Family Water Filters
Removing harmful bacteria that cause waterborne illnesses
Could you imagine drinking or bathing or cleaning with water that looks like this? Most Guatemalans do not have access to a water supply free of contaminants. As a result of the bacteria in their drinking water, many families suffer from cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A or diarrhea. There is no money for medical bills, and sadly, roughly 5% of the rural indigenous population dies from an easily preventable waterborne illness.
We want to raise $11,000 to provide 100 families with clean drinking water!
Many rural Guatemalan villagers do not have water (or electricity) in their homes, and bottled water is very expensive. So, they have to fetch or collect it!
Rainwater collection systems, which sadly are sometimes little more than buckets at the base of rusty sheet metal sloped from the corner of their home serve to collect a little, but the means of collection and methods of storage don’t keep the rainwater fresh.
And, rainwater collection works during the rainy season, but between November and April when there is not much rain, many Guatemalan women walk to the closest water source to fill clay pots from a stream and carry them back home on their heads.
Regardless of how water is obtained it still has to be made safe to drink!
The 5% infant mortality rate drastically declines when kids drink filtered water!
We provide life-saving water filters to individual families when there is not a potable water project in their community!
Although we have donated water filters that used hollow fiber and clay filtration methods, our current “go-to” filter is made by TivaWater and uses a BioSand filtration method in one bucket. It is easy to clean and was reviewed very favorably by the families that have already received:
It purifies the water very clean. Now I don’t have to worry about firewood.
It offers a lot of benefits like saving money, time, firewood — and it’s healthy!
I don’t have to boil the water anymore!
Nobody from my family has been sick from the water that we drink from the filter. The water that comes from the filter is really clean.
It’s simple to use and helps to save money.
It helps our environment — we don’t have to cut several trees for boiling our water. It’s a huge help for everybody.
The “right” opportunity arose when I learned about a travel opportunity for adoptive families which would include volunteer work and cultural sightseeing. Being members of that team had a profound impact on me, Lillian and Andrew. Not only were we able to make a real connection to our son’s birthplace, but we met incredibly warm and generous people, all of whom we now consider to be a part of our “family.” In addition to the volunteer work I shared with the Team, I also was able to “give back” by performing as my alter ego, “Farfel the Clown” at a barbecue for children of The Backyard School. It will remain one the proudest and happiest memories of my life.