My Mission:

My mission is not only to provide the tools necessary to help out the 1.1 billion people who lack safe drinking water but to raise awareness on the topic as well. 1 out of every 6 people worldwide still lack access to the earths most overlooked and precious resource, water. In the time it took you to read what was written above, a child died from a water-borne illness such as diarrhea(1 every 20 seconds or 5,000 children a day). It's easy to overlook the seriousness of this issue as we waste water like it's going out of style whether it be our pools, water parks, and even bottled water. Not only is this water needed to quench the thirst of those living in developing countries but it's needed for hygiene practices and most importantly, agriculture which dominates many of these countries economies. I'm dedicating my life(for now) to making sure I can do everything I can both domestically and internationally to help tackle this very important issue.

Friday, November 19, 2010

My Travels Abroad

I spent a decent amount of time volunteering in the townships outside of Cape Town specifically, Masiphumelele's Ukhanyo Primary School and came to notice that there was only 1 little old and rusty pipe to provide the water for the whole school. Since then, I've become an advocate even more than ever for access to safe water worldwide and am going to take this platform next semester to Phnom Penh, Cambodia on a full blown campaign. Decades of conflict have seriously damaged Phnom Penh's water supply infrastructure and today only about 35% of the people get its water from improvised drinking water sources. The numbers are gruesome and the statistics are horrific but people must realize the impact water has. Over 10% of kids die before their 1st Birthday due to water borne illnesses in Cambodia,rural sanitation is at under 8% so people dispose of their waste anywhere which is quickly ruining the water they need to depend on. With that being said, I intend to develop outlines for teachers to use for a 2 to 3 day seminar in school to teach kids about water and in after school hours teach those in the villages the same. By using hand-soap in schools and in public we can decrease dirrheal diseases by over 40%. At the seminars, jobs can be offered for those willing to dig new wells that can be used for safe and un-contaminated water. With the right funding, we can build a well and have test kits to make sure the water is clean and for those who really need immediate water in the most desperate areas, we can hand out purification tablets which makes contaminated water, safe in less than a 1/2 hour. If we can develop more wells, we can save local women a lot of time who usually walk 6 kilometers to fetch water a day. After we see improvements, we can talk to the farmers about improving their systems and how much water they can use a day. I'll be working on this project 8 hours a day, 6 days a week for 4 months so the work is very serious for a very serious topic. After I return home from Phnom Penh, I'll be home for about a month before I head off to 1 of Cambodia's neighbor's, Vang, Vieng, Laos for 2 months doing similar work and creating UBelong's very first after school sports program!




Left: Lone pipe in SA for school, Middle: School "Toilet", Right: Khmer child pumping water

Posted by christian_bowe at 2:43 PM

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