Hola desde El Salvador #12 / Filters are here!

Dear family and friends,

I hope that this email finds you all enjoying the holiday season and looking forward to time with dear family and friends. I am a little sad that I will not be able to make it home for Christmas this year to see my U.S. family and friends, but I am thankful that I will be with my Salvadoran family – all of the wonderful people of El Amatón that have supported and upheld me during these last three years. My time here is growing short (I return to the U.S. in April) and I want to spend as much time with my adopted community as possible. Of course, the invitation is still open to anyone who would like to come and visit during my final months!



Bio-Sand Filters Project

I write with good news -- the bio-sand filters are finally here! In October I trained the Health Committee, and together we held community meetings on basic hygiene and sanitation and filter use and maintenance. The filters were delivered from the Pure Water project in Honduras near the end of November, and I am currently in the process of installing as many as possible with the Health Committee. We are hopeful that these filters will nearly eliminate gastrointestinal diseases caused by bacteria and parasites. THANK YOU to all who helped make this a reality!


HYGIENE EDUCATION PHOTOS:

Carlos identifies good hygiene practices in the Health Committee training

Marlene explains filter maintenance in the all-community training on filter use

FILTER DELIVERY PHOTOS:

Photo of the filter with logos of donors and technical support organization: Wildwood Presbyterian Church (left side), Holden Village (above front), the Burnt Hills Rotary Club (center front), Pure Water for the World (bottom front). The Peace Corps logo is on the right side of the filter because we also received a donation from the Peace Corps Partnership Water and Sanitation Fund.

Delivering filters by hand-cart to the homes

Loading filters on don Santiago’s ox-cart for delivery

FILTER INSTALLATION:

Alexander adding the sand to a filter while kids watch

Girls with their family’s newly installed filter, as they begin 5 days of pouring water through to clean the filter

We are still battling the Ministry of Health bureaucracy to get them to express support for the biosand filters project before the municipal authorities. (We have had some problems because the Ministry usually only supports chlorination systems. However, since we suspect that the water has organic material, chlorination without pretreatment is not recommended.) My patience is wearing a bit thin, but I have to think that the months of phone calls and presentations and meetings will convince them in the end.

If you are interested in more information and pictures of the progress of the bio-sand filters project, click here: Project Report – El Amaton Biosand Filters – Dec 2007.

Water System Infrastructure Project

We´re also still plugging away at the legal issues with the help of the Institute for Human Rights at the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA). Right now the Mayor has agreed to sign a shared administration contract (which would give the community control over all decisions regarding the project) and our main challenge is trying to obtain legal permission to the well.

Fundraising for the solar panels project (to decrease the energy costs of pumping water from the well to the community and make the project more sustainable) is going slowly and I am getting discouraged. We have the support of three Rotary Clubs and four Districts, but we are still far from our Rotary goal. We also have a proposal in with the Ministry of Foreign Relations to see if we can obtain support from international donors, but with such a small community I am afraid we will not be competitive. If you are interested in helping (and especially if you have Rotary contacts), please visit http://www.waterforelsalvador.blogspot.com/.

For now, the water from the project is not falling regularly, and even when it did fall a few times people were so worried about how much it will cost that they were hesitant to use it. Since dry season is setting in, water is getting scarce and has stopped completely in the public tap several times. We were without any water two weeks ago, so it was down the bluff to haul water (one hour per trip). Now that the creek has dried up, we can only obtain drinking and cooking water from the natural wells. For washing clothes, we are making the trek to the river contaminated with human sewage...something that will continue unless we can get this solar panel project off the ground to pump water from the well to the community sustainably. It´s frustrating to have been here three years and not yet see a change in supply of this most basic need, despite my best efforts. Sigamos en la lucha…We continue in the struggle.




Soil Conservation

On a brighter note, the soil conservation project has had great results! We did some monitoring visits to the fields where we dug the acequias (water infiltration ditches) in April. Farmers have already seen improvements in their crops and in water infiltration. One farmer reported that the cornfield in the lower part of his field was always buried with eroded soil before the construction of the acequias. This year, however, he has not observed soil erosion and the corn in the lower portion of the field has been very productive. Another farmer told us how in years past, strong currents of water passed and swept away the bean plants, but this year no strong currents have passed and the beans have produced very well. I wasn’t expecting to see such immediate results (just one growing season), so this was a nice surprise!

Farmers with their water infiltration ditches among corn and bean crops, Sept. 2007.

Home Gardens

We reaped the majority of our harvest of semi-hydroponic tomatoes, sweet peppers, radishes, and broccoli in September and October. Fresh tomatoes and sweet peppers are soooo good … tomatoes roasted, peeled, and mashed up with mint in a yummy sauce called chismol and peppers roasted on the plancha.

Me with harvest of radishes from my flat

Linda harvesting tomatoes in her aunt, Tita’s, garden

Youth Environmental Group

The Youth Ecological Club finished up a really active year with an Earth Celebration Day of environmental dramas and a hike to the cloud forest of the volcano (inactive, we hope) that towers over the village. It is a beautiful, if demanding, hike. The path begins winding through coffee farms and rocky fields of corn and beans, then shifts to tropical dry forest, and at the highest elevations, moist cloud forest. Upon reaching the summit, we hiked down to the bottom of the crater, where the kids had a great time playing soccer and swinging on vines! A fun end to a year of hard work on their part.

Left: Magali weeding around one of the trees we planted in the community water sources

Right: Cristina and I about half way up the Cerro (she’s already a little tired!)

Harvest Time

Harvest time is now in full swing here in El Amatón, a bit late due to the delayed onset of the rainy season. There has been a whirl of agricultural activity as people pull up and thresh beans and mound up and de-grain dried ears of corn in their fields – and then, without hardly taking a deep breath, plunge into the coffee-picking frenzy that will last until early February. After all the paperwork and bureaucracy and politics of the water projects, it has been great for me to engage in real, physical work of the various harvests. I’ve gone to pick coffee with Lidia on her father’s farm, a basket strapped around my waist to catch the red-purple beans as I run my hands down the branches. Then it was off to the frijolar to pull up and thresh beans with don Aroldo and his sons. And last weekend I went with Melvin and his family to tapizcar corn, or break off the dried ears of corn from the stalk (still in their husks) and toss them into piles, to be mounded up into a single pile at the end of the day for de-graining. Since each pile we made drew from a pretty large area, my third-base to first-base throw from my softball days (wayyyyyyy back when) came in pretty handy! There is nothing like working in the fields in the fresh air to leave behind all the frustrating bureaucracy that accompanies community development projects – and to really feel like a part of the family and community.

COFFEE HARVEST:

Left: Elias and me picking coffee

Right: Lorena (Lidia’s niece) picking coffee

BEAN HARVEST:

Aroldo and son Marcos threshing the first bean crop in August

CORN HARVEST:

don Mamerto and Rudy tossing dried ears of corn into a pile

Aroldo and Melvin pick ears of corn below their pile

Congrats to those who have made it to the bottom of the latest issue of “Hola desde El Salvador.” I wish you all a very merry Christmas and look forward to hearing from you.

Con amor desde El Salvador,

Megan

Hola desde El Salvador #11

Dear family and friends,

I hope that the beginning of the school year finds you all well back in the U.S. (or wherever else you may be!) Things are moving along here in El Salvador, although (as usual) much more slowly than I would like. I guess that after all this time I am still an impatient American!


Bio-Sand Filters Project

The good news is that – thanks to many of YOU -- it looks like we will be beginning the bio-sand filters project very soon! (In case you forgot or are new to my email list – these are cement filters filled with sand and gravel to be installed in each house. The filtration process removes 97% of bacteria and 100% of parasites and worms.) Gastro-intestinal illness (caused by bacteria and parasites found in contaminated water) is the most common health problem in the community and also the biggest killer of kids under 5. The Health Committee and I are hoping that this project will nearly eliminate this problem, improving child survival, school attendance of kids, and productivity of adults. The project has already been approved by the Peace Corps Partnership program and is posted on their Web site for potential donors to make contributions (read the project summary at: https://www.peacecorps.gov/resources/donors/contribute/projdetail.cfm?projdesc=519-091&region=latinamerica). I want to thank all of you who have already donated through my church … they will soon be sending the money to Peace Corps Partnership, which, along with promised contributions from Holden Village (an ecumenical retreat center in WA state) and Pure Water for the World, should put us very near our goal! Please know what a difference your generosity – whether with financial support or well-wishes – will make in the lives of the people of El Amatón.

In mid-September I’m planning to visit another Peace Corps Volunteer who is paired with Pure Water for the World in Choluteca, Honduras to observe the different stages of the project. Then, I’ll return to El Amatón to train the Health Committee to carry out the filter installation and monitoring and hygiene education.



Water System Infrastructure Project

This is going much, much slower thanks to political issues. Most of the infrastructure of the Mayor’s project is already built – that is, the tubing and tank. And as you may recall, I have been working with engineers from the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in San Salvador and leaders in the local Association for Community Development (ADESCO) to design a solar panels project and raise the funds to implement it. This would help decrease the energy costs of pumping water from the well drilled by the Mayor to the community and make the project more sustainable.

Unfortunately, we are having some problems with land title issues. Upon beginning the project, the Mayor has claimed that the municipality had a 50-year permission from the landowner for the use of the well. That turned out to be a lie – there is no permission, no title, no nothing. And instead of trying to obtain the title to the well in the name of the ADESCO, the Mayor is trying to obtain it in his own name. He’s also pressuring the community to transfer the title of the land where the water storage tank is built to the Mayor as well, saying that the project will be stopped if they don’t.

For now, the community has narrowly voted against ceding the title to the water storage tank – but there remains the problem of the title to the well. I really, really don’t like the idea of the title being in the hands of anyone but the ADESCO. Especially with the trend towards privatization of water here in El Salvador, if the land titles are not in the community’s name the project could be sold off to a private company, with a high possibility that the quality of service would decrease and the price increase beyond the ability of the families to pay (if interested, read this article from World Press about "Privatizing Water and the Criminalization of Protest"). Certainly, without security to the well and project administration firmly under the community’s control, we can’t be accepting donations for solar panels to pump water from the well to the community.

We have sought legal counsel from the Institute for Human Rights at the UCA (IDHUCA for its initials in Spanish) and they have promised to help us investigate the situation and protect the water project from being (further) exploited for political or financial ends. Hopefully we will be able to resolve the land title issues in favor of the community, in which case the fundraising for the solar panels can continue. We already have the support of two Rotary Clubs in the U.S. But this could be a long, long process.

I’m just glad that the bio-sand filters project is decentralized and therefore not tainted by such nasty politics. If we can get the bio-sand filters installed and people start filtering their drinking and cooking water, that will make a big difference in the community’s health, even if they still spend nearly their whole lives finding water.



Agriculture Projects: soil conservation, trees, veggies, and chickens

-- Soil Conservation: In view of the water project, the Agriculture Committee has worked hard to promote projects that will contribute to conservation of the watershed and increase water infiltration. Before the planting season we carried out a soil and water conservation project consisting of water infiltration ditches called acequias. These structures are dug on level curves across sloping farm fields and help to detain both water running over the fields and eroded soil particles. For each meter of acequia, the agronomist Manuel informed us, 2 barrels of water are stored in the underlying aquifer in each heavy rainfall. So the 2,500 meters we dug will be helping to store 5,000 barrels of water with each rainy-season storm for use in the dry season, as well as helping prevent erosion and preserve humidity in the soil. Not bad!

Above Left: Samuel digging an acequia.

Above Right: I try my hand at digging acequias.

Below: A finished acequia.

-- Agroforestry: More recently, about 30 farmers participated in an Agroforestry project, planting 3,000 multiple-use trees on their lands. Kevin, the agronomist from the NGO that donated the tree seedlings (Trees, Water, People) and I made the first round of visits to the farmers who had planted the trees last week. It was especially fun to visit don Leopoldo’s parcel – not only did we get to see the little seedlings planted just this year, but also the trees we planted over 2 years ago during my first year in El Amatón. Some of the cedro trees are over 1 ½ times my height already.

Leopoldo and I with a cedro tree planted 2 years ago, during my first year in El Amaton

-- Home Vegetable Gardens: This year I continued the semi-hydroponic home vegetable gardens with a group of about 7 women. After making compost, preparing liquid bio-fertilizer, starting the seeds, mixing the substrate (compost, coffee husk, and sifted white pumice rock), transplanting into the containers, and caring for plants, we are finally harvesting tomatoes, sweet peppers, radishes, and … broccoli! Broccoli was a new one for us this year – we weren’t sure if broccoli could be made to produce in this relatively hot climatic zone, but when I went to thresh beans lat week with don Aroldo, Niña Emelina brought us steamed vegetables – including broccoli -- with the lunch she carried out to the fields. ¿De su huerto? I inquired, indicating the broccoli. “From your garden?” On my last round of visiting the gardens the huge plant had just a tiny sprig of broccoli nestled beneath giant leaves. “Sí,” she nodded shyly. It was delicious.

Above Left: Cutting up leaves to be used in a liquid biofertilizer for the vegetable crops.

Above Right: Moises with crop of radish plants.

Below: One of my pepper plants.

-- Chicken Project: Through the generosity of my home church, Wildwood Presbyterian, 17 more families have also joined the chicken project and have begun to raise improved breeds of chickens in enclosures. Last year’s beneficiaries shared their knowledge of proper facilities, animal nutrition, vaccination, and record keeping with the new participants. Meanwhile, last year’s beneficiaries have continued to add to their flocks, hatching more chicks from the communal incubator. We (my Ministry of Agriculture counterpart, Manuel, and I) are now teaching the women to vaccinate their chickens so that they can organize community vaccination campaigns at the beginning and end of each rainy season.

Above Left: Emelina teaches new participants about the vaccinations their chickens must receive.

Above Right: Alejandro and Yulissa hold their family's young chickens

Below: Yolanda vaccinates a chicken against viruela.

Youth in Action for the Environment!

One area where I feel like things are really coming together is in my work with the youth. In April I worked with 5 other Volunteers to organize an Environmental Leadership Camp. Each Volunteer brought 5 student leaders to El Amatón, where they spent three days in talks and activities on natural resources and their protection and leadership skills for motivating their peers to get involved in environmental activities. I have been totally impressed with the youth from my community and the way they have involved their fellow students and followed up the camp with concrete actions: forming a Clean-Up Committee to manage trash in the school, organizing a River Clean-Up, planting trees in community water sources, promoting a recycling campaign, and even writing and performing environmental dramas and songs (at one point before the big show they were coming over to my house every single day after school to rehearse, making a big happy environmental racket!). It’s been a pleasure to work with these kids – their enthusiasm is contagious, and with all of the time we have spent together, I feel like we’ve become more than just teacher-and-students. We’ve become friends. (In fact, they have informed me in no uncertain terms that they are NOT going to allow me to leave!)

Reforesting community water sources with the youth.

Book Recommendation: Mountains Beyond Mountains

So in the past couple of weeks it has been raining almost nonstop which has put a damper on a lot of planned “outdoor” activities like supervisory visits to the sites where trees have been planted … and so, miracle of miracles, I’ve actually gotten to spend a few afternoons in my hammock reading. By far the best and most inspiring book I’ve read, which I am now recommending to everyone, is called Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man who would Cure the World, by Tracy Kidder. It is about a doctor who began working in rural Haiti in the 1980’s and since then has dedicated his life, and the organization he co-founded, Partners in Health (www.pig.org), to providing a “preferential option for the poor” in health care – from Peru to Africa. It’s an amazing tale of what a difference a “small group of dedicated people” can make. I found the PIH philosophy especially refreshing … their firm conviction that each human life is beyond value, disdain for standards of “cost-effectiveness,” and commitment to improving the lives of the poor, whatever it takes. I could sympathize with Dr. Farmer’s frustration with standards applied in the international health community which deem $5,000 / year to treat a multi-drug resistant tuberculosis patient in Peru “a poor use of resources” -- while $68,000 / year is spent per TB patient in New York. I get mad, too, when people tell me that $100,000 is too much money to bring water, sustainably, to 500 people in El Salvador – while the average home for a four-person family in the U.S. costs more than that. Give this book a read … and let it move you to action, in whatever way you feel called.

Read more about Mountains Beyond Mountains at PIH's website.



So it is looking like I will be here in El Salvador until April of next year, in order to see through the monitoring of the bio-sand filters project. I am considering a visit home between now and then, most likely at Christmastime, but we’ll have to see how things go. At any rate, I’d love to hear from all of you!


Con amor desde El Salvador,

Megan

Hola desde El Salvador #10 / Request for assistance with Water Filters Project please!

Dear family and friends,

How time flies! It has been 6 months since I last wrote and my third year in the Peace Corps is nearly half way over. I can hardly believe it.

I hope that spring is finally arriving back in the U.S. and that you are all enjoying the warmer weather and the greening of the landscape. Here it is still dry season but we have had several showers that signal the impending beginning of the rainy season. Soon I’ll be able to sleep past 1 a.m. and not have to worry about if I will be able to obtain a few jugs of water from the public faucet or the small natural wells below the community. Hooray! (Although I will have to contend with the mud!)

As always, I continue to struggle alongside community members to satisfy the most basic of all human needs – clean, sufficient water. This has been a long road, with many twists and turns and dead-ends. But now, working with the Association for Community Development and its Committees (Water, Health, and Agriculture and Environment), we finally have a vision for how this might come to pass.

I write to you today to let you know how things are going, but also to humbly ask those of you who are willing and able for your support of this endeavor. Whether you can offer your time and energy in fundraising efforts or prayer and moral support (or both!) I would be very grateful. Please read on to learn more about the current status of the water project, our vision, and how you can be a part of it.

As some of you may recall from my last email, we had carried out a hydro-geological study of the area and we knew the location of the nearest viable aquifer (about 1 km away from the community) where a well could be drilled. An outstanding team from the Engineers Without Borders chapter of Rowan University had conducted an assessment trip to El Amatón and was hard at work designing the water system infrastructure (pump, energy source, tubing, water storage tank, etc.). Then our Mayor came to the community announcing a project about which I had deep reservations, a project based on a well drilled for political reasons. The well has abundant water, but it believed to be contaminated by nearby latrines and it is located 3 km away and 200 m below the community. Several experts in water systems with which I have consulted have warned that the great distance and rise from the well to the storage tank means that the energy cost of pumping the water will be more than a community of such scarce resources can sustain, if only electrical energy is used. Unfortunately, the Mayor proved closed to our efforts to drill a slightly closer, cleaner well, and work is currently in progress on this project.

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Bio-Sand Filter Project

While people in the community are encouraged by the prospect of having sufficient water after so many years of scarcity, the majority share these concerns of water contamination and the expense of pumping the water, and are supportive of efforts to better the project. The Health Committee and I have investigated different options for purifying the water, and the community has nearly unanimously voted to pursue a project of installing 120 bio-sand filters, one in each home of the community.






(At left) Diagram of the bio-sand filter. Removal of most harmful contaminants and pathogens takes place on the top surface of the sand 2 in. below the water surface, where a natural biomass layer of microorganisms degrades organic material and removes bacteria and parasites.





The filters, promoted by an organization called Pure Water for the World (www.purewaterfortheworld.org), are capable of removing 97% of all fecal coliform bacteria, 100% of parasites and worms, 100% of Giardia cysts, 99.98% of Cryptosporidium oocysts, and 50-99% of organic and inorganic toxicants from contaminated water. Together with the hygiene and sanitation education that the Health Committee plans to do, the filters should solve the problem of contamination of the well and make a big difference in the health of the community. There are many mothers that have lost one or more children under 5 to diarrheas, and I don’t think there is a mother in El Amatón who has not at some point feared for the life of a child dehydrated by diarrhea. Now, putting in a new water system, it would be a terrible mistake not to make sure that an appropriate purification system is also installed. (And although I was never in the acute danger a young child with parasites faces, I can say that I have never felt so miserable as when I have had amebas, Giardia, and bacterial infections – and I had access to good medical care and medications to eliminate the infections. I can’t imagine how these people manage to work or study at all with chronic parasitism!)

I’ve already seen lots of support from the community for this project – in the last community meeting, community members agreed to pay a collaboration of $10 per family towards the cost of the filters, help with transport and installation, attend all the trainings and hygiene and education sessions, and put into practice personal hygiene and environmental sanitation recommendations in their homes. Eight more people also joined the four existing members of the Health Committee, specifically to help with hygiene and sanitation education, training on proper use and maintenance of the filters, and follow-up visits to make sure the filters are working properly!

We are still waiting on price quotes for the filters from a project being carried out by a Rotary Club in another part of El Salvador, but we think that the cost of buying and transporting the filter, supplying parasite treatments, and hygiene and sanitation education will come to about $100.00 per family, or about $12,000.00 total.

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Solar Panel Project

Making sure that the water gets to the community at an affordable price is going to be a bit more of a challenge. I’ve continued to work with the Engineers Without Borders as well as some great professors from the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in San Salvador to design a project of solar panels to supply at least a portion of the energy for the pump. What they have come up with is a hybrid solar – electrical energy system to operate the pump. In this system, solar panels installed near the pump would produce energy, which will be injected into the electrical grid. Any energy generated by the solar panels will be used to power the pump without increasing the electricity bill. Energy needs beyond what the solar system can generate will be provided by the grid.

The only catch is the initial investment: about $100,000.00 for a 20-kW system supplying nearly 100% of the energy for the pump; about $80,000.00 to supply 75% of the energy, and about $60,000.00 to supply 50-60% of the energy. I know it sounds like a lot, but I’ve run the numbers and the investment is a good one, both economically and ecologically. One engineer calculated that without the solar panels, the community will probably be paying around $15,000.00 per year in electricity bills – so in a little over 7 years, a 100% solar system would save the community its cost in electricity bills, and the system is guaranteed for 25 years. And to be honest, I think that this is the only way to guarantee the sustainability of the water project and the health benefits that sufficient water for good hygiene and sanitation would bring. Without the solar panels, the monthly quota per-family will be over $10 just to cover the electricity bills, and the ADESCO will need to charge more for the salary of someone to operate the controls of the pump and to build up a maintenance fund. In the socio-economic study that I carried out with Engineers Without Borders, the most people said they could pay per month for water was $4.00 (too bad the Mayor never asked them that. Grrrrrr.) The solar panels would also provide a great opportunity for environmental education about the connection between renewable energy and environmental protection. That’s still a very new concept here in El Salvador (an almost nonexistent one in the rural areas), and having a concrete example functioning in the community would help bring it to life for both kids and adults.

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How Can You Help?

OK, here comes the part I don’t like. But I love El Amatón, so I have to do it.

We have knocked on door after door after door of government aid agencies, businesses, and NGOs in search of the necessary resources to realize this vision of clean, affordable water. However, with the exception of Rotary and Pure Water, which are standing by ready to help, the institutions have largely been unresponsive. We will persist in following these channels, but I have grown weary of bureaucracy in the face of such great human need. I am tired of responses like “USAID is no longer funding any water system infrastructure projects in Central America. We’re focusing on roads and bridges” (when what people in the rural areas need is water) and “I’m sorry, we like our projects have at least 1,000 beneficiaries” (when my community has less than 500) and “Is it even worth it to put in a decent water system to serve only 500 people?” (when I know almost all of these people by name and understand their need and love them as family). These responses contrast so sharply with the overwhelming generosity that I experienced working with family, friends, and my church on the classrooms project, and with my church on numerous projects thereafter. You all, all who donated to these projects, didn’t see numbers. You saw people -- children of God, if you will -- with needs, and you responded. And I thank you for all that you have given, not only financial resources, but also gifts of time, energy, prayer, and well wishes.

So while we will persist with our proposals to institutions, I have decided to return to the grass-roots – to appeal directly to people of faith and conscience in the confidence that the Spirit of compassion moving in and through each of you can accomplish marvelous things.

I want to begin with the filters project, for two reasons. One, it is a more modest, reachable goal. And more importantly, it addresses the most basic need of health and child survival. What I need from those of you who are willing and able is this:

-- First, if you are religious, please pray for my community. This request may seem silly to some of you, and that’s OK. But I realize that everyone wants to help, but not everyone is in a position to do fundraising. This is a way that everyone can be involved if they wish. It really does strengthen me to know that there are people praying for me and for my community, for guidance and for persistence in seeking God’s will of justice and peace “on earth as it is in heaven” for this particular community. Don’t for one moment think that the contribution of prayer is any less significant that other forms of assistance. It means a lot to me!

-- Second, if you would like, please talk to your faith communities, classes, and civic groups to promote giving to the water filters project. We accomplished a lot through my family, friends, and especially my church on the classrooms project, so just imagine what could happen if this effect was multiplied – if each of you was able to mobilize your faith community or civic group. Again, I understand that not everyone feels comfortable doing this, and that many faith communities already have causes that they are dedicated to and may not be able to take on another. That’s OK. Please don’t feel that you have to do this. I feel bad just asking. But I know there may be some people who would like to help in this regard and I would be very grateful for anything you can do!

I have assembled several documents to help you promote the water filters project. They are as follows. If you would like me to send them to you for promotion purposes, please email me.

-- El Amaton Bio-Sand Filters Project – Brochure: a trifold brochure summarizing the need and the project, encouraging people to “adopt a family” or “adopt a child.” It is two pages and should be printed out on a single sheet, front to back, and folded brochure style. This can be distributed to interested groups.


-- Bio-Sand Filters Solicitud – El Amatón, El Salvador: The full Project proposal with background information about the community, the water contamination problem, technical information about the filter and studies of its effectiveness, and the proposed project (objectives, activities, expected results, tentative budget).


-- El Amaton Bio-Sand Filters Fundraising Talk: A suggested “script” for a presentation on the bio-sand filters project to an interested group. This will need to be adapted to your group – in particular, you will have to establish the method for collecting donations. I’ve also put together a Power Point presentation that is the companion to this script. It has lots of pictures which are always good for making people feel connected to the cause.

Here’s how the funding is going to work: There are two tax-deductible organizations holding donations for the El Amatón Bio-Sand filters project. One is my home church, Wildwood Presbyterian Church. The other is Pure Water for the World. If you are interested in contributing, please contact me and I can provide the addresses. All checks MUST be marked “El Amatón Filters Project.” People should be aware that 100% of any donation they make will go towards the El Amatón filter project; none will be directed to administrative costs. The Financial Secretary at Wildwood Presbyterian has managed all donations for El Amatón for the classroom project and other projects on a volunteer basis and (bless his heart!) will continue to do so. In a similar way, the Executive Director of Pure Water for the World will receive donations for El Amatón from people who prefer to donate through this organization.

In order to make things easier on these two very generous people, I am asking that any organization (church, temple, civic group) collect donations and then make out a single check to Wildwood Presbyterian or Pure Water for the World, instead of having individual members send checks. Please designate a responsible contact person from each organization. We will then send reports to this person, who will in turn share them with individual donors from his or her group.

The Director of Pure Water for the World will be helping us channel donations through Rotary Clubs, because Clubs receive matches from their respective Districts and Rotary International. This way, your donation will go further.

In the optimistic scenario that the donations received exceed the amount needed for the filters, we would dedicate the funds towards the Solar Panel project in order to make the pumping of water from the well to the community economically and environmentally sustainable. We are also planning on submitting a Rotary Matching Grant for this project, but since the project budget exceeds the maximum we can solicit from Rotary International, in this case your donations would be kept separate in order to complement funding from Rotary Clubs. I’ve attached the project proposal for this effort as well.

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I have been amazed and humbled by the support that all of you, family and friends back home, have shown throughout my time in El Salvador. I was hesitant to ask for fundraising support after the classrooms project, but I know of no other source so responsive, so giving, so compassionate. You all come from a diversity of backgrounds – you attend Presbyterian, Lutheran, Catholic, Methodist, and Evangelical churches, Jewish synagogues, Hindu and Buddhist temples, and some of you do not feel a connection to any particular organized religious tradition but have your own sense of ethics and spirituality. But what each of these traditions shares – what we all share -- is the conviction that each and every person is of infinite value, that we are all brothers and sisters, and as such we must care for each other and for the Earth that has been entrusted to us. This is not something that one person can do alone. It is something that must be done in community. So once again, with a bit of sheepishness but even more love for my adopted Salvadoran village, I appeal to you all, my community of family and friends.

So, while the institutions shuffle papers, let’s help get these people some clean water!

With gratitude and hope,

Megan