Posted: February 13th, 2012 by Jack | Filed under: Africa, Haiti, Partners, Photos, Rainwater Harvesting, Uncategorized, Water Filters, water4everyone, Waves For Water, well restoration| Comments Off
To see projects – visit www.wavesforwater.org
Initiated by Jack & Jon Rose, Water 4 Everyone is a campaign that believes safe drinking water is a basic human right. To put this goal into action, we partner with individuals, humanitarian organizations, UN and government agencies around the world to provide a variety of clean-water solutions.
These include rainwater harvesting systems, water well restorations and the distribution & education of point-of-use water filtration systems. A point-of use, hollow fiber filter, installed in an ordinary 5 gallon bucket, reduces the risk of death – and relieves suffering – caused by water-borne disease.
June 2011 Game Changer Haiti
Hurley – Waves For Water – Nike
in partnership with Nike & Hurley, launched the first Game Changer project:
sport + safe drinking water = Have fun staying alive.
watch the video : http://www.wavesforwater.org
RainCatcher delivers donated Nike soccer balls to schools in Kenya & Uganda – July, 2011
To see the images that tell this story click: http://www.flickr.com/photos/water4everyone
I was fortunate to be involved recently with the Waves For Water Game Changer Project in Haiti: Three partners, W4W, Hurley and Nike, joined forces to bring clean-water systems and 800 new soccer balls to schools across the country. This effort turned out to be a game changer not just for the kids who received, but also for all of us working, from inception to completion, for the past year on this idea. The result: kids get to stay alive and have fun at the same time. To see video: www.wavesforwater.org/2011/08/gamechanger-project-haiti-phase-2/
Shortly after this effort I was getting ready for a big RainCatcher / Beachbody project in Kenya & Uganda. I asked Tom DeBlasis, of Nike, if we could bring Game Changer balls to our school projects in Africa . . . and he just happened to have 80 bright orange, rubber soccer balls sitting in his office. I carried 44 in my luggage. The rest is history. What a difference a ball makes. Thanks to the collaboration of RainCatcher, Beachbody, Nike and many NGO partners throughout East Africa (including the Catholic Church), thousands of students have replaced homemade soccer balls with real ones. RainCatcher + Beachbody + Nike = fun and long life for many.
RainCatcher + Reach the Un-Reached =
July – Uganda - Over a two week period, everyday we meet with local humanitarian organizations. After training, RainCatcher gives water filters to each – and they do the rest – bringing our clean-water systems to countless schools, orphanages, churches & clinics. The following slideshow http://www.flickr.com/photos/water4everyone chronicles the entire process: from the RainCatcher office in California to the Sanyu Babies Home and the Kampala School for the Physically Handicapped.
Keep in mind that these are just two samples of hundreds of similar projects made possible by the amazing partnerships between humanitarians in Uganda & Kenya, and their counterparts in California. Based on the same sharing model that provided safe drinking water for us when we were growing up in America – RainCatcher is simply doing the same in parts of the world where this basic right for children has been overlooked. Below are two letters from Julius that accompanied the slide shows:
1 – Sanyu Babies Home …
Dear Directors and Partners of RainCatcher.
RAINCATCHER IN PARTNERSHIP WITH REACH THE UN-REACHED MINISTRYREACHES SANYU BABIES HOME.
On 12th September 11 the Directors of Reach the Un-Reached ministry Mr. Julius Ananura and Mr. Benz Katiti delivered water filters , provided by RainCatcher, to Sanyu Babies Home
Sanyu Babies’ Home is located on Namirembe Hill, just below St. Paul’s Cathedral, overlooking Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. The Home is dedicated to care for the abandoned, destitute and orphaned babies and children of Uganda. It cares and gives hope with the Love of God to the hopeless abandoned, destitute and orphaned babies and children of Uganda. Up to 50 babies & toddlers, aged between 1 day old and 4 years old, live here.
Many children are found abandoned in garbage heaps, pit latrines, ditches, taxi-parks or are left by the side of the road. The orphans received range in age from a few hours to two years, with no known parents or relatives. Sanyu Babies Home is dedicated to providing these children with love, security, medical care and education. There are over 2.3 million known orphans in Uganda.
We found they were having a challenge of getting pure drinking water, as they were depending on boiling and putting chlorine, which is cost prohibitive was laborious.
We demonstrated and passed on to them the water filters. They still face many problems, but safe drinking water is no longer one of them.
Thanks to RainCatcher !
Yours truly, Julius Ananura Team Leader Reach the Un-Reached Ministry. KAMPALA, UGANDA-E Africa
2 – Kampala School for the Physically Handicapped …
Dear Directors and Partners of RainCatcher.
RAINCATCHER IN PARTNERSHIP WITH REACH THE UN-REACHED MINISTRY REACHES KAMPALA SCHOOL FOR THE PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED.
The Directors of Reach the Un-Reached ministry Mr. Julius Ananura & Mr. Benz Katiti delivered water filters, provided by Rain Catcher, to Kampala School for the Physically Handicapped
When we visited the school the Director, Joy, explained to us that the school has been having 75% of the sicknesses due to lack of clean water. Now, with the receiving clean-water systems from RainCatcher, most of the common illnesses will be be eliminated.
We found they were having a challenge of getting pure drinking water for a big population of physically handicapped children who need special attention. We demonstrated and passed on to them the water filters. Thanks to RainCatcher !
Thanks/Kind regards, Julius Ananura Team Leader - Reach the Un-Reached Ministry KAMPALA-UGANDA-E Africa
RainCatcher Uganda
While in the field we develop relationships with other humanitarian organizations. Supplies are left with Dennis – RainCatcher Uganda country director - so that after we return home, our work of bringing safe drinking water to remote villages continues.
Here’s just one example: Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) flew Dennis and water filters to several islands in the Sesse archipelago in Lake Victoria, including Bukasa Island. The families on these islands get their drinking water from the lake, which is polluted and extremely life threatening. Now, thanks to the partnership of RainCatcher and Mission Aviation Fellowship the people on these remote islands in the middle of Africa no longer have to risk serious illness and death from their drinking water.
To see images of recent joint efforts between RainCatcher, MAF and island village churches click: http://www.flickr.com/photos/water4everyone
After we return home, the work continues via email, with our NGO partners sending ‘details of their efforts and working with us to design future projects. Example: While in Uganda we taught Peace Corps Volunteer, Brian Kobick, how to use our filter systems to bring safe drinking water to villages in eastern Uganda. We also asked Brian to find dead wells in his area that we could restore. Within a few weeks of our return home, Brian had located a well and found a local plumber to get it up and running again. Project is complete and providing water for a thousand people. Cost – $70 USD. Seventy dollars to bring water to 1,000 people. All done by local people using local resources . . . What a team. “Thank you” to all the partners who make our mission possible.
RainCatcher + Peace Corps =
August, 2011 – Dennis of RainCatcher Uganda teams up with Peace Corps Volunteer, Brian Kobick to restore a dead well and bring clean-water filter systems to schools in Kacumbala village in eastern Uganda . . . The pictures tell the story: http://www.flickr.com/photos/water4everyone
All’s Well That Ends Well - Uganda – The following is a story that ends well.
That’s Martha McBride – with children of Kigungu village.
A typical work day has me walking down red dirt roads of Africa, accompanied by crowds of people who have gathered to watch us turn water that takes away life into water that gives life. Together we walk down the trail from village to local water source, which is always contaminated. We scoop up water that looks like chocolate milk, pass it through our simple bucket filter system, and then watch everyone marvel as disgusting, diseased carrying liquid comes out clear & clean drinking water. We do this day after day, year after year.
What if people no longer had to carry filthy water, long distances, from source to home?
On the previous trip to Uganda, our usual water walk took us past the dead well pictured above. As we passed it a second time, on our way back to the village, I asked Dennis (RainCatcher Uganda) to get me a quote from local technicians for disassembling this pump, replacing all internal parts, and reinstalling brand new pump. Thus began the first RainCatcher Well Restoration Project, which I nicknamed The Lazarus Project – because the purpose is to literally bring new life to dead wells, of which there are thousands scattered throughout Africa.
Cost to resurrect a dead well in Uganda: $300.
The well in photo above had been dead for two years. It now provides an endless stream of clear water for an entire village. Most such bore holes average about 20′ deep. The water available at this depth is a much better source than the muddy rivers, lakes and ponds it replaces, but it still may carry lethal pathogens. So the next step is to clean it with point-of-use hollow-fiber water filters (attached to yellow jerry can in photos) This, of course, is our specialty. By combining well restoration & water filtration we can bring a new water source to any community that has a dead well.
These images are sequenced to illustrate the before & after difference between 1 – gathering water from typical sources and 2 – receiving abundant clear water from new well pumping & filtration system.
This project is funded with donations by
Soccer balls donated by Nike.
Kogelo, Kenya – July 2011
Martha McBride & Malik Obama with Fred Mango
click: http://www.flickr.com/photos/water4everyone (Kogelo, Kenya Slideshow) to see the results of RainCatcher’s collaboration with Malik Obama, our president’s brother. Malik, born and raised in Kenya, graduated university in Nairobi, then spent many years in America. Thanks to Malik, and the extensive work and travel of the entire RainCatcher team, schools in Kogelo (the Obama ancestral village) now have rainwater harvesting & filtering systems . . . and thanks to Nike they also have new soccer balls.
RAINCATCHER + ROWAN =
Everyday we partner with humanitarian organizations
to bring safe drinking water to people literally dying of thirst.
Better than words, faces tell our story best.
click http://www.flickr.com/photos/water4everyone to see ROWAN slideshow- featuring Kelsey Young & Pastor Paul, co-founders of ROWAN.
http://www.loverowan.com/about/the-team
