Clean Water in Africa

Would you want to spend three months running through the world's largest desert?

I didn't think so.

But that's exactly what ultra-marathoner Charlie Engel and his two teammates did in 2005-2006, when they ran through the Sahara for 111 days, trekking an estimated 4,300 miles and inking their passports with the stamps of six countries (Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Libya, and Egypt, if you're keeping track).

Charlie is in town tonight for the Arts and Education Council of Chattanooga-sponsored film screening of Running the Sahara, a feature length documentary that chronicles the amazing feat (Click here to watch the trailer). A portion of the proceeds from the event will benefit H2O Africa, an organization fighting to raise awareness and funds for clean water in Africa, and the Rodale Institute, which promotes organic farming methods as a tool to combat global warming.

As you might have guessed, although we couldn't set out across the African sands ourselves, at World Next Door we've packed up some of our products from nearby countries and are headed to the screening. We hope to serve as an educational resource about poverty across the globe, while also giving people an up-close glance at how they can help some of the poverty-stricken help themselves.

Here's a quick glance at some of the stats we'll share tonight:

GLOBAL POVERTY
· 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day. (World Bank)
· Poverty causes the deaths of 25,000 children every day. (UNICEF)
· There were 3 billion people living on less than $2 a day, and 1.3 billion living on less than $1 a day in 1999. (Global Policy)