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.
August, 2009 – Reporter Jarrod Holbrook and RainCatcher Fred Mango document the installation of rainwater harvesting systems on rural schools across Kenya.
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.
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.
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 RainCatcherWell 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.
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 . . . cost = $100.
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.
Students in California made jewelry, and held bake sales, in order to meet the Ollie Challenge of providing enough funds to guarantee that Christine will be able to complete final five semesters and receive her high school diploma.
21 July 2011 – Uganda
Congratulations to both Christine and her new California friends.
Mark Armfield receiving a $150,000 donation from Carl Daikeler.
RainCatcher and Beachbody join forces to bring rainwater harvesting systems to twelve schools in Kenya / Uganda and our clean-water filter systems to 150,000 people. More stories soon.
