Charity’s video racks up more than a half a million views

Charity: Water’s emotional video commemorating the anniversary of the death of a young girl whose last birthday wish was to bring clean water to villages in Ethiopia has gone viral.

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She spent the day on a plane to Ethiopia, reading about a girl named Rachel Beckwith, who had asked for $300 in donations to her Charity: Water page for her ninth birthday. She got $220. Just a month after her birthday, Rachel tragically was killed in a car crash. The story of Rachel’s birthday wish went out all over the world, and people donated more than $1.2 million to the cause of clean drinking water.

Pent was on her way to meet with Samantha Beckwith, Rachel’s mom, and her grandparents, as they met with some of the people Rachel had helped. While there, Pent would create a powerful video that more than 500,000 people have seen since it was posted in July.

Charity: Water could have told the story in a blog post, a slideshow, or a Facebook update. But Pent says video forges stronger connections.

“People are inspired by other people,” she says. “When you realize that somebody else is like you, that’s huge.”

Whirlwind production

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