TPRF Real Stories

Bruce Keenan, founder of the Himalayan Children’s Charities (HCC) in Nepal, forwarded these letters from college students who recently visited Food for People in the village of Tasarpu, Dhading District, forty kilometers from Kathmandu. The students live in an HCC group home called Kushi Ghar (happy home) while they are attending school. Bruce is a supporter of the Food for People program and a TPRF adviser. He is profiled in a previous blog article posted on July 12, 2012.

Laxmi:

I was really delighted to go to the FFP mainly because it is far from the crowded city. The other reason is that when I come here, my mind is at peace. I came here two years ago in 2010, and  I was really amazed to see everything in the same condition.  Nothing had changed.  For example, the environment was orderly and clean, the maintenance of the kitchen was spotless, and everything looked perfect.  Seeing the kids and the elders enjoying their meal, I really wanted to express my gratitude to all the people who collectively generated ideas for opening this kind of organization.  In the future, if I am able to save enough money, I want to open an organization to help poor people and eradicate poverty.

I want Food for People to extend its services in areas of Nepal like Humla, Jumla, Solukhumbu, and other remote locations.

Manmaya—My Visit to Dhading:

My happiness knew no bounds when Bruce decided to take us on a trip to the Dhading Food for People a week ago. I was eagerly waiting for that day to come, and on the 6th of October we went.

We started our trip at around 6:30 a.m. with fifteen people. We reached our destination at 9:15 a.m. My heart leapt with joy when I got the chance to see the FFP for a second time. The environment was so peaceful and pleasant. I wanted to stay for a week, so that I could help there and learn something new from them. The FFP had its own beautiful and well-managed kitchen garden where there were various vegetables.

The kitchen was well managed, neat and clean. Now I have made a promise to myself that I will plant various vegetables in my kitchen garden and keep my kitchen and store room as I saw it at the FFP.

Nari:

I had visited the FFP three years ago. I was excited to know about our next trip to Dhading. Waking up early at five AM and taking a two hour drive on a bumpy and winding road was a little boring. However, getting out of an overcrowded city with pollution and traffic made me relaxed and happy.  We arrived on time, and I started talking to the kids who were there for lunch.

We then went inside the kitchen. There were nine staff members doing their duties sincerely. The kids sat on the floor with a TV in front of them. We were taken to see the store and kitchen. I had never seen the system of covering your hair before entering these places. It prevents your hair from falling out into the food. After that we were served tea and biscuits. Then they took us to see a home provided to some staff from the village.  Since everyone was hungry, we went for lunch. I must say the food was quite tasty in spite of being cooked in such a large quantity.

Khil:

When Dinesh told me we were going to the FFP in Dhading, I thought it would be a general kitchen like a restaurant, serving a different variety of food to many people. We often see kitchens like these in the capital. When I reached the FFP, I was so amazed to see a different food kitchen serving many children the same food.

Food for People, often called the “Food Kitchen,” is a social organization started by Prem Rawat through Premsagar Foundation Nepal. The general objective of Food for People is to serve a healthy meal to poor and underprivileged school children before going to school. Everyday around three to four hundred people are served by nine staff members. I was really surprised to see how well-managed and clean the food kitchen was as it serves poor and needy people. It made me motivated, and I hope I can do such great work someday for poor and needy people.

Food for People is the first step in Nepal. Now the time has come to unite the people of Nepal to help our own brothers and sisters. Such a food kitchen or alternative should be opened to rural areas where people are dying of hunger. If we unite and work together nothing is impossible.

Lastly, I feel great and lucky visiting such a place.  I am very motivated to work for people. I would like to thank everyone for providing me with such an opportunity.

Photos Courtesy of Bruce Keenan and Himalayan Children’s Charities

Recently published results of Nepal’s School Leaving Certificate Exam revealed the dramatic impact the Food for People program has had on the students attending Adarsha Secondary School at Damechaur, Tasarpu, near the FFP facility. The national exam tests students in the tenth grade.

Sixty-one percent (61%) of the Adarsha students passed the exam compared to the national average of forty-three percent (43%).

“In addition to the effort of teachers and students, all the credit for this exciting result goes to Food for People and Premsagar Foundation,” said Bishnu Gautam, Headmaster of the Adarsha School.

This is the first time students eating at Food for People Nepal took the national SLC Exam. Almost all the children from the Adarsha School have been eating regular meals at the local FFP for the past three years.

After the FFP in Nepal opened and began serving free daily meals, school enrollment climbed to new high levels. Another educational improvement has been the addition of grades seven through ten to the Adarsha School.

At the School’s request, FFP Nepal provided evening meals in addition to the morning meals to Tenth Grade students taking extra classes to prepare for the SLC exam for four months prior to the test. In addition, Premsagar Nepal Foundation provided $1,300 to the school as a partial contribution to pay for additional teachers required for Grades Seven through Ten.

Half of the students who passed the SLC exam from the Adarsha School are girls. One of them is 22-year-old Kumari Tamang. Normally, students taking the SLC exam are 15-16 years old. In the past, difficult conditions in the area forced girls like Kumari to drop out of school. Now, she can continue her education thanks to the regular meals served at Food for People.

Photos Courtesy of Premsagar Nepal Foundation

I can honestly say that writing and editing the TPRF blog for the past 18 months has been an exciting, enjoyable, and unpredictable journey.We began with a mandate to cover the developing story of the third Food for People facility planned for construction in the small village of Otinibi, outside of the metropolitan city of Accra in Ghana, West Africa.  I had very little experience with social media, a slight familiarity with TPRF’s proprietary Food for People program, and no background information on the country or people of Ghana.

Somehow, these obvious drawbacks did not inhibit the expansion of the TPRF blog from a single story into an international forum reflecting stories of enormous hope through efficient and inspired humanitarian initiatives undertaken by TPRF and its partner organizations around the world.

Otinibi FFP Before Grand Opening

Our first posts covered the Ghana Food for People projectin detail beginning when the facility was an undeveloped piece of land awaiting governmental approval of the documents transferring title of ownership to the local charity set up to manage and run the FFP.  We have literally watched the facility rise up out of the ground, culminating in a triumphant opening one year later.  The FFP in Otinibi has materialized thanks to the dedication of mostly local volunteers, an expert construction team, funding from TPRF, and donations from individuals following the story on the Internet.

Five hundred children and adults will be fed nutritious meals every day in Otinibi. The same thing happens at two other Food for People centers which opened in 2006 and 2009.

The logistics and effort required to establish and keep the FFP facilities operating boggles the mind. Yet it is happening.  It is a privilege and a joy to make these stories about people who benefit from the Food for People program and the individuals who volunteer to make these daily miracles occur available to our readers.

Six months after our first post, we decided to open up the scope of the blog to other feature stories while still reporting on the progress of the project in Ghana. We covered the other two Food for People facilities located in the villages of Bantoli, India and Tasarpu, Nepal. I began to see the profound effect the program has on the people it touches.

Now, children go to school instead of doing manual labor (like crushing rocks to support their families.)  The nutritious daily meals allow the children to grow and develop normally. Plus, they learn proper sanitation habits and enjoy watching educational television programs while eating.

With healthy bodies and the opportunity to learn in school, these children have a vastly improved chance to realize their dreams later in life.  And something more.  I have seen through these stories that Food for People is an oasis for these children, a place where they can flourish and enjoy their precious childhood.

The Food for People program is only one example of TPRF’s life-changing work.  We regularly cover stories about  TPRF’s Peace Education Program in prisons, independent fundraising efforts, disaster relief, clean drinking water initiatives, and other humanitarian efforts undertaken by TPRF’s carefully-selected partner organizations.

Relieving Drought in Ethiopia With Partner IRD

The voice of the TPRF blog that we searched for in the beginning has become the many voices of hope and positive change as stories continue to stream in from around the world.

As Prem Rawat’s message of peace continues to reach more people, we hope to keep pace by allowing more voices to tell their stories spontaneously in an even greater diversity.

The new blog will present stories from regular contributors, expressions from blog subscribers, people involved in the work of TPRF, and others involved in independent humanitarian efforts. In time, regular contributors and TPRF partners will be able to post directly to the new blog template as stories break.

Photos Courtesy of IRD and Premsagar Nepal

Supporting Education in Nepal

With the long wait over for the arrival of key equipment, the construction team in Ghana began tackling the final tasks necessary to open the Food for People facility in Otinibi.  Here is Kafui Esi Adjei’s report on the day-to-day events leading up to the historic inauguration of the third location for TPRF’s unique and highly successful feeding and education program.

We have had several guests visiting the facility. The Chief of Otinibi, Nii Adjei Kweidzamansah III, and his entourage came to the facility to have a taste of the favorite and delicious local dish “Ga  Kenkey” served with fried fish and hot pepper sauce.

Ga Kenkey is a staple food in Ghana made from corn/maize dough kneaded into a ball and then wrapped in a corn husk.  After boiling Ga Kenkey for about an hour and a half, it is usually eaten with meat, chicken, fish and soup dishes accompanied by a hot pepper sauce seasoning.

The District Chief Executive, the political head of the district, Honourable John Kwao Sackey, also came with the Assemblyman for the area, Honourable Adams Thoro. The head of the nutrition department of the University of Ghana was also there with her team on three different occasions as part of a base line nutrition study underway at Food for People Ghana.

The baseline study is a research project designed to gather statistics on the school children’s health status, school attendance, performance in class, and other related statistics. These benchmarks will be gathered before the feeding program begins. The same statistics will be gathered periodically after FFP Ghana opens.  By comparing the original benchmarks to the statistics gathered over time, the baseline study will reveal the impact the feeding program is having on the children in the community.

On May First it will be exactly a year since sod was cut for the beginning of the project. It is really amazing how things can move very fast. Finally, the long-awaited coolers arrived in a van after the close of work on Tuesday, April 3^rd. By the end the next day, the coolers had been fully assembled. After installing the refrigerator piping system, the construction team tested the coolers for over a week and the system checked out fine.

Everybody is happy for the arrival of the coolers, so we are ready for the inauguration of the facility. We anticipate feeding 450 people including invited guests at the inauguration.  We expect the opening ceremonies will happen between May 15 and May 22. From then onwards, we will be feeding about 500 people every day.

Photos by Francis Ahore

Praveena Chandrasekhar has a Masters Degree in Child Development and Family Relations.  She has worked for more than ten years with rural families in India to improve health, hygiene, nutrition, education, parenting skills, and economic development. Currently, Praveena is a TPRF volunteer helping with the launching of  a baseline study at the Food For People facility in Bantoli, Ranchi, India.

I walked towards the Food for People center on my first visit here in Bantoli. I am looking forward to the opportunity to be here when the children would come to have their food.  About six to eight kids were already in the garden, running around picking dried leaves, some looking at me curiously with shy smiles on their faces.

Most of the children used the toilets built conveniently near the entrance gate, as they do not have bathrooms in their homes. After washing their feet and hands, they lingered in the vegetable and flower gardens, picking up dried leaves and watering the plants.  The children performed all of these tasks willingly. Later, they walked in a calm way into the dining hall. I could see that they were relaxed and not rushing. They were at home!

Most of the children were neatly dressed, even though their clothes were old and faded. They carried themselves well. They were happy, content, and without the anxiety one typically sees in children from families caught in a cycle of extreme poverty.

In thirty minutes, about 60 children gathered, all sitting on mats laid in rows. They were enjoying the music playing softly in the background. The dining hall was spacious, and a cool breeze was blowing through the mesh windows on all four sides.

More and more children started trickling in—older siblings bringing their younger ones, parents bringing their little ones. Soon, half of the mats on the floor were occupied. I was amazed to see the kids waiting patiently, talking softly amongst themselves. The atmosphere was lively and yet serene.

I walked into the orderly, spic-and-span kitchen. Lunch was prepared and the cook was transferring the food into the big serving pots, which would go onto the serving counter.

As the serving time approached, children from one row at a time formed a straight line, picked up their thalis (food plates) and walked to the food counter. They filled their plates and calmly came back to their seats. Clean drinking water was available in tumblers in the corner of the dining hall. Many children went back for seconds, getting their favorite dhal or vegetable, along with rice.

I was pleasantly surprised to notice the children did not drop food from their plates on the ground while eating. It became obvious that they had a lot of respect for the food they were served. Leftovers were at a minimum. Even though the food was free, they obviously felt a great value for it!

I could not believe my own eyes that the children were so disciplined in such a natural way. There was no fear and no adult intervention. This shows the level of understanding and maturity in the children.

The staff in this facility are very caring and they treat the children with a lot of respect. The dining area was constantly mopped to keep it safe for the children to walk with plates full of food. The thoughtfulness of these caretakers brought tears to my eyes.

Joginder Oroan comes from Bajiatoli, a village one kilometer away from the facility. He is 16 years old and studies in the 10th grade. Joginder was in the first batch of children served meals by Food for People, Bantoli in 2006. “I feel safe and at home here,” he says. Joginder tells me that he used to be very aggressive and would fight with his peers all the time. Awhile after he started coming to this facility, he found there was “some kind of quietness and calm” within himself. He finds the discipline very balancing, as his home environment is very harsh with a drunkard father and violence. He says, “I get a chance to study and do my homework quietly here in the evening.” He is very appreciative of the loving staff and expressed his gratitude.

Phooleshwar Munda, also from Bajiatoli, is 11 years old and a seventh grade student. He has been enjoying the services of FFP since it began, and seems to be a very cheerful and happy child. He says, “I would not know about hygiene if it was not for coming here.” He now insists on following at least some of the hygiene practices at home.

Phooleshwar makes it a point to come to the center in the evening to help in the garden. He wants to become an engineer. “I appreciate the care they give me,” he says. “I do not feel that I am coming here for alms. I come every morning with dignity.”

In my opinion, this is not a simple thing to achieve in a facility of this size. It is an honor for me to be here for about 12 days to witness this phenomenal activity every morning. Nowhere else have I seen such beautiful interaction with children based on mutual love and respect!

Photos Courtesy of Premsagar Foundation

During their vacation in Southeast Asia, David and Debby Horsford are combining sightseeing with visits to areas where TPRF is helping people through its various partners.  Debby is writing a dairy and David takes photos and videos of their journey.  This is the first article in a series featuring the humanitarian work of TPRF grantee and partner, the Sao Sary Foundation.

The Sao Sary Foundation is located in the Kampong Speu Province of Cambodia, about a two hour drive from the capital, Phnom Penh. This mountainous area rarely gets enough rainfall to provide drinking water, let alone enough to grow crops and raise animals.

Sao Sary, a government worker from the province, was tragically murdered for the humanitarian work he undertook to help villagers in this area. Sao’s son, Vichetr Uon, created the foundation to continue his father’s work. The enemies Vichetr deals with are loan sharks and prostitution groups who prey upon the innocent people in these impoverished villages.

TPRF has partnered with the Sao Sary Foundation to build clean water wells in an organized effort to bring dignity and self-sufficiency to these extremely marginalized Cambodians.

Most children in this province receive a poor quality of education and are forced to give up school completely by the time they are 13 years old. Many parents force their daughters to forge their documents, saying they are women of working age, in order to work in garment factories and provide financial support for their families.

The older women left in the village care for the children and are given the task of traveling long distances to buy water. They are often charged unfairly for the drinking water they buy. Most of the men and older boys are forced to work on fishing boats in Thailand, where they are exploited and often forced to work without pay.

The day we arrive, a work crew is here with equipment to drill more than 30 meters through solid rock to reach water. The cost of this operation is high because it requires many attempts to find water and there is always equipment breakage.

TPRF has provided water filtration systems so that the water gathered in the nearby pond can be cleaned. Until recently, this pond was the only source of water the villagers had, and  it dries up months before the rainy season begins.

As many villagers gather to watch the drilling of the well, Vichetr calls a village meeting. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to ask them questions and, of course, for them to ask us questions. A woman’s face lights up as she hears the translation after David asks if the clean water has made a difference in the villagers’ lives. In unison, they all chant, “Yes.”

Sanitation conditions are so improved, and with the new well going in, the people here are hopeful for even bigger changes. Time and money will no longer be wasted traveling long distances to buy water.

The villagers are eager to use the well water to start irrigating their land to grow vegetables that they can eat and perhaps even sell in the market.

There is one grandmother here who is raising five grandchildren. The mother died and the father, unable to support the family in any way, abandoned the children. The grandmother is pictured with short, cropped hair. The three daughters are in the photos also, with brightly colored skirts given to them by a Vietnamese doctor. The children hold out their skirts proudly to show us.

They now have clean drinking water, recently in unknown luxury.  With the well, they have a way to begin to grow vegetables,  raise animals, and become self-sufficient. No longer having to borrow money to buy rice, the family will be free of loan sharks.

The grandmother sees that her grandchildren will have an opportunity to stay in school and end the cycle of poverty that has trapped families in this area for untold generations.

Photos by David Horsford

Recently, TPRF made a grant of $25,000 to the International  Relief and Development Organization (IRD) to support an emergency effort to supply clean drinking water to 24,000 villagers in Ethiopia. The grant to IRD is one of three TPRF has made to organizations working to help East Africans survive the worst drought in sixty years.

This week, we are fortunate to have Scott Webb’s on-the-ground report of the situation in two villages where IRD is working to supply clean water to some of the most vulnerable people in the region bordering on Somalia.

Scott Webb is IRD’s Program Officer for Relief and Humanitarian Assistance.

On September 1, I visited seven Kebeles, or villages, throughout the Dollo Ado and Dollo Bay Woredas, or counties. The local Woreda administrations indicated that these villages were some of the most vulnerable and in urgent need of water.

No Rain Produces Arid Conditions

Dollo Ado and Dollo Bay (pronounced like “bye”) are in the southern Somali state of Ethiopia along the southern border region where Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia meet, and the people are all Somali. Most of the Somali refugees from the Somalia side of the border live in four different UNHCR-administered refugee camps in and around Dollo Ado, which has become the base of operations for all international NGO’s serving refugees in southern Ethiopia.

Dollo Ado is therefore a bustling, booming town, with NGO workers buzzing around monitoring and catering to the refugees, and enterprising Somali businessmen selling everything to the NGO’s from building materials, vehicle fuel, and bottled water to cell phone cards and espresso.

While refugees come to Ethiopia with their own heartbreaking stories of malnutrition and violence from Al-Shabaab-controlled Somalia, the surrounding host communities of southern Ethiopia are in the midst of a crippling drought. The region has barely received any rains in two years.

The Somali people are pastoralists. Their livelihood depends entirely on their animals.  Somali families live in sedentary villages near usually consistent water sources, and the men and boys herd sheep, goats, and cattle around the region in search of grass and water. The villagers subsist on milk and purchase their food by selling various animal products such as milk, hides, and meat.

This lifestyle depends 100 percent on the rains. A mere 200 to 400 millimeters of rain per year can support hundreds of thousands of villagers, replenishing grasslands and the leaves on trees, filling up watering holes, and maintaining the water table.

Villagers use various coping mechanisms to deal with the scarce rainfall. One of the most effective methods involves digging wells by hand and constructing burkits, which look similar to in-ground cement pools with roofs. In the intense rainstorms that normally occur, water rushes into the burkits and can be safely stored for several months until the traditional water sources dry out.

The Burkit at Bangol

Each village has a water committee comprised of select members of the community (including women) who help maintain equitable and fair water access for the community. In the villages we visited, notably Bangol, the burkits had just dried out, within 48 hours of our visit.

Thanks to generous support from The Prem Rawat Foundation and other donors, IRD is able to help the people of Bangol and 15 other communities in the region. Immediately after visiting the region, Abdulahi Muse and I negotiated a temporary water-trucking contract with Egal Mohammed, a local water-trucking company. Water was delivered to the target villages starting that very day. By September 7, all villages, including Bangol, had received 5,000 liter water tanks, hundreds of extra jerry cans, and daily deliveries of clean water.

Photos by Scott Webb, IRD

IRD Emergency Relief Coordinator Listens to Bangol Villagers

As Haiti tried to rebuild after its 7.0 magnitude earthquake, conditions brewed for a cholera epidemic.

Cholera is caused by bacteria which grow in untreated, contaminated water.  It produces distress in the human digestive tract that results in diarrhea and vomiting, and the infection can be life threatening.

By October, 2010, ten months after the quake, more than a quarter million Haitians were sickened and some had died from the disease, which eventually spread throughout the country.

TPRF’s grant of $50,000 to Mercy Corps helped to bring the epidemic under control in the most at-risk camps around the capital of Port-au-Prince. A 2-minute video describing the Mercy Corps program to support survivors and contain the cholera outbreak may be viewed here.

Thanks to the participation of TPRF and other donating organizations, Mercy Corps recently reported these stories representing improving conditions:

Delinos Baptiste’s home was not damaged in the quake, but he was afraid to continue to live there. This elderly man moved to the camp with an injured foot and no money for a doctor, so navigating in the camp was difficult. He relied on the sporadic support of other camp residents for his basic necessities. The distribution by Mercy Corps of life-saving items such as soap, water purification tablets, salt rehydration tablets, clean water buckets, and redeemable clean water vouchers means Delinos will not have to rely on others to care for him.

When the earthquake damaged Constana Beaussou’s house, she huddled together with her neighbors in the street. The next day, Constana moved into the camps, pitching a blanket on a wooden stick for some measure of protection against the elements. Eventually, she received her tent.  The distribution of basic hygiene products and clean water in the camp allowed Constana to survive and persevere, even when she had no money.

Before the earthquake, Josette Sainville and her partner Jean Sainele Sainrilus lived in Delmas with their three children. The quake cracked their home, forcing them into the camps. Before distributions started, the couple bought water on the streets. It wasn’t always clean, but they drank it anyway. Sometimes, even water was a luxury they couldn’t afford. Today, the family has access to clean water and other supplies on a consistent basis, which is essential for their continued health.

Neal Keny-Guyer, Chief Executive Officer of Mercy Corps, said TPRF funding helped support the organization’s Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) program into June, 2011. “None of this would be possible without the inspiring investment of organizations like The Prem Rawat Foundation,” he said.  “On behalf of all those who benefit from your generosity, thank you for partnering with Mercy Corps to make a positive, lasting difference in the world today.”

Photos Courtesy of Mercy Corps

Distributing Life-Giving Necessities

Clean water is an essential ingredient for a healthy life.  One in eight people in the world live without it.  The problem is widespread in African countries. Tanzania is located on the eastern coast of Africa.  While the country is bordered by three of the largest lakes on the continent, many areas are very dry, with little opportunity for agriculture. Less than half of the population of 39 million have access to running water for sanitary purposes.  Only 62% of the population have access to fresh water wells. On average, women and children spend over two hours a day collecting water. Treks of six to seven hours are not unusual in some rural areas.

TPRF has worked for many years with partner WaterAid to help people in countries around the world gain better access to clean water for drinking and sanitation. In 2010-2011, TPRF gave a grant of $25,000 to WaterAid to improve the situation in Tanzania. The following excerpt from a recent WaterAid report illustrates how the effort has made a life-changing impact in the small village of Kibiagwa.

Tanzanian Water Well

“We visited Kibaigwa to see a different approach to water supply management and to determine the long term impact of the water improvement program there.

“Kibaigwa, located in Eastern Dodoma with a population of over 26,000, is one of Tanzania’s fastest growing settlements. Kibaigwa is surrounded by a fertile hinterland suitable for growing groundnuts, sunflower and maize, which is the main staple food in East Africa.

“WaterAid, in collaboration with the local government, helped to implement the Kibaigwa water supply and sanitation project in 1998 – 2000.  We found it amazing to see how the program had grown after ten years. To ensure long-term viability of the program, it was important to leave an effective management structure in place. WaterAid organized and oversaw the formation, training and registration of a Board of Trustees to manage the program in a sustainable manner as a non-profit group.

Meter Attaches to Well Tap

“Due to the increase in revenue, the Board is now able to help finance the construction of new classrooms and a Clinical Officer’s house. Health and welfare services are now available to institutions like schools and clinics at a subsidized cost. These services include the supply of 40 liters of water per day free of charge for people living with HIV. The increased revenues have also made it possible to provide a supply of clean water to the nearby village of Kinangali.

“The Kibaigwa clean water program has become a model for many community groups in the area. A Water Engineer and Assistant Administrative Secretary with the Dodoma Regional Secretariat said recently, ‘This program has bonded the beneficiaries to the utility…In Kibaigwa, a drop of water is respected by every village resident and any burst pipe is reported immediately.’”

As the world population grows, more fresh water is required for drinking water and sanitation.  As a result, the water available for agriculture and industrial uses is plunging below demand levels.  The effects of global warming are causing water shortages and droughts in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.  Water mismanagement by government agencies adds to the shortages.  Dumping treated and untreated human waste into bodies of water is a suicidal policy that is reducing the worldwide fresh water supply on a daily basis.  Poisonous industrial waste products continue to find their way into lakes, rivers, streams and aquifers.

Pump Mechanics

The world’s supply of fresh water has not increased since biblical times.  We are destroying an irreplaceable commodity essential to life while increasing demand at an uncontrolled, alarming rate.

Water covers 75 percent of the earth’s surface, but only 2.5 percent is fresh water.  O.3 percent of the fresh water is located on the surface.  The balance lies deep underground.

Most of us are too consumed with our daily struggle for existence to worry about global problems like the water crisis.  However, you can make a huge difference to people in India by joining with TPRF and our partner, The Adventure Project, to train mechanics to repair broken water pump handles.

One third of all hand pumps installed in the last twenty years in developing countries are now broken. 4,000 children die every day because of a lack of clean drinking water.  The Adventure Project has developed a novel solution to this problem.  Instead of drilling more fresh water boreholes, the Adventure Project non-profit is using charitable donations to train and employ hand pump mechanics. The mechanics earn an income, bringing themselves out of poverty, and they save lives – turning water back on for thousands of people each year.

The Joy of Clean Water

Tuesday, March 22, 2011 is World Water Day.  We are asking our readers to consider making a donation TODAY to help people in need in India.  100 blog sites are joining in this effort.  If we can raise $10,000 by the end of the day, TPRF will double the amount with a matching grant of  $10,000.  The idea is to challenge ten readers to donate $20.00 each.  But we think we can do better than that.  If we succeed, we will help bring clean water to 300 additional people each month. That’s 3,600 people per year!

Here is the link to get more information and to make your donation:

www.TheAdventureProject.causevox.com

Photo Credit: Esther Havens for The Adventure Project