Celebrate Six Cents Day

Six cents provides a mixture of sugar
and salt, called oral rehydration salts
(ORS), that saves lives during
episodes of rehydration.

It’s a staggering number: 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water—and 4,500 children die every single day because of this.

To spread awareness of this global issue, and to raise funds to provide clean drinking water, Circle K International (CKI) and the US Fund for UNICEF teamed up this past year to establish Saving Lives: The Six Cents Initiative

And now, the CKI Service Committee has declared March 22, 2008, as Six Cents Day, in conjunction with World Water Day, an international observance begun by the United Nations in 1992.

Six cents may seem like just a drop in the bucket, but all those donated pennies quickly add up.

“Every day, many of us drink the equivalent of at least 1 to 3 bottles of water, and we don’t even realize it,” says International Representative Ralph Johnson. “Yet, around the world, 1 billion people don’t have access to even a cup of clean tap water to drink or take care of personal needs. We, as members of the Kiwanis family, have the opportunity to make a big difference in our world by contributing just six cents to help make water safe and sanitary.”

How can the Kiwanis family help? Read the Six Cents Initiative Project Overview and Guide for more ideas, and for information on where to send donations.

Photo Credit: UNICEF HQ05-1711/Asad Zaidi