A village in Sierra Leone will have access to clean drinking water thanks to an MBA class project from SFU’s Beedie School of Business.

Angie Rai, Karen Robson, Tina Sun and Pankaj Saini launched a social-media fundraising campaign on Facebook called 1 Dollar Per Like. Each time a Facebook user “liked” the page, sponsors promised to donate a loonie to the non-profit organization Free the Children to build a water well.

The campaign grew out of an assignment from SFU Beedie associate professor Michael Parent, who challenged students in his Managing Information Systems class to garner as many social media likes and comments as possible in order to increase organizational engagement with consumers.

On the night previous to receiving the MBA challenge, students had viewed the documentary, A World Without Water, which cast new light on the commodification of water globally and the tragedies stemming from lack of access to safe drinking water.

Moved by the central premise of the program, Rai vowed to address it in her team project.

“Our original goal was to raise the $5,000 needed to build the well,” she says. “However, through the Facebook page, as well as with our other fundraising efforts, we have raised just over $8,000. “We did not expect such a huge response and we are extremely pleased with the results.”

Now, the team is looking for the public's support towards raising $25,000 to build the entire village. This would include building a school, the well, and alternative income and health-care programs. For more information: http://at.sfu.ca/WVypac.