Nightclub promoter turns his back on a life of vice and debauchery, and sets up global water charity.
Scott Harrison, then 29, boarded Mercy Ships, an old cruise ship converted into a floating hospital to volunteer and document the non-profit work done (as a photojournalist) by the ship’s team of doctors and other medical professionals.
He came home a changed man. The suffering he saw in that one year in a country “where there was no electricity, no running water, no sewage, no mail system and only one doctor for every 50,000 people” so unsettled him that he decided he had to do good.
After a year, he returned to New York, staged an exhibition of the photos and raised US$96,000, which he donated to Mercy Ships before embarking on a second voluntary stint.
This time, he ventured into villages where he saw people drinking green and brown water from swamps.
He found out more – that one in 10 people around the world do not have access to clean water, and that many live in isolated areas and have to walk for hours to collect water for their families, an exercise which keeps children out of schools and adults from work.
This led him to found charity: water, a global charity which in the last 13 years, has raised more than US$350 million (S$476 million) and funded nearly 30,000 water projects in 26 countries. The charity is structured to commit 100% of all donations to water projects. The overheads and staff costs of running the outfit are financed by another channel.
To get the charity off the ground, Mr Harrison “donated” his 31st birthday. Leveraging on his old nightclub connections, he wrangled free space and drinks, and invited 700 people, who had to drop US$20 each into a box on their way in.
The event raised US$15,000 which was used to rehabilitate six wells in a Ugandan refugee camp.
The idea took traction, with celebrities including Will and Jada Smith, Jessica Biel and Justin Bieber “donating” their birthdays to raise money for the charity.
Mr Harrison has two young children with his wife, who used to work in charity: water. He pauses to tell the story of Rachel Beckwith from Seattle, who had heard him speak and hoped to raise US$300 on her ninth birthday for the charity in 2011.
Mr Harrison says: “Rachel’s family wanted to honour her last wish – for children she had never met to have clean water. Her fund-raising campaign was restarted, word spread and people started donating $9 each in America, then Europe and Asia, and Africa. From just US$220, her campaign eventually raised US$1.3 million.”
On the first anniversary of Rachel’s death, he took her mother and grandmother to Ethiopia, where they went from village to village, meeting the nearly 38,000 children she had helped.
From just US$2 million in the first year, the charity – which hires 80 people in New York and 900 globally – now raises about US$80 million a year.
Mr Harrison’s work has been endorsed by the likes of Bill Gates and Richard Branson. He has also been recognised by Fortune’s 40 under 40 list, Forbes’ Impact 30 list, and he was ranked No. 10 in Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business.
Thirst, his book about his journey, is a New York Times bestseller, with proceeds donated to his charity. The event was organised by The Lo & Behold Group, which raised $27,000 for charity: water last year (2018).
Mr Harrison reckons his work is cut out for him.
“The ultimate vision is that no one is drinking bad water. We do not have answers for many global problems, like diseases we do not know how to cure, but water’s not like that. It’s a completely solvable problem. We won’t stop fighting until everyone has access to clean water,” he says.
Watch the video below for his story.
Read more here.
Source: The Straits Times, 18 February 2019