In September 2017, the region known as El Istmo was devastated by an 8.1 earthquake in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Our partners at Adventures in Life, talked with their partners in that area, but were struggling to figure out how their small ministry could respond to such a massive disaster. Listening to their friends, they heard a specific need time and time again. Water. Yes, people had lost their homes, thousands and thousands of people, but we didn’t have much ability to make a dent in helping change that reality. Worse, El Istmo was still digging out and finding bodies. So they decided that instead of standing on the sidelines, or sending bags of used clothing, they could provide clean water to groups of people living in the impacted areas.
Village Water Filter in Union Hidalgo
Over the next few weeks, they installed village water filters in strategic centers, with more than half of them still in operation 3 years later. One was provided to a Catholic relief center in Ixtaltepec, a city that lost 70% of all of their homes and buildings. Others went to local churches, including one in the town of Union Hidalgo. The team administering that filter system became the de facto clean water supplier for the city, supplying the 4 relief centers in that town for two months.
The other filters were installed at the city halls of two towns, where people could freely access them with their own water containers. Additionally, they also supplied over 300 families in the more remote areas with individual bucket filters.
Those filters, both the village systems and the individual buckets filters were, and continue to be life changers. They gave people hope, made clean, safe water accessible and continue to do so today.
Thanks to our many donors, our partners at Adventures in Life were able to make a real difference for families all across a region that looked like a war zone after the 2017 earthquake.
Original Story Written by Dave Miller at Adventures in Life
When Pastor Prasad began work in the mountainous area called Eastern Ghats in India, he found that many people who were living there were struggling to get access to clean drinking water. They would often drink from open wells, canals and streams which were muddy and dirty. These sources would become even worse during the rainy season, often overflowing with debris.
One day, the pastor received a water filter from one of his friends. He brought it back to the village and they were so happy for the opportunity to drink clean water. This gave Pastor Prasad an idea. He decided to work with this friend to raise funds for water filters to distribute to the mountain villages. They heard about the work of Connect for Water and decided to partner with us to create a Championed Project. Through our platform and your generous help, they were able to raise funds to provide clean water to many more mountain villages.
They provided water filters to the local families while also introducing them to Jesus. As Pastor Prasad demonstrated how to use the water filter, all the people in the village came to see the filter and hear his story. He explained that the filter changes the dirty water to clean water just as God changes our dirty life to new life.
A few months after each distribution, Pastor Prasad returned to the villages for a follow up. He saw a huge impact in the lives of those in the villages. Before using the water filters, they often were sick, some having diarheaa and others having typhoid. There were also people that died from the dirty water. They now were able to live healthier lives.
We plan to continue partnering with Pastor Prasad to provide clean drinking water to as many people as possible. Through our support, Pastor Prasad has already been able to distribute more than 500 filters over six years. Yet there are still thousands of villages thoughout the mountains that are still suffering from the effects of dirty water. These villages have stream water sources that are driven by gravity, so if one Village Filter is installed, the whole village will receive access to clean drinking water. Will you partner with us to help more rural villages in India?
At Connect for Water, we have the privilege of sharing about the work of organizations around the world providing clean water. One of those organizations is Tatirano Social Enterprise. At Tatirano, they recently debuted two water cisterns at an EPP [Elementary School] in Fort Dauphin, Madagascar. But they are more than just two concrete tanks at a school. They’re a combined 10,000 litres of clean water for the students, staff, and surrounding neighborhood. The cisterns serve as a tool for WASH training at the school, the impact of clean water rippling out into people’s lives.
Together, they’re 10,000 litres out of almost 60,000 litres installed throughout southern Madagascar. Private systems help fund communal systems at schools and hospitals, in cities and rural towns. A medical clinic in Fort Dauphin has three of its own systems, allowing doctors to focus on patients and patients to focus on recovery.
Those 60,000 litres are held together by the Calabash Cistern design: an internationally shared method to build rain harvesters with eight bags of cement and simple, locally available materials. One 5,000 litre system takes only six days to put together, and seven days to cure. In just under two weeks, households can have reliable, protected, clean rainwater when they need it.
This project isn’t just about water. It’s about the team Tatirano trains to build the cisterns, coordinated by a Malagasy construction manager, who has since brought on new staff in the same role.
It’s about the Tatirano water agents who monitor the water, maintain and clean the cisterns, sell surplus to the local community, and coordinate with the central office. Tatirano only accepts female candidates for this role because the overwhelming majority of water collectors and managers in the home are women. At the EPP, a young woman now has a critical and professional skill, enabling her to do important work while supporting her family. She was trained to do this job, and now has trained two others to do it as well.
Tatirano isn’t working by itself either. A student environmental club helped research local water points. International universities want to help with analysis and remote sensing technology. Local and community officials vet the project and bring neighborhoods into the fold and larger organizations want to team up to help scale.
This network of partners share a passion for water accessibility and rain harvesting. They build the cisterns while respecting the communities that they’re meant for. They are publicizing our results and using them to inform new partnerships.
Photo by Daniel G Wood
In response to Covid-19, Tatirano has also created 23 handwashing stations around Fort Dauphin managed by a team of 69 currently unpaid elementary school teachers on rotation. This hygiene campaign has been taken up enormously and they have enabled over 100,000 people to wash their hands since starting in early March. The response to the campaign represents a huge demand for sustainable water access that is simply lacking, while understanding about the importance of hygiene is really high. This has proven a willingness to wash hands with water and soap, now it’s up to Tatirano to continue encouraging the government that they are already partnering with on a regional scale, to focus on investment in infrastructure.
As uncertain times continue, Madagascar’s infrastructure will continue to be tested and strained. Durability and stability matters. Sustainability matters. Two cisterns don’t just change where a community will get its water. It changes how residents think about their water, their health, and themselves. We are thankful to see the great impact that Tatirano is having in Madagascar and look forward to continuing partnering with them.
At Connect for Water, we want to bridge the gap to provide access to clean water solutions to those who might not be able to afford them. We work to be the connection between those in poverty and access to clean water, but to accomplish this, it is essential to have distribution partners. One of our partners in Thailand is Pastor Rut and his wife Awm. A few years ago, they left their comfortable lives in Bangkok to serve communities in poverty. They traveled miles away from their home and the familiar to the communities of the province of Udon Thani, an area in northeastern Thailand where Pastor Rut was born.
Their goal was to plant a small church, but they soon found that the adults of the community were wary of these “strangers.” Realizing they had to build trust, they began leading programs for local children. The number of children attending grew steadily and eventually these programs developed into occupational training in farming, motorcycle mechanics, sewing, and baking. The children enjoyed learning from Pastor Rut and Awm and began to develop loving relationships. When the parents saw this investment in their children, they began to believe that the pastor and his wife could be trusted. This trust opened the door for them to help the communities in new ways.
As they continued to invest in the lives of the local people, they began to see other needs that could be addressed. One of these needs was for clean water. They noticed that there was an unusual number of cases of kidney stones and other health problems which were caused by drinking contaminated water. This was when Pastor Rut and Awm decided to connect with Connect for Water, as they had heard of us through connections in the Grand Rapids area, a Cornerstone and a Calvin College graduate. With our understanding of the area, we decided to send Village Water Filters for distribution because they would be able to provide clean water to each of the families and would work well in the rural setting.
The Village Water Filters were well received. The parents smiled as they began to understand the importance of the filters, enabling them to provide clean water to their families. The children giggled as water flowed from the bucket and they were able to see how the water became clear and to enjoy the refreshing taste. Today, these people are now living healthier lives because of the access they have to clean water. By sharing village water filter kits with local schools and families, Pastor Rut and Awm were able to become friends instead of being strangers
Connect for Water is based on connections like these that allow clean water solutions to be distributed to those in need. If you have a story to share about the impact of clean water or would like to connect with us in our work, please send us an email at [email protected]. We would love to make even more connections to provide more clean water around the globe.
Today was just another day except it wasn’t. As I descended the stairs of our commercial building, still undergoing major construction, instead of the sound of hammers and saws, I heard conversation and laughter. Our first group of Spectrum Human Services Health volunteers were on site. They were assembling water filter kits. Three hours later 450 water filter kits had been assembled that would be shipped out the next day to India and Guatemala.
The value of our partners like Business Connect is the international distribution network. We are able to send and distribute clean and safe water solutions to the most remote parts of the world and to the most needy and vulnerable. However, of necessity, Village Water Filters has taken on the assembly and packaging of the water filters. The last two years they have collaborated with Twenty Liters. This organization provided the space, volunteers, and systems to put the water filter kits together. It has now come fully into our space and become the responsibility of Village Water Filters.
Together, we welcome businesses, social networks, schools, various groups, all different age groups, to volunteer three hours at a time. In that time frame we can assemble several hundred filter kits. This is essential for Village Water Filters to keep the cost down for sending these filters. It also brings the opportunity for regular people to make a tangible difference in the lives of real people around the world.
If you come visit us in Grand Rapids, we would welcome your participation. Whether you are one or twenty, you can make a difference. Please connect with us if you are interested in being a part of our work.
After Hurricane Dorian, much of the Bahamas were devastated. The infrastructure of the area was destroyed and many lacked access to clean water. The governor even said, “Please, we do not want you to send us water, send us water filters.” This is when we decided to take action.
We began consultations with partners on the ground and identified Open World Relief to assist with the implementation. They had a team that would be able to distribute filters and provide training workshops on how to use the filters effectively.
A Successful Distribution
Volunteers visited several isolated communities with very limited access to clean water (only small spring access) and distributed 124 filters to families. They ran a short training for the community members with the assistance of a local Pastor who speaks both English and Creole to assist with the language barrier.
In addition to the filters themselves, there was a donation of five gallon buckets from a Florida hardware store so that the community members had access to clean filtration supplies and water storage. The donated filters were very well received and will have a continuous impact for these more isolated communities.
That being said, as rebuilding continues to take place there will be a continual need for both the bucket style filters, as well as, the in-home countertop units. Please consider partnering with us to continue to help these communities as they rebuild.
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