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Dear friends,
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Babies in Bolivia are being born sick, some with missing fingers and deformed ears.
Parents fear that mercury could be poisoning their children.
Illegal gold miners are dumping tonnes of toxic mercury into the Madre de Dios River. It builds up in the food chain, contaminating a mighty river that pours into the Amazon rainforest -- poisoning the water, the wildlife, and the main food source for entire communities. And in pregnant mothers, mercury crosses into the growing baby.
Now river communities are fighting back and they're calling for help.
They're collecting hair and water samples to build a rock-solid case that would ban mercury dumping in the river -- and set a precedent for river communities across the Amazon. Avaaz helped fund the first tests, but 36 communities still need testing before heavy rains come in November, and remote villages are cut off.
The more testing they do, the stronger their case. And not just for their children: if they win in court, the river itself could be given legal rights, with rehabilitation and permanent monitoring of water quality.
This is a special appeal to fund the first large-scale mercury testing run by community groups in Bolivia.
Your donation will provide testing kits and emergency care for dozens of river communities. We'll pay for specialist labs to detect hidden toxins, building an undeniable body of evidence to save this river of life.
If we raise enough, we'll also fund other communities fighting to protect our planet's most precious rivers. And when the evidence is powerful, Avaaz will launch huge public campaigns, forcing governments to act.
Every day without testing is another day of poison in Bolivia. Please donate what you can to help families protect the river and their children:
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 Avaaz members helped to fund the first round of mercury tests, but 36 communities still urgently need testing. Together, we can give families the information they need to fight back -- building a rock-solid case to stop the poisoning and win lasting legal protection for the Madre de Dios River and beyond. Rivers provide drinking water for two billion people -- including many of us -- yet they are being poisoned by sewage, mining and toxic chemicals every day. From the Ganges to the Thames, and the Nile to the Amazon, freshwater ecosystems are now degraded in half the world's countries.None of us can win this fight alone. But together, we can make sure that more communities can take action to expose pollution and protect their waterways. And where public mobilisation is needed most, that's what Avaaz exists for. By donating today, we each help to protect the one thing every living being on Earth needs to survive -- safe water. If we raise enough, we could: - Expand mercury testing and river monitoring across dozens of still-untested communities in Bolivia;
- Provide medical care to flush toxic mercury from children and mothers in the Bolivian Amazon, before there's permanent damage;
- Back river defenders worldwide, supporting specific communities fighting to save the planet's most precious rivers;
- Fund the legal cases, public warnings and political campaigns needed to turn evidence into clean-up, healthcare and stronger protections;
- Power urgent, high-priority Avaaz campaigns to fight for our human right to water and a safe environment.
Our rivers are in crisis. But together we could spark a new movement of river defenders around the world. Please donate today to help communities reveal what's poisoning their rivers -- and turn that truth into action.
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Alone, our actions can feel like a drop in the ocean. But when millions of us come together, across the planet, those drops can become a wave of change. Let's stand behind the communities defending their rivers -- and help bring poisoned waters back to life. For our blue planet, Adela, Julia, Mike, Patri, Nell and the whole team at Avaaz 💧 If water testing sounds simple, just look what it has already achieved: - Flint, Michigan. Officials told LeeAnne Walters her family's water was safe. She tested water from her kitchen tap, finding up to 13,200 parts per billion of lead against a federal limit of 15. Residents then handed out sampling kits across the whole city and produced a result that made the official position impossible to hold. A federal emergency was declared and the city switched its entire water source.
- Ilkley, England. A residents group sampled the water in the River Wharfe, used freedom of information requests to prove how often raw sewage was being released, and applied to have the river designated for bathing, because designation legally forces the regulator to test it and publish the results. In 2020 it became the first river in England to win that status, and the water company committed millions to cleaning it up. Rivers across the UK are now following the model.
- Hwange, Zimbabwe. Local residents were trained to test their own water, collecting hundreds of samples that exposed mining pollution and toxic metals far above safety standards. Their evidence helped reveal the scale and sources of contamination -- giving communities the data to demand action to protect their river and health.
- Veneto, Italy. Parents near a chemical plant had their children's blood tested and found "forever chemicals" in it. They went to court, and in June 2025 eleven former executives were convicted of crimes including deliberately poisoning water, with sentences totalling 141 years and over 75 million euros in damages. It was the first time anywhere that company bosses were held criminally responsible for these chemicals.
- Across Europe. The same chemicals found in those Italian children's blood turned out to be almost everywhere. Scientists and journalists pooled a hundred datasets and freedom of information requests to map nearly 23,000 contaminated places nobody had ever counted. Once the scale was visible on a single map, a continent-wide ban moved onto the table.
PS. This might be your first donation to our movement ever. But what a first donation! Did you know that Avaaz relies entirely on small donations from members like you? That's why we're fully independent, nimble and effective. Join the over 1 million people who've donated to make Avaaz a real force for good in the world.
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Note: The photo at the top of this email shows a young boy standing along the Madre de Dios River in Peru, where mercury poisoning is at emergency levels, just as in Bolivia -- and many communities are still in the dark. Photo by Janine Costa / Reuters.
More information:
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