November 29, 2007

We are pleased to provide an update on the Pure Water projects supported by the Rotary Clubs in District 7210.

RI Matching Grant project MG#55144 in Choluteca, Honduras is progressing well. The work there is managed by Choluteca Rotarian Sergio Salinas and a team composed of Peace Corp volunteer, Health Promoter, production supervisor and several people who help manufacture and deliver filters. They are also responsible for training community members and for providing medication for de-parasiting. As on October 31, the team has installed 2317 filters, provided 4450 man-hours of training, and administered de-parasiting medications to 456 individuals, mostly children. This project will be completed in January, 2008 and will deliver a total of 2,800 filters, exceeding the initial goal of 2500 filters by more than 10%. Just imagine, more than 2800 families and many of their children will no longer have to suffer from water borne diseases.

 
A little girl from La Fortunita takes her de-parasiting medication 

RI Matching Grant #61837: Matching Grant application to install 2,300 more filters in the District of Choluteca, Honduras has been approved and we expect to begin work on this project in 2008 after completion of the work under MG#55144.

RI Matching Grant #62078: Another pure water project to install 1800 filters in San Miguel, El Salvador was approved in May 2007. This project led by the Highland Rotary Club in D. 7210 is in partnership with the Presbytery of Iowa. The Presbytery runs a home called Casa Pastoral in the city of Berlin and the church volunteers support about 2200 families living in small villages surrounding Berlin, El Salvador. The families living in this mountainous region do not have access to safe drinking water and they are anxious to receive the filters. We plan to manufacture filters in San Miguel under the supervision of local Rotarians and deliver them to Casa Pastoral for installation in the homes of the families. Highland Club is taking a lead role in this project.

Water source for the villagers near Berlin, El Salvador

The project employee, Julio will be in charge of manufacturing the filters in San Miguel. He has received training in Choluteca, Honduras and the volunteers from Casa Pastoral have been trained to deliver, install, and maintain the filters in the homes of families. Manufacturing of filters has begun and we expect to start delivering filters in the near future.

Julio is manufacturing filters in San Miguel 

Thank you all and your clubs for supporting these projects. Please let us know if you have any questions or would like us to discuss these projects with your clubs.

Yours in Rotary,

Tansukh Dorawala (dorawalast@aol.com) and Stephanie King (applequeen5@aim.com)