“People of the water” …with no water to drink

Is there a place where people still get around by dugout canoes carved from trees?

The Guaymi Indians are an indigenous tribe that live mostly on a group of islands off the coast of Central America.

They’re water people. They live and move on the water. It’s the only way they can get around.

Their kids paddle canoes up to two hours to get to school in all kinds of  inclement weather.  Kids a young as four learn to paddle canoes in the sea on their own.

Kids in their natural habitat

They’re an intelligent, hardworking people who supplement their meager diet of juca, a large tuber they grow, with fish from the water

But” the people of the water” have almost no water to drink – at least not safe drinking water.

They can’t drink the salty sea water, so depend on a few scattered springs or wells, and from rainfall which quickly puddles on the ground and becomes contaminated, or from a few streams that are polluted by animal and human waste.

Their kids are often chronically sick from drinking polluted water

Ironically, this “people of the water” are in desperate need of water — safe water to drink.

But the very rain that creates the disease-infested puddles which spread  disease is also the solution – if caught, stored and shared

That’s what we do. We catch, store and share rainwater in simple, easy-to-maintain water tanks that last for years and refill every time it rains.

The people live on the water

The very rain that creates those diseased-spreading puddles becomes “the water of life.”

We install safe drinking water tanks at schools to benefit the most children possible  — and the surrounding communities.

We do this with donations from folks like you who know safe water is essential for life itself.

We’re all unpaid volunteers who give our time before asking you to give your donation.  We live out among the people, know them and share many of the hardships with them.

The next time you reach for a glass of water think about these kids who have no clean water to drink.

Share safe drinking water with those parents who have no choice but give their kids polluted water because it’s all they have.

Isn’t it ironic that young children suffer chronic disease from bad water where it frequently rains?

The solution is simple: rain catchment tanks for every school.

You can provide a tank for a school for $600.

We’ll send photos and he exact location of your tank.

Think about it when you take that next glass of water.

Joe and Maribel

Maribel & Joe