Ten … 20 … 30 minutes: how long would you be able to go without touching your phone to help a child get clean drinking water? UNICEF just started a new mission called the Tap Project. The challenge is that every 10 minutes you go without your phone, UNICEF’s sponsors will donate clean water to a child in need. How easy is that?  As a student it can be hard to balance school, work, clubs and relationships, even more when you try to fit in volunteer work into the semester. This is such an easy way to give back and it helps you build a stronger bond with the people you are with at the time by ignoring your phone.

What you do is go online, or on your phone, and google UNICEF Tap Project. Click on the link provided on the website and follow the instructions. Set your phone on a flat stable surface. At times, you do not even realize you miss your phone because it tells you cool facts as the time passes. The program also cheers you on.

After the first 10 minutes, you will have provided a child with clean water for the day, after 30 minutes you provide water purification tablets for 11 people. Then it continues to provide oral rehydration tablets, clean water for a family of five, clean water for a child for a week and more. You can donate money as well; $1 provides clean water for a child for 40 days.

UNICEF said that it chose water because no one can survive without it. As of today, there are 768 million people who do not have access to clean drinking water and 2.5  billion people do not have access to a toilet on a daily basis. The sponsors for this project are founding agency partner droga5 and media sponsor MediaVest. The national sponsor is Giorgio Armani Fragrances and the primary supporter is UNICEF’s Next Generation.

This is such a great project to be a part of and it really helps you realize how fortunate you are to have access to the things we have. You do not have to walk 40 hours a week to get water so you can survive; all you have to do is walk to your sink or go buy a $2 bottle of water. We were born into a privileged country and it is extremely important to give back not only within our own country but to others in the world that do not have the resources we have.

“I think it is great that it is a dual service. You get to help someone out while teaching people who technology isn’t everything,” said Jillian Blauvelt, a recent graduate from Suffolk University with a major in advertising.

Here is the website that will tell you more about the project and it will have the link to the phone program: http://www.unicefusa.org/campaigns/tap-project/. Use the time you cannot touch your phone to do something you have wanted to do for a while like finishing that book that has been sitting on your bedside table or meet up with an old friend you have not seen since high school.