"Don't drink the water" is a meaningless preventative if you don't have any other options.

"Waterborne illness kills a child every fifteen seconds and underlies much of the world's disease and malnutrition."

UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman

Simple diarrhea kills 4,500 children every day - caused primarily by unsafe drinking water. Most of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa , where the water supply for as many as four out of five rural children is crawling with disease-carrying parasites.

Lack of access to safe water also takes a huge economic toll. UNICEF estimates that some 40 billion work hours per year are lost in Africa alone as a result of the time spent fetching water long distances - up to six hours per day .

This doesn't include the comparable loss of school hours : many children, especially young girls , miss school because they must spend hours fetching water. This significantly reduces these children's chances for a more productive future.

Children's Hunger Relief Fund believes that providing access to safe drinking water is one of the most powerful and cost-effective things that we can do to invest in a child's life - in fact, to invest in a whole village of children and their families for years to come. We have funded thousands of projects over the past 25 years - for families, communities, children's homes and schools.

A small tank to collect and store clean water costs as little as $300 and will serve 15-20 people. A well for an entire village or school costs an average of $3,000. Both projects have an average useful life of 20-25 years. That works out to a cost of a few pennies per month to provide clean, life-saving water to thousands of people over the next 20-25 years.

Now that's a really good investment.

Several of our projects have been for children's homes and schools. "So typhoid is saying good bye to us." - Margaret, Rugongo Primary School ( Kenya )

Children’s Hunger Relief Fund Clean Water Projects Cost of Small Water Tank: $500 Serves: 15 - 20 people Avg. Useful Life: 25 years Avg. Annual Cost per Person: $1.50 Avg. Cost of Village Well: $3,000 Serves: 300 - 1,200 people Avg. Useful Life: 20 years Average Cost per Person: $0.12 per year You can sponsor all or part of a Water Project

Children's Hunger Relief Fund has sponsored clean water projects in Sub-Saharan Africa for over 25 years. We have also recently launched a drive to fund water projects in Afghanistan, where 70% of the rural population lacks access to clean water.

To find out how you can help, click here>>