New York- Online content creators of dozen countries, led by MRBAST and the popular science youtuber Mark Rober, are launching a Fund collection of $ 40 million to build water quality projects worldwide.
The a month -month fund collection campaign, promoted as the greatest collaboration of YouTube and called #Teamwater, It promises to gather its 2,000 million subscribers combined around the fight against non -safe water sources. The funds will mainly benefit Wateraida non -profit international organization that builds infrastructure adapted to the community, from solar energy wells to rainwater collection systems.
More than 2,000 million people lacked access to drinking water managed safely in 2022, according to United Nations. The organizers want to reduce that figure by providing sustainable access to 2 million people and instilling in the new generations a commitment for life with the defense.
A #Teamwater joins smaller creators and some of the most important names online, such as the Streaming Kai Cenat giant, Stokes Twins fashion youtubers and sports animators Dude Perfect. Whether they are filming serious explanations or silly challenges with aquatic themes, creators are encouraged to produce content that is authentic for their brand.
Access to water was identified as a solucionable problem that could also unite its large number of global followers. But Mrbeast’s CEO, Jeff Housenbold, acknowledged that they are better consciousness builders than executors in the field. Therefore, they sought a partner with global scope, existing community associations and long -term change capabilities.
That took them to Wateraid. The organization began talking to the MRBASST team two years ago, according to the CEO of Wateraid America, Kelly Parsons.
He said that Wateraid normally involves communities for up to one year by designing the appropriate solution. That work sometimes implies the training of local technicians in water.
“Everything begins and ends in the communities with which we work already through them to guarantee a design that lasts,” said Parsons. “It’s more about people than plumbing.”
While Wateraid did not provide a list of all the places where the funds would go, the countries include Colombia, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Malawi and Kenya. The beneficial partners Givepower and the Alok Foundation are also helping with the implementation in the rural areas of Kenya and Brazil, respectively.
The United States headquarters include an atmospheric water generator for an assisted life center in Jackson, Mississippi, where the fragile water system almost collapses three years ago. The non -profit organization DigdeEP is helping to fix the ruins infrastructure in the small city of Rhodell, West Virginia.
Alex and Alan Stokes, whose 129 million subscribers make them one of the largest YouTube channels, filmed in a Nepalese town where the campaign is building a 15,000 -liter tank. The trip remembered his own education in a Chinese town where his grandfather walked kilometers to fill jugs of water with 18.93 liters.
“Being there definitely one of those experiences that brought us all back,” Alex said. “(We) we saw these children there and reminded us a lot of our childhood too.”
The multiplatform campaign follows the #Teamtree campaigns of 2019 and #Teamseas of 2021, which, according to reports, collected more than $ 50 million in total. That money helped plant millions of trees and eliminate millions of waste pounds from water masses.
These humanitarian efforts, however, generated criticism that they promoted too simplified solutions to complicated problems and applied curitas instead of addressing the main drivers of forest loss or ocean pollution.
“Ideally, philanthropy would not be used simply to eliminate the symptoms of any problem,” said Patricia Illingworth, a philosophy professor at Northeastern University who writes about ethics in philanthropy. “But rather, you would want to address the root cause.”
Matt Fitzgerald, a digital campaign strategist who has organized efforts, said the campaigns never intended to be the “end of everything.” Wait for them to serve as an entry point for deeper commitments.
While the two previous campaigns dealt with “a clash of fists, in the style of Mother Earth of Environmentalism,” he said, he seeks to focus people without stopping ‘keeping the planet in the mind’.
“It doesn’t matter how big a moment of mass mobilization on the Internet, real progress on these issues requires that people continue to pay attention and continue involved,” said Fitzgerald. “For me, the way to do it is to reach people’s hearts before trying to convince them with their minds.”