The Ice Bucket Challenge: Alive and Well in ADAWA Communities

A few months ago, Facebook was inundated with videos of people dumping buckets of cold water on themselves. While some did it in conjunction with a donation to ALS and others as the alternative to making a donation, the idea was simple: dump a bucket of water on your head to raise awareness and funds for research (and hopefully, a cure) for a heartbreaking, crippling disease.

The campaign was wildly successful, raising $100 million dollars for the ALS Association. Nonprofits the world over looked on with admiration and envy, wondering how on earth they could ever leverage that magnitude of support for their cause.

While paying a monthly visit to ADAWA during the Ice-Bucket Challenge frenzy, in the midst of fundraising for community wells, the hilarious irony of this fundraising campaign struck me.

Friends and family back home were dumping buckets of cold water on themselves as a punishing alternative to not donating to ALS research or as an uncomfortable way to show their solidarity for those suffering, while those in our rural communities were doing it on a regular basis, thankful simply to have a bucket of water to wash with.

Let’s recap: People were taking unpleasant bucket showers to raise awareness and funds for ALS. We were trying to raise awareness and funds to make uncomfortable bucket showers accessible to more people.

"AHHHHHHH! SUFFERING FOR CHARITY!"

 "Boy, I sure am lucky to have this
bucket of water to shower with today!"

Life's funny sometimes.

To clarify, this is not a criticism of the Ice Bucket Challenge or its participants. Any social media campaign that successfully engages millions of previously uninvolved people is cause for celebration and close study. It demonstrates how willing and eager we are to help when a compelling call to action comes our way. And it gives the rest of us nonprofits hope that someday, some way, we can find a way to motivate and mobilize others similarly around our own cause.

The creator of the Ice Bucket Challenge, unbeknownst to him, turned a bucket shower into a fundraising phenomenon. As we further develop our Household Infrastructure Initiative (wells and rainwater filtration, improved outhouses, and safer cookstoves), we’re wondering how to do the same.

While the Ice Bucket Challenge is already taken, its success has certainly forced us to think a little more creatively about how we engage potential donors. While we’ve yet to hit on our own winning idea, we’ve enjoyed coming up with some real ridiculous ones:

“I Give a Sh*t About Santa Lucía” Challenge- Find a full, overdue-for-servicing Porta-Potty at a nearby construction site and spend 10 minutes in it on a 90 degree summer day- or make a $10 donation to ADAWA! 

“If You Can’t Take the Heat...” Challenge - Build a firepit in your kitchen. Light said fire and try to cook a meal on it. If that seems scary, unsafe, or simply too hot for you... donate $10 to ADAWA!

“Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is” Challenge - Know that dirty, stinking river/pond/stream a few towns over that’s notorious for being contaminated with sewerage runoff and way too gross to swim in? Go enjoy a refreshing glass of it! Or... you guessed it... donate to ADAWA!

We jest. Still, our gears are turning. While our current fundraiser for a concrete block mold and construction materials for wells, safe indoor cookstoves and improved outhouses raised $325 in its first few days, we’ve reached a standstill. 

We’ll keep working on our ideas, we promise. In the meantime, we’d appreciate it if you could share our GoFundMe page with your friends and family. Our fundraiser may not have viral internet appeal (yet!), but it will help a a whole lot of families who are eager to get their hands dirty and build a safer, healthier community together. Thank you!