Ariane Kirtley has devoted her life to helping the people of a remote region in northwest Niger have the gift of life - water. The least I can do is devote 12 hours, half a day, to helping her help them.

Ariane is an amazing woman. I am grateful to know her. She brought me to the Azawak in 2007. I stayed one week with her in her tent. I got sick. The Tuareg people she lives among and loves, took care of me. They took us all in and showed us the way that they live. We toured many towns looking at their water points and talking to the leaders and those at the water points.

Ariane, wants to give the girls of these towns an education, the men dignity, and everyone the freedom to live a life where the essentials are available for the taking.

What I witnessed on this trip, even though I had spent a year observing the water scarcity in the southern part of the country, was incredible. How is it that such a beautiful, caring, culture rich people such as this should have to spend the majority of their days harvesting water? The few water points were overflowing not with water but with people and animals, men washing and sometimes drinking from the same dirty trough as the donkeys, who were straining and falling in their attempts to lift only a few 10’s of gallons of water at a time from a great depth. I saw girls waiting to fill their buckets, miles from their homes. Fetching water instead of having the opportunity to attend school. These children were not running and playing as children should. They just gazed absently, exhausted and thirsty.

The journeys that people make to get water in this region can be 15 miles each way. It takes all day to bring a bit back for the family. I looked and cried. Ariane looked and saw her future.

She and her husband run the organization Amman Imman, and spend much of their life in Niger.  I am running this race for her, and I want you to join me to help her bring life to the people of the Azawak. She has two successes so far, a productive well waiting for an electric pump and one well already equipped with a pump and several faucets, which are in constant use.

Please join me with your donation to Amman Imman.  I will be running (shuffling toward the end) for 12 hours straight, to honor Ariane and to raise money that will bring water, the gift of life, to the wonderful people of the Azawak. Ariane has very little overhead costs, all of your donation will be used to drill a well or equip a well in the Azawak. Please go to the donation page of this site and pledge to donate an amount per mile to the cause (I am hoping to run about 60 miles in the 12 hours), or pledge a fixed amount. If you would like more information please take a look at the Amman Imman (Water is Life) website and you are free to make your donation straight from there. Thank you!