Initiated by Jack & Jon Rose, Water 4 Everyoneis a campaign that believes safe drinking water is a basic human right. To put this goal into action, Jon started the non-profit Waves For Water, for the purpose of partnering with individuals, corporations, humanitarian organizations, United Nations, and government agencies around the world to provide a variety of clean-water solutions . . .
Solutions include: the distribution & education of filtration & chlorination programs – rainwater harvesting systems – water-well restorations . . . “A point-of use, hollow fiber filter, installed in an ordinary 5 gallon bucket immediately relieves suffering, and dramatically reduces the risk of death, caused by water-borne disease. A point-of-use solar electric chlorinator brings safe drinking water to 5,000 people a day”.
The most practical awareness I’ve gained from years of service is how simple it is for a curious & concerned world traveler to throw a few filters in their luggage and completely change lives, in a matter of minutes, upon arrival in any remote region of the world.
On this site I’ll continue to post a variety of subplots and outtakes, musings and discoveries, that naturally spring from long walks down dusty roads in the middle of faraway lands. Life for me is a jigsaw . . . with no edge pieces. Countless human stories interlocking and disconnecting daily, forming a living, breathing puzzle never to be complete, and seen in totality, by no one.
“This is the true joy in life – being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one – being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.
I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for it’s own sake.
Life is no ‘brief candle’ to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations . . .”
Jon with Rose – orphanage clean-water project in Haiti.
To fulfill its design a car needs fire, a boat, an airplane, a train, each needs fire to move through the world. When the car ceases to run and the airplane is decommissioned, the boat mothballed, it’s because the fire is gone. We call this death. Same goes for us, we die when our fire goes out. So, for as long as we’re here, we need fire to move through the world. When we catch fire there is unlimited energy, creativity and resources. Pierre Teilhard de Chadin said it this way :
“Some day, after we have mastered the winds, the tides, and gravity we shall harness the energies of love. Then for a second time in the history of the world we will have discovered fire”.
My “catching rain” presentations always begin and end with a conversation about the importance of “catching fire”. If we catch fire, water will be plentiful, new opportunities and possibilities will suddenly become obvious, and we will have the energy to implement new solutions to old problems.
We transform water that takes away life . . . into water that gives life.
On Tuesday, February 22, we spent Jon’s 33 birthday traversing the rugged landscape of Haiti – from ocean to ocean, over tall mountains and through dense jungle, from Port de Paix to Port au Prince to Petionville to Leogane to Jacmel, into the ocean, under the waterfall. Our trusty guide, Fritz G. Pierre-Louie, carried us to and through ancient hidden treasures of Haiti.
And even while celebrating Jon’s birthday we completed two clean-water distributions and trainings, from the northern most city in Haiti to the southern most village, crisscrossing the entire country via airplanes and off-road machines and finally by foot on jungle trails.
This is what we love to do: Bringing clean water and having fun, celebrating the fact that when we arrive we meet people suffering from the consequences of drinking from a water source that takes away life and when we say “Farewell’ and disappear down a dusty dirt road these same people are now drinking water that gives abundant life.
August, 2009 – Reporter Jarrod Holbrook and RainCatcher Fred Mango document the installation of rainwater harvesting systems on rural schools across Kenya.
Waves For Water in Partnership with United Nations & Humanitarian Organizations
Example: By plane, truck, boat and foot, the Waves for Water team has completed the distribution & training for 56,000 Sawyer clean-water filter systems to the most remote regions of Haiti. These have been donated by Compassion International.
1-Fritz & Jon flying to north coast to meet trucks for big Compassion International distribution and field operations training. 2-Jack & Zach delivering to Mirebalais. 3-Boat carrying our filters & buckets to La Gonave, an island near Port-au-Prince. 4-Jack & Zach in St. Marc. click images to enlarge
RainCatchers on 22 schools and 2,500 Sawyer clean-water filter systems
“There are many problems in the world that seem unsolvable, clean drinking water isn’t one of them.
“Kenya & Uganda: 100% successful mission.
As we venture to the far edges of the earth, bringing goodwill and reverence for life, we are received like firemen at a burning building, except the fire is literally in the belly of innocent children. By the time we leave each school, bouncing down the red dirt roads of equatorial Africa, the fires caused by water-bourne diseases are well on their way to being extinguished.
The awful belly fire is something I know from experience. The pain is like a knife being thrust into your stomach. So, alongside the millions who die from drinking contaminated water, there are countless others who endure intense pain as a part of daily life. Everywhere we go we are greeted by people who know what we know: That securing a reliable source of safe drinking water is the #1 top priority. This shared knowledge is the common ground where our friendships begin and upon which our collaboration continues.
And so begins a journey of hope – with many turns and detours and setbacks. This is the road we have chosen to walk. Our stride is steady, we never stop. The people are amazing and happy . . . and free of the burdens their counterparts endure everyday in the first world.
It is we who receive fulfillment from those we travel far to serve.
RainCatcher delivers donated Nike soccer balls to schools in Kenya & Uganda – July, 2011
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.
Shortly after this effort I was getting ready for a big RainCatcher / Beachbody Clean-Water 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.
