My name is GRAHAM HUGHES. I am attempting to do something that has never been done before - I am trying to step foot in EVERY COUNTRY in the WORLD just using ground-based scheduled transport.
That means I've got to somehow visit 200 NATIONS of our planet WITHOUT FLYING and WITHOUT DRIVING.
CAN IT BE DONE? I say YES. I've already reached over 150 NATIONS since I started back in January 2009, including Colombia, Congo, Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan.
I'm doing this to raise money for the charity WaterAid.
WHY?
Sewage systems and the flushing toilet have saved more lives than any other invention known to man. They allowed Britain to leave the Big Stink behind and with it the bad old days when people (including Kings and Queens) would have 17 children on the off-chance that one of them might reach puberty. Now infant mortality in Britain one of the lowest in the world.
But the Third World, shackled by corrupt, inept and misguided leaders, has no such luck. You walk through villages, towns and cities in India or Sub-Saharan Africa and the stench is sometimes unbearable. Woman and children squatting by the side of the road, embarrassed and vulnerable. Their governments waste billions on wars, on nuclear weapons, on statues and palaces. Meanwhile, millions of children are dying for no good reason.
There are four horsemen of the apocalypse in the 21st century – Aids, Malaria, Corruption and Bad Sanitation. They all need to be fought, but the lack of sanitation kills more children than the other three put together. Children can’t vote, they can’t protest, they can’t escape – they die quietly and out of sight. But by donating just a small amount to this noble and necessary charity, YOU can help put an end to this terrible situation.
Shocking, isn’t it? It’s almost unbelievable that in the 21st century FOUR THOUSAND young lives are lost EVERY SINGLE DAY to this easily preventable and easily treatable disease.
These children, the vast majority of whom are under the age of five, die through drinking unsafe water or being subjected to bad (or non-existent) sanitation.
This isn’t just about sending plumbers to the slums of India or engineers to rural Africa to dig wells, it is about persuading the United Nations and the governments of the world to prioritise the delivery of safe water and proper sanitation and to make it a basic human right.
The unbelievable truth is that 2,500,000,000 PEOPLE worldwide do not have access to a toilet. That may seem like an insurmountable number, but it’s not – thanks to the great work done by charities like WaterAid, it is decreasing by the day. The dream is that by 2020 no human being will have to ever again suffer the indignity nor take the risk of squatting in the street.
There are two ways you can support WaterAid through The Odyssey Expedition. One is by simply watching the YouTube videos. However, this only equates to $1 per 1000 unique views. If you really want to help, please donate directly via this JustGiving page.
Please give what you can. Thank You.
