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.
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
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