The Bitcoin community is joining hands in an effort to provide clean water and proper sanitation in Sub-Saharan Africa. Bitpay, the leading service provide system for Bitcoin, announced yesterday their pledge to match 1BTC in donations for BitGive Foundation’s campaign for the Water Project.
The Water Project has raised over $2 million in funds to build water projects in Uganda, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and India, providing clean water and proper sanitation. The Water Project has recently embraced cryptocurrency donations through the BitGive Foundation.
Peter Chasse, President of The Water Project, explained his reasons for accepting funds from crypto-organizations in his blog:
“Unfortunately, today, as our supporter's donations make their way to our partners in Africa, these exchanges have become far more costly than the benefits organizations and individuals actually receive from these arbiters of trade…On the other hand, emerging cryptocurrencies are extremely low cost and in some cases nearly free to exchange and transfer.”
Chasse continued “Today, small grants are too expensive to send. Large grants are too risky to release to untested partners. I'm looking forward to lower/no cost transfers that could allow us to work with more of the smaller, less tested, but promising local water advocates.”
The BitGive Foundation is looking to raise US$10,000 for the Water Project, who they saw as a respected organization to continue BitGive’s mission as a global charitable platform. As of the writing of this article, over US$4,000 has been raised by BitGive’s campaign. The $10,000 goal will fund an entire water project such as constructing or repairing a well or sand damn for a community in Sub-Saharan Africa.
