Six Cents Initiative

Access to water PROBABLY isn't an issue for you. Sure, the kitchen is just sooooo far away and you're tired. But compare walking five steps to walking five miles, and there you go. Suddenly the sink doesn't seem so far away anymore.

Even if that child in their developing country who walks five miles to get water everyday gets the water they need, that water may be contaminated with who-knows-what. 4,500 children die every single day from lack of CLEAN water, not just lack of water itself. 

Cleanliness is a big thing, you know. Your country may not dump human/animal waste into the river and drink from that same river, but it happens in other places around the world. Imagine having to drink your own-- okay, don't. It's gross. 

People contract diseases like cholera, hepatitis A, and diarrhea. I know diarrhea may not sound that bad to you, but the thing is, you lose a lot of nutrients you obtain from the food you eat when you have diarrhea. And when you're already malnourished like the impoverished children in these developing countries, diarrhea is one of the worst things you can get.  

UNICEF has partnered up with Circle K to make the Six Cents Initiative, a program that provides access to clean water and oral rehydration packets. These packets help people recover from diseases they may have acquired from drinking contaminated water. They used to be just six cents each (hence the name) but now for some reason they're seven cents. 

But hey, seven cents to save a life. Not bad.

You don't have to be a millionaire to make a difference.

To learn more about how you can use your spare change to save a life, visit http://www.unicefusa.org/partners/ngo/six-cents-initiative.html

Have a great day!