Clean Water Kid, Ryan H.- CNN Hero, 'ell! He Has My Vote For King of the World!

[Guest]

.

[Jill]

      As Matt has taken Kiva out of the CNN Heroes "competition", I can now, with absolutely undivided loyalty, lobby for your votes for Ryan Hreljac, a selection in the last category, "Young Wonder" -- voting for which will begin next Monday, November 5.
     
     
      Ryan is 16 years old, now, but I fell truly, deeply, forever in love with this humble, serious, beyond-compassionate boy five or six years ago
when I saw what was perhaps the most affecting film of my life, "Ryan's Well."   It's the story of a young Canadian's quest for clean water for Ugandans, (actually, it was for Ugandans, at first, then for clean water for all peoples), a quest that actually began when he was six years old. 
     
     
      His story, in truth, this little guy's unwavering perseverance and heart, ended up being the catalyzing force for the creation of Ryan's Well Foundation, in Kemptville, Ontario.  Turns out that the information that CNN has on its Heroes' website is out of date. If you go to the Ryan's Well Foundation website, http://www.ryanswell.ca/ you will see that as of today, ".... Ryan's Well Foundation has built 319 Wells and supported sanitation, health and hygiene services in 14 countries around the world...." 

       
      Because of this one little boy whose heart hurt at the thought of people not having clean water, and because of all the people, like me, who were so touched that he could have been so touched and affected, in the ten years since he first started, over 485, 000 people now have access to clean water who, perhaps, never would have known what clean water tasted like, but for this beautiful kid.
       
     
      I will post more as it gets closer to the time to vote for his category (next Monday).  In the meantime, check out the following videos if you're interested.  It's hard for me to imagine how anybody could resist this life-celebrating story. The one $25,000 dollar prize CNN is offering would have the potential of bringing that many more deserving people clean water.

http://www.r2r.ca/mov/ryanswell.mov
http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=173

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/16/heroes.archive/index.html
   (There are 2 different videos, at the CNN Heroes' website, of Ryan and his beautiful brother, Jimmy.  Be sure to watch them both if you can).

   
      I couldn't even tell you how many times I've watched that fifty minute long movie, Ryan's Well, as I've tried to share it with nearly everybody I knew and with many (classes of school kids) I didn't.  I can tell you that every single time, though, even though I almost have it memorized, tears still come to my eyes and I, each time, feel this great almost impossible love for a kid I don't even know.

[Sherri]

Yeah, I watched the documentary you sent me Jill, that boy is a real inspiration! He gets my vote.

[Jill]

       Apart from a one or two line reminder this coming Monday, when voting for the "Young Wonder" category begins, and apart from another shorty (I promise), if and only if  Ryan makes it into the (semi?-) finals, I'm relatively sure that what I'm posting now will be all I'll be saying on this subject, unless someone asks me a question about it.
       
     
      I'm posting this, now, to give a chance to anybody who's interested to consider the choices, to reflect on the possible good that a $25,000 prize could accomplish, and maybe to do a little research, if you want, before the voting starts on the 5th. 
   
         
    When Matt Flannery, in his blog, encouraged us to vote for Blue Energy instead of for Kiva, I think that he was just trying to help the group he felt was the worthiest in Kiva's category -- Community Crusaders -- possibly in an effort to balance things out with the maybe-maybe not vote-stuffer in their group.   No, I don't know that for sure because I haven't had the opportunity to talk with him.  And I can't know and won't know this, either -- unless Matt would be willing and could find the time to post here-- but I'm guessing he might have thought, as most of us did on first impression, that CNN was going to award a $25,000 prize to the winner of each category -- instead of only one $25K prize only to one ultimate winner after "play-offs" between all the categories.  

           
        But even if I'm wrong, and even if Matt would continue to support Blue Energy over everyone else, I'd still ask you to consider the following....
       
       
       I'm only taking the time to write about this here because we all got "turned onto" the CNN Heroes competition, anyway --originally, because of Matt and Jessica's entry.  Since you all already know about it, and since so many of you, I'm pretty sure, would be very interested in supporting water projects, if any (more) were posted on Kiva, I thought, why not talk about it?

         
        Our social consciences and our caring hearts are big enough to accommodate others, in addition to Kiva, without generating questions of divided loyalty.   Of course, each of you should vote, if you're going to vote at all, for whomever you choose, and I'll never know, anyway.  I just thought this was worth talking about-- and maybe raising some people's awareness, whether you end up voting for Ryan or for anyone -- or not.
       
     
        I've been following Ryan and his foundation for years, my admiration growing commensurate with this boy's continuing and informed commitment.  In addition to all the well and sanitation projects they've built and are building in several different countries in Africa, Ryan's Well Foundation also has well-building and clean water projects in Haiti, in Guatemala and in India, too. 
           
       
        For me, they're absolutely incredible, Ryan and Jimmy Akana (Hreljac), particularly, and I very much appreciate that their foundation takes only a 10% cut for administrative costs --  meaning that 90% of all donations go to the actual water-giving, water-cleaning and sanitation projects, themselves.  Much of the administrative work is still done, I think, by family members and friends -- all of whom share Ryan's passion for wanting to ensure that all people, everywhere, have clean water. 
       
       
        So many of the diseases that decimate almost entire populations in some of the developing countries could nearly be wiped out -- if people could only have that clean water.  According to RWF Partner, Matt Damon's*** H2O Africa's website, over one billion people in our world still have no access to clean water. 
If that isn't an absolute travesty, I don't know what is.

*** FYI --  The bright, unpretentious social activist/actor, Matt Damon, whose new organization is partnering up with Ryan's, grew up next door to and has remained close friends with the Civil Rights/Anti-War/ Social Justice activist, historian, political scientist, writer Howard Zinn.  Zinn  is the author of People's History of the United States and You Can't Be Neutral On a Moving Train, among others.   
     
           Turns out that Matt Damon's organization, H2O Africa has entered into a wonderful collaboration with Ryan's Well Foundation where they're matching funds raised by RWF for certain projects in Africa, united in the goal of trying to get clean water to more people faster.

[Jill]

    To call this 16 year old's History of Accomplishments inspiring would be what they call a gross understatement.  Here are a couple of excerpts from that page on the website, but I'd encourage any who are interested to check out the link, above.

"A December 2005 article in the Sydney Morning Herald gave the film a ringing endorsement:
'It is Ryan's Well (Monday, ABC) above all other repeats, that should become the Christmas standard. As our children shred kilometres of cellophane and each other in the Christmas frenzy, we should all spare a thought for Ryan, a Canadian boy who, at age six,
starting raising money to build a well that saved a village in Uganda.'"

"...When he received the World of Children award, Ryan publicly chose to share the prize equally with his runner up, prompting organizers to spontaneously match his generosity, giving both young men the full cash prize. For many of these awards, Ryan has been the youngest recipient...."

       Here are a few more pictures. 
I like pictures.

[Jill]

             In a newsletter I just received from Mountains Beyond Mountains', Paul Farmer's organization, Partners In Health, I found the following Haitian proverb which a person could interpret to speak volumes and, for me, which seemed apropos.

"Tout moun se moun" 
Every human is human. 

      I'm not sure exactly what that signifies for the Haitians whose saying it is, but the meaning I find in it is that

           Everybody, no exceptions, Everybody --more like us in our feelings and our aspirations and our humanness than different --

          Everybody is entitled to the same rights and opportunities and chances for the decent, healthy and peaceful life we want for our-
selves, for our families and for all the people we care about.   No exceptions-- Everybody. 

           And that includes the right to have clean water and the right to be free from an absolutely unnecessary vulnerability to preventable diseases and pestilence.

     That's it.....

[Henry]

Jill I'll always be KING!!!!!!!!   people sometimes actually read 'my' post! 

HA!

hope you get the humor here!   oh I tickle myself  ---  a bit too much!

[Jill]

      Voting for the category, "Young Wonder," is now open and will be open for a week.
                          http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/cnn.heroes/

          The top vote-getter in each of the six CNN Hero categories will compete in an online vote starting Monday, November 12, culminating in a world-wide TV Presentation, December 6 or 7, "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute"

          There's a treasure of wonderful people in all the choices.   I hope you'll take the time to vote for someone.....

            Me?   I'm choosing to vote for Ryan Hreljac because I love his heart, because I love the fact that he's been wanting/needing/working to get Clean Water for others since he was 6 years old, and because I want to maybe, hopefully help him win the $25,000 prize because I know that his winning that money would mean that that many more people, finally, would be able to have Clean Water, and with it, a little better chance for having decent health for themselves and their families, and

           because I want that for them, possibly, almost as much as Ryan has wanted that for them since he was six years old.
         
       
         I'm only sorry that even if he wins, the prize would only be $25,000, and not the inconceivable $3 Plus Trillion Dollar figure that was recently quoted in the news as the monetary cost of the shrewdly, transparently labeled "War on Terror."
   
                                   Oh, but if that money could only have been spent to eradicate poverty.....

[Jill]

         A year to the day, it turns out, that I first hooked up with Kiva, I'll close, on a more positive and hopeful note, with this advice from Ryan. He gave it last year in a message he was directing to other kids, actually, when he was accepting one of his many awards.

Be kind.     Be compassionate.     Care and share what you have with others.
Get involved in your community and get involved in the world.
                 

[Peter S]

Ryan has got my vote.

Currently he's running third on 23%, so he's in with a good chance with 6 more days of voting.

Having clicked on those links Jill provided, I'm just amazed by what this kid has done in bringing clean water to people in the developing world, including countries that might be particularly close to our hearts as Kivans, such as Uganda and Guatemala.    Please everyone go to CNN and vote.

As Jill said:
over one billion people in our world still have no access to clean water

Here's that link again
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/cnn.heroes/

[Natasha]

Ok sold! He got my vote too...  Still at only 23% though...