On July 6, 7 & 8 Floating Doctors and Operation Safe Drinking Water teamed up for 3 days that made a difference for thousands of remote, indigenous people.
Our goal: To treat — and prevent — disease among these hard-to-reach indigenous peoples.
Click here to see a map of where we went
The 3 red pins in the lower right corner of the map show these remote villages.
Click on each pin for a description of the villages we reached.
This remote peninsula is cut-off from all land access. We had to go by sea, much of it unprotected.
RESULT – Floating Doctors attended 500 people.
We installed rain catchment systems that will provide safe, disease-free water for years to come for 545 students ( in 3 schools ) and 2,000 villagers living nearby.
HERE’S THE STORY IN PHOTOS
Joe Bass, founder of OSDW, drives our boat with tanks # 73, 74 and 75 to the side of the much larger Floating Doctors boat, where they are loaded on as deck cargo for the long haul out to the remote peninsula where the people live.
Tanks #76 and 77 soon arrive, as well, and are hauled aboard the big boat.
Our five 600 gallon rain catchment tanks are lifted aboard the Floating Doctors’ boat. Dr. Ben LaBrot, head of Floating Doctors, and his sister, Sky, executive director, plan how to lash them down for the open-sea trip ahead.
READY FOR SEA. Our tanks are secured for the outbound passage. Our installation team will follow in our smaller, faster boat, offload the tanks and lead the doctors to the waiting schools and villages.
The tanks are lowered back into our boat.
Ken Eide of OSDW takes suitcases full of medical equipment and supplies aboard our boat for the trip to the villages.
OFF WE GO, loaded with two tanks and all the materials needed.
Destination – the school at Bucori. it has 260 students and a thousand villagers in need of safe, disease-free water. The tanks refill in as little as four hours in the strong tropical rains common to this area.
The doctors follow in their own smaller boat. We made a survey trip here months ago to find the schools and villages with the greatest need, and promised help.
Today, we come back to keep our promises and bring medical help, as well as the rain catchment tanks.
THE WATER THEY DRINK. Most villages get their water from polluted water holes like this…
The water holes are often at ground level at the base of hills, with no protective lip or rim. When it rains, human and animal waste is washed down the hills into the water holes.
ON ARRIVAL at each village, the tanks are eagerly unloaded by grateful local villagers and hauled up to the schools, where the doctors begin to see the people waiting for help.
While they treat the sick, we install our rain catchment tanks to prevent sickness. It’s a “one-two” punch– the doctors treat the sick. We prevent sickness with safe water..
WAITING TO SEE THE DOCTOR- the old and the young.
WAITING FOR SAFE DRINKING WATER
School kids watch Ken Eide and team set up rain catchment tanks for this school of 260 students, which has usable water only one week a month.
THE TANKS ARE INSTALLED — IT RAINED A FEW HOURS LATER.
THIS WATER — OR THIS?
YOU CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE
OPERATION SAFE DRINKING WATER
— Joe Bass, Founder, President
Where the gift of life is given again and again — every time it rains.
$20 will provide safe disease-free water for 50 students and villagers
$50 will provide safe water for 150 people.
$100 will provide 300 people safe drinking water for years to come.
$975 will provide your own rain catchment system for a school and village.
(Many families, churches or clubs choose to sponsor their own tank.)
No child should be sick, or die for lack of clean, safe water where it rains a lot.
We’re a 501 c 3 charity.
No one receives a salary or compensation.
We live among the people we serve.
We’re donors ourselves.
Donate here
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