There is a global crisis going on that many of us do not know about. Over 3.575 million people die each year from this crisis. At any given time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from disease caused from this crisis. Every 15 seconds, a child dies from a disease caused by this epidemic which equals out to be roughly 2.1 million children a year. These are only a few of the facts that come from our global water crisis. There are many more like these ones and these numbers are growing by the day.

As a person who never had to worry about where they would get clean water, it breaks my heart to think about how many people have to worry about this sort of thing. Only 62% of the world’s population has access to improved sanitation of water. Improved sanitation is defined as a sanitation facility that ensures hygienic separation of human excreta from human contact. That is roughly 2.5 billing people who do not have access to improved sanitation which 1.2 billion people don’t have any facilities at all. Think if you were part of the 2.5 billion people, would you be willing to drink water that you knew that was contaminated? Without food, a person could live up for a few weeks but without water; you could only survive for a few days.

Last week, I was able to participate in something special. In over 175 cities across the world, Twitter users came together to help raise awareness and funding for charity:water. Charity:water is a non-profit organization that brings clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations by funding sustainable clean water solutions in areas of greatest need. The goal of that one night was to raise over a million dollars to fund well projects around the world. It is extraordinary what can happen when individuals come together to help each other out.

In a war that is claiming more live than any war with guns, it isn’t too late to fight back and help the cause. You can still donate and help fight this global crisis.