Physical Health Mexico Project #9428

Fight childhood disease with safe drinking water

by Agua Pura Para El Pueblo

Project Report | Sep 5, 2017
Over the Years

By Tom Carter | Executive Director

Pablo, age 3

Dear Friends-
I want to share with you a proud personal moment that happened a couple of months ago. Over the last 10 years Agua Pura has been working with a very poor community outside of Mexico City. When we first started visiting there they lived in homemade shacks they made from materials they collected from a private garbage dump. Entire families lived and worked on the dump, sorting through the garbage looking for things to recycle. It was a dangerous and poorly paid job and the families lacked access to basic sanitation or safe drinking water.

Agua Pura started by helping build latrines for families and providing Water Purification Indicators (WAPIs) so that they could have clean water. As we met the families we made friends and over the years watched the children grow up. Many of the children lacked birth certificates and were ineligible for public schools, so we helped with a local private school so they could go. We also helped with other projects at the request of our local partner organization, Amextra, which stands for the Mexican Association for Transformation.

Now, after these years many things have changed. The dump has closed and the families have had to find new jobs. With little education or resources it has been difficult but many have moved ahead. You can see real houses being built, a few bricks at a time, where cardboard and blue tarp shacks stood. Many of our latrines are still in service. The children are still going to school and they even have a small computer lab where they can study and learn about a better future for themselves. Last year your donations helped build a new, clean, modern latrine for the school and we had a celebration to dedicate it to the community.

Agua Pura has been proud to be a small part of that progress. I was able to visit last July with my family and show them the progress the families have made improving their lives. We had a nice meal of pozole, a traditional Mexican soup that is often served for celebrations. We talked about families and friends and my grandson played with the other children there.

It was a quiet, satisfying afternoon, but I couldn’t help but think how much you and our other supporters would have enjoyed being there as well, to see the real and tangible results of your contributions to the lives of the people in that community. I was there in your stead and I was humbled by it.

I want to conclude by showing you three pictures of the same young man, Pablo, as he grew up. He started by hanging around the school area as his parents worked on the dump sorting trash. Later he attended that same school and learned to read and use the computer. Now he is a nice young teenager with a bright future, thanks in part to you.

Thank you so very much,

Tom Carter

Pablo last year

Pablo, 2017

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Jun 7, 2017
Tackling Cholera Head On in Haiti

By Tom Carter | Executive

Planning for the water laboratory

Two young Haitian men, Hovard and Tatcher, grew up in an era of one national disaster after another. Devastating earthquakes, floods and hurricanes and other problems rocked their country. Throughout it all they kept working to get an education, to improve themselves and to give back to their country. Both trained with Agua Pura in the United States in modern methods of drinking water analysis and water purification before returning home. Then came the cholera epidemic and the battles to save lives, and when they got the call to join the fight they were ready.

Cholera is a bacterial disease mainly spread from drinking water contaminated with feces. However there are many other dangerous diarrheal diseases also caused by contaminated water, and many more Haitians get sick or die of those diseases than from cholera, especially children and older people. Agua Pura has always advocated testing the water for contamination first and then focusing on purifying it, tackling the problem at its source and Hovard and Tacher were well trained to do just that.

A large international aid agency wanted to do a survey of households in the cholera endemic area to check on their health status and Hovard and Tatcher set up a field water testing laboratory to test over 700 water samples in a few weeks time. Because of their training and dedication they had the necessary skills to do the testing. This is the first time a survey of this kind has ever been done, and when they are finished they will have the first ever map of the water quality in the area where the cholera epidemic started. Now agencies can begin to address the real cause of the cholera epidemic, contaminated drinking water.

Hovard and Tatcher are among many hundreds of people all over Latin America and the Caribbean trained by Agua Pura Para El Pueblo to test drinking water for bacterial contamination and to help families purify their water and make it safe to drink. They work in their own communities to prevent disease, and Agua Pura supports their work bringing clean water to “one family at a time”. Your donations keep the programs going, and we are deeply grateful for your help. Thank you.

If you want to continue your support for Hovard’s and Tatcher’s work in Haiti, or one of the many other projects that Agua Pura is doing please consider a donation to our page on Global Giving. We are all volunteers so 100% of your donation goes directly to our work. Thank you very much, and you can also read more about our Haiti project on our website and Facebook page.
Tom Carter

Thanks so much for your support and please contact me directly if you have a question or suggestion: Tom Carter

At work in the laboratory

Testing water for contamination

Links:

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Mar 20, 2017
Clean Water For Haiti

By Thomas Carter | Executive Director

Hovard And His Team

Dear Friends-
A few months ago I wrote about Hovard, a young Haitian man who has started a program of water testing and water purification in his home community near Cap Haitien. There have been Cholera cases in his area and he is working to prevent more. Agua Pura has trained and supported him and provided the supplies for his work. It’s our first project in Haiti and we are proud of Hovard and what he has done.
Now there is an exciting new development to tell you about! Agua Pura Para El Pueblo has been asked to help develop a high volume water pasteurizer that can quickly provide large volumes of purified water - without electricity or expensive equipment. We will be working with Hovard and his team to test it for safety and efficiency. It should be able to provide safe water to many families in his community.
The pasteurizer is a highly efficient wood stove designed by a partner organization, InStove.
The stove uses a flow through coil that sits in a bath of very hot water and as the water passes through it almost immediately reaches a temperature that pasteurizes the water and makes it safe to drink. Then as the water flows out of the pasteurizer it is cooled back to a safe temperature. Special heat sensitive valves open and close to allow only clean drinking water to come out.
Next month Agua Pura will visit Haiti with Hovard to prepare for the pasteurizer. It will need many different things to make it successful but we are convinced it will be a big help to the families facing cholera and other serious diseases from contaminated drinking water. There will still be many other families without access to safe water, but Agua Pura will continue to support them with Water Pasteurization Indicators and other ways to purify their water.
You can read more about this new technology on our website Agua Pura Para El Pueblo and about many of our other programs.

Thank you so much for your support!

Flow Through Pasteurizer

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