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The Promise of Water

When our founders, Floyd Hammer and Kathy Hamilton, interviewed village leaders in the Ilunda Ward of Tanzania, they asked what they could do best to help them. The leader’s reply? Safe water, food, medical care and education. The Outreach Program was built upon a commitment to fulfill those needs.

Today, March 22, is World Water Day. Since 2004, Outreach has, and continues to, provide various solutions to the desperate need for water. Here is the story of a woman in Mbeya,Tanzania, from Kathy:

Floyd and I met Betsy from California, while helping Red Cross in Lake Charles with the aftermath of Katrina. Floyd invited Betsy and her husband Gene to join us on a trip to Tanzania to do remote medical care for villages in the bush. Betsy and Gene were the first mobile medical mission in Ilunda Ward, Tanzania. When they returned home, they were sharing stories with their mother who through her church was in contact by letter with a woman in Mbeya, Tanzania. The lady in Tanzania had written how difficult it was to get water and how there was no solution available. As a gift to Betsy’s mother for her birthday, the family said they would help this woman in Mbeya, Tanzania get better access to water. Since Betsy had been with us, she knew we also worked on water projects. Betsy asked if we could go to Mbeya, find this woman, and help her with a water catchment system. We said we’d be very happy to help. We did find the lady, and found that not only she, but other women as well, were getting water from a hole which had been dug in a field. The water would seep into this hole very slowly, after much patience the women would dip the water by cupfuls into their bucket.2014-03-20 22.34.41 Eventually they would have enough water to merit carrying it back up the hill to their homes. Since this gift was for this specific woman, Floyd helped to install eves, spouts and a Sim tank for rain water collection. It rained a few days later giving a first test to the system. It worked beautifully. The lady was very grateful for the extended birthday gift.

 

Places like this image below are where many people get water to drink:

cattle in drinking water
People get drinking  water from places like this

Generally, the water looks like this:

Bottles full of drinking water
Bottles full of drinking water

Many diseases in adults, and children, could be avoided with something as simple as clean water.

maasai colelctin water
Maasai collecting drinking water from pond

Village size solutions: We have done many things to help improve access to and the quality of water.

Water filtration system for an entire village
Water filtration system for an entire village

Chlorine generators: Chlorine is generated using batter or solar polar. 1 liter of water + 2 tbsp. of salt + 9 minutes of generator hooked to electricity gives one liter of chlorine so they can purify other water.

Chlorine generator (makes one liter of chlorine even from dirty water)
Chlorine generator (makes one liter of chlorine even from dirty water)

 

Water wells (often referred to as bore holes)

New borehole
New borehole

Water storage systems:

2013 9-10 Med Mission 056

Outreach is currently working on research and development of two new systems we intend to roll out the summer of 2016. If you would like to be a part of our water program and would like to make a contribution to help with R&D, or be put on a mailing list to purchase one of our new units for a family or a village, please call us at: 641-486-2550. Or email us at: office@theoutreachprogram.org

You can make a donation here.

Ending hunger. Enriching lives.