequence is there at the beginning. We come and are ready. We get set to enter the race as we come closer to each other, and closer to our creator. And then when the gun is ready to sound; when the race is ready to be run, it is our time to DO SOMETHING.

In the race of life it is often all about just that, doing something. We all enter the race at some point. What makes us different from one another is that some of us jump off the starting line and run the race to the best of our ability. We do something with whatever we have. Whatever skills we have. Whatever funds we have. Whatever we have. We just do something because we want to and we can. We no longer sit at the start waiting for the right moment, or waiting for another start. We take off and do whatever we can.

I encourage you this day to get in the race! Do something! Do anything! The race has started, people are in need all over the world. You have been given the skills, the funds, and the abilities to do something for someone else. Let's win this one together!

Social Media Makeover!

Please join in the effort and vote for Grow Missions (Austin, TX) and help us win a social media makeover. As we endeavor to tell the world about the critical situation in Africa and the desperate need for clean drinking water, we need to use all the social media outlets we can. Not being experts in this field, we are always looking for help. This opportunity can bring us the much needed support to GROW our awareness and support.

Please help or contact us directly if you want to further assist in these efforts. If we all pull together and tell all our friends we can raise the funds and save lives in Africa.

Thank you for your help!

Where is local?

We should focus our efforts here at home!

This statement may ring true for water conservation or just in general for caring for the poor. But at Grow Missions we try to take a larger global view and really understand the critical needs and struggles of poor people here and in remote parts of the world.

In recent news reports we are amazed to read that nearly two thirds of the world population still do not have access to clean drinking water and that this is not a priority in our global fight for hunger or elimination of HIV/Aids. So, where do we put our focus, or our funds to make the biggest change? We look for where each dollar can make the largest impact in changing a life and a community in such a way that these problems are eliminated for good.

This is why Grow Missions focuses our efforts in the remote parts of Kenya and Burundi. These areas struggle with basic survival. The day in the life of women and children is centered around where to get water before it is too dirty or gone. Women and children walk miles and then carry heavy buckets of water on their backs up hills and home. Focused only on survival these children have no time for school and the women deal with constant pains. As we sit here and talk about where we can make the largest difference in the lives of people in need, the poor of this world, we are constantly drawn back to these women and children. Yes, there is a struggle here at home; yes, we have hungry and poor around us here; But these children do not even have clean water to drink. And, it will be years before the governments in these countries can even start to resolve this crisis. So, as the Grow Missions staff meets, we agree that we must go where the need is great and the results are amazing.

We choose to work in Kenya and Burundi because we can make a great impact and save a great many lives for a relatively small cost. There are few places where we can spend just a little and change the lives of so many so quickly and permanently.

So in a time when many are focusing efforts here at home, we continue to look at home in the larger context. We are all one on this earth and we need to care for each other and make sure that everyone has at least the basics needed to survive. Water in Africa is a project that is far away, but for us it feels like home.