After meeting up with Jane Brinton Co-Founder of The Waterbearers in Cuenca Ecuador not long after we first moved there, we discovered that we had similar interests in helping others. I found out she was headed to Nepal and I got so excited because I knew I was headed there too about the same time. So the planning began. My nonprofit, New Hope Charitable Children’s Home (NHCCH), was involved with Joint Education for Poor Children (JEPC) in Pokhara Nepal. JEPC had been in the process of converting a run-down private home into a study center for the slum children. The goal was to provide a place for the children to study in the morning before school and a place to study after school. In turn, we would provide funds for remodeling the study center, provide food twice a day to the children and help with educational costs and other needs.

Tej, the founder of JEPC, was asked to do a water assessment for the slum area. He provided the information to thewaterbearers.org and we finalized our plans to meet up in Pokhara Nepal and take Jane, Erin, and the others on a tour of the study center and the slum area. They, in turn, would complete a more detailed assessment of the needs for clean water and provide filters for the study center and the slum area. I had not seen a demonstration of the water filters, so I was very excited to see how it all worked.

The group looked at the water system currently in place at both the study center (which NHCCH had installed) and the water systems used by the people in the slums. We noted that many of the small water storage units contained at individual homes were uncovered and dirty. One home in particular housed 3 young girls and their paralyzed father. The mother had recently died of hepatitis caused by dirty water. This really brought home the need to have clean sources of water for the community.

After touring the slum area, we returned to the study center where we were given a demonstration of the filters. The filter was installed on one clean bucket. It was a very simple process and I wondered how something this simple could possibly result in clean water. I was amazed when a bucket of water was filled with dirt and then that water was put in the bucket with the filter. But even more amazing was what came out of the bucket with the filter. It was clean pure water. I even drank some just to see how it tasted. Delicious!!!!! Oh my goodness, I was truly in awe by what the filter was able to accomplish.

Further discussions with thewaterbearers.org and with Dan Wright from My World Is My Country, resulted in the decision to also use ultra-violet light as an extra precaution for the children who were at greater risk. Dan, who lives in Kathmandu, will be working with engineers to design the system for the slum area in Pokhara, which will benefit over 700 people. Additional filters were left with the study center to provide clean water to as many people in the area as possible until the new system was in place.

I cannot really put into words what a wonderful experience this was and how much I appreciated having Jane, Erin and the rest of the group visit the study center and the slums. Their contribution to this area will help prevent the threat of water-borne diseases, which take so many lives. I look forward to continuing to work with thewaterbearers.org and hope anyone reading this will take the time to donate to this absolutely amazing, life-saving cause.

 

Pat Simmons is the President of NHCCH.