Would you like that with or without malaria? Watch this creative way some New Yorkers raised money for the UNICEF Tap Project.

The Appalachian trail is 2,178 miles long and runs from Maine to Georgia. Steven and Matt are a father and son duo who love to hike. They decided to put their love of the outdoors to use by hiking to raise money for Water For People. They plan to start at the southern end of the trail in April and end up in Maine by August.

You can find out more details on their website—Hiking For Water. After they start, you’ll be able to track their hiking and fundraising progress.

The Cove is an nominee for best documentary in the upcoming Academy Awards. I received this message from Ric Barry who heads up the campaign to save the dolphins. Donate to the cause. Watch the awards ceremony.

From Ric Barry:

This is a heads-up that our work, as featured in the blockbuster documentary The Cove, will be coming up at the Academy Awards telecast this weekend!

You can watch us vie for the Best Documentary Award on Sunday night March 7th at 8pm Eastern Time (US). The event will also be streaming live online at: www.livestream.com/academyawards

We are beyond excited about what this means to the Save Japan Dolphins Campaign! More than ONE BILLION people are expected to view the Oscars. And the Oscars are the most-watched television show in Japan!

We need to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to:

* ramp up efforts around the world to press Japan to end the slaughter and stop all sales of poisoned dolphin meat;
* get hundreds of thousands of people in Japan to go see the subtitled version of The Cove. (An Oscar win could ensure that The Cove opens in more theaters, with greater media coverage and pubic impact);
* increase our monitoring of the cove in Taiji, and bring over journalists, celebrities, and members of the public to stand firm against the dolphin killing.

Please give us as generous a contribution as you are able.

I hope you can help me translate the powerful message of The Cove into an end of the dolphin killing in Japan.

Your donations make it possible for me to get back to Japan, and for us to reach out to the hundreds of media outlets that will be focused on the Oscars next Sunday.

You probably won’t see me on the red carpet next Sunday, and I’ve never owned a tuxedo. But I will be there in the auditorium, waiting for that white envelope to be opened for Best Documentary, and knowing what it could mean for the dolphins and people of Japan.

Even if we don’t win, the publicity from being nominated has been huge.

But we do need funds to get our message out to the media, and we need follow-up to get the Japanese version of The Cove movie out in Japan, where it will do the most good.

Please donate and support our efforts to save the dolphins.

I’ve witnessed people in Japan watch this film and learn of our efforts for the first time, and many are as shocked as we are. Most have no idea that the killing is even happening and don’t support it continuing. These people hold the hope for building internal pressure in Japan to stop the slaughter.

Thanks for being part of our historic campaign, for watching and keeping fingers crossed on March 7th, and mostly for your constant help for the dolphins!

Ric O’Barry
Campaign Director
Save Japan Dolphins

P.S. Give what you can today! All of our travel and organizing costs money.

P.P.S. Learn more by going to our blog at savejapandolphins.org/blog.html.

Katie Spotz has been rowing across the Atlantic for more than 61 days. A few dorados have been following her boat for awhile, so she named them Ed, Edd, and Eddie. But on day 61, several dolphins showed up. One of them munched Edd!

Find out all the gruesome details by visiting Katie’s website. Leave her an encouraging message. Donate to her cause.

This story, from Inside the Bottle, highlights action taken by students on campuses in Ontario, Canada.

February 22, 2010, OTTAWA –Campus organizers from across Ontario are racing to see whose campus can go bottled water free first. The Ontario Bottled Water Free Campus Challenge is a challenge initiated by more than 20 Ontario campuses that are actively working to restrict bottled water while promoting accessible public water infrastructure on campus.

Over the last 12 months three Canadian campuses—The University of Winnipeg (Manitoba), Memorial University (Newfoundland & Labrador) and Brandon University (Manitoba)—all signed water declarations to end the sale and distribution of bottled water and promote public water on campus. To date no Ontario campus has banned bottled water.

For the rest of the story, go to the Inside the Bottle website.

Kohler—the plumbing fixture company—has pledged to give Habitat for Humanity $1 in products for every quiz taken on its Save Water America site. So far, they’ve donated over $1.5 million dollars worth of water-saving products.

Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit group whose goal is to end poverty housing and homelessness. They build houses in all parts of the world, including the USA. They build and rehab houses which they then sell to partner families for NO profit.

Take the quiz now and help Habitat!

HPA is a group of Harry Potter fans who whose purpose is to help address pressing concerns of the real world. They have raised money for Darfur and Burma, donated books to developing countries, fought for gay marriage rights in Maine, fought against genocide, trained student leaders, and, more recently, raised money to help Haiti.

Pretty impressive list of activities. But they are wizards!

Check out their website. Volunteer to be a wizard.

Shigella is a bacteria that thrives where basic sanitation and clean drinking water are not. Right now, that’s Haiti. People who lost their homes are living in tent cities. Waste is accumulating. Water is hard to find.

The New York Times reports:

The problem has become impossible to overlook in many districts of Port-au-Prince, with the stench of decomposing bodies replaced by that of excrement. Children in some camps that are still lacking latrines and portable toilets play in open areas scattered with the waste. The light rains here this week caused some donated latrines in the camps to overflow, illustrating how the problem would grow more acute as the rainy season intensified in the months ahead.

The earthquakes may be over, but Haiti still needs help. In fact, the place was in need of severe help before the earthquake. Stand With Haiti, donate to Partners in Health. They’ve been on the scene for many years and are still there.

This story from WaterAid:

Seven year old Punam Kumari Shaha brushes her teeth before going to school in Malahanma, Nepal. Her community worked with WaterAid’s partner NEWAH to build their own water supply and she is now able to use clean, safe water from a pump that is near her house.

As part of the project her community is also learning about hygiene education and Punam has been attending health education classes at school once a week. She has an older sister and they now teach each other and their family about good hygiene practices.

By educating people about good hygiene and the links between poor water, poor sanitation and disease communities can gain the full benefits from their new water and sanitation projects.

Donate to WaterAid to help other children like Punam.

The distance from Loch Lomond, Scotland to the Sahara desert is 4,000 miles. On March 22, Mark Spriggs plans to start that trek. He was drawn to take action after he learned about the lack of water in developing countries. This is his personal call to action to raise money and awareness for this worthy cause.

According to my map, there is a body of water between the U.K. and the continent. How does Mark plan to cross it? You can find out the details of his route by visiting the Walking 4 Water website. Contact him if you want to walk with him.

The money Mark raises will go to Pump Aid. This agency specializes in low-cost solutions that require community support and maintenance.