From 75% of students missing class to only 10%.

Sickness rate at an indigenous school falls from 75% of
the student body to 10% after a safe drinking water tank is installed.

Where: Bahia Grande School / San Cristobal Island / Bocas del Toro archipelago / Panama

Source: Principal and teacher at the school for seven years – Senorita Velkis Quiroz.

Date: August, 2010

Principal Velkis Quiroz (r) with one of her teachers. She has taught and been principal at the school for seven years.

A school principal’s urgent canoe trip.

We looked out to sea from our island base and saw a small canoe coming
in. To our surprise it was Senorita Quiroz, the principal of the
school at Bahia Grande. She explained that an urgent problem brought her.
Seventy-five percent of her students were sick and out of school enough
to damage their grades. Some of her most promising and brightest students
were falling behind due to chronic sickness. She asked for a safe drinking water
tank for her kids.  Her appeal – and her journey by canoe – touched our hearts.
We said yes. Because the need was critical we promised a tank within a week.

Principal Quiroz paddled all the way from Bahia Grande to our island base to ask for help for her students.

We promised a quick response — and we delivered..

A promise kept: within the week we installed a new rain catchment tank for the school of 72 indigenous students.

Months later we went back to the school to ask Senorita Quiroz
about the difference the tank made. She sent us a note the next day
after checking her records. She said:

Before we had the water tank, around 75% of the children
had some kind of disease like diarrhea, vomit, parasites and other kinds of
stomach problems that kept them out of school. Since you gave us the water tank
the number of children absent due to sickness has fallen to around 10%.

Velkis Quiroz, Principal – 27 August, 2010

Sick no more.

Pablito, a bright young student, doesn't miss classes from sickness as he did before.

Brother and sister, once hard-hit by sickness, are healthy and happy - and doing well in school.

Many indigenous schools are in urgent need of safe drinking water.

Far too many promising young students are missing school due to sickness.

The water tank for Senorita Quiroz cost only $900, but has cut absenteeism due
to sickness from 75% to almost nothing. It has spared children from chronic sickness
and got them back into school.

Recent rains have refilled Senorita Quiroz’s tank with safe, disease-free water.
Frequent rains in the area will keep it full for years to come.

But water-borne diseases knock far too many children out of school.
We need 17 new tanks within the next thirty days.
You can make a difference in the lives of indigenous children.
A one-time donation can mean years of safe drinking water.

Please donate a safe water tank — or contribute towards one today.

Just click on our logo below.
Thank you.

OSDW is a 501 (c) (3) charity. We’re all volunteers.
No one receives a salary or compensation.

donate

See short videos of Operation Safe Drinking Water in Action.

It’s the bill for bad water

The price is high – chronically sick children, fathers too ill to work and provide for their families, sick mothers unable to care of their kids.  It includes 4,000 children a day who pay the highest price — their lives — due to bad water. (Unicef)

Susana suffers from chronic skin disease from bad water.

Worms and anemia have taken their toll on Esther.

One sip of this water and you can get worms, anemia, dysentery, diarrhea, gastroenteritis, hepatitis, leptospirosis, typhoid fever – among others.

But why should any child have to drink bad water where it rains so much?
The rain is there for the catching.  The rain is free – but safe, clean water has a bill of its own

What’s the bill for safe,clean water?

The price is nothing in comparison, but does have some surprises.

Lack of sleep, for one.

Off at the crack of dawn for indigenous schools and villages on distant islands.

Unpaid -- if somewhat sleepy -- volunteers head out to distant islands. They have to be done and back before dark.

Gasoline

Lots of gasoline to get the safe water tanks to distant island-villages and schools.

Leaving the last island behind we head out into the open sea: Destination: schools on a remote Peninsula reachable only by sea.

Time

Much of it spent on hot zinc roofs installing piping for rain-catchment gutters. There’s no easy way to do it.  It can be tough in the hot tropical sun, but it’s got to be done right, however long it tanks.

It’s hot up there! You go up on hot zinc roofs in the blazing tropical sun to fix the guttering pipes to the roof. You can’t rush, either. It’s got to be done right.

What else goes into a “water bill” for safe, clean water?

Our rain-catchment systems for schools and villages costs $900, and last for years. They refill with disease-free water every time it rains.  They’re simple, low-maintenance and have only one moving part (the faucet).  And they supply both the schools and surrounding villages with safe drinking water.

Over-all, the bill for safe water works out to be $20 a family per year.

A look at two water bills and how they stack up:

The price of bad water
Sickness, disease and early death for vulnerable children.

The price of safe,clean water
Lots of hard work by our volunteers – and $20 per year for a family’s safe drinking water.

Give children clean,safe water.

They can’t live without it.
.

donate here

OSDW is a 501 (c) (3) charity.
No one receives a salary or compensation.
We’re all volunteers.
We live among the people we help.

See OSDW in action!
Click here for our videos 1 to 4 minutes in length.

The school kitchen where the teacher had to make her decision.

When we got to the school a group was talking near the school kitchen,
their eyes intently fixed on something or someone down the hill.
We got close to see what was going on.

It turned out the group was made up of three mothers
there to cook the school lunch, the head teacher and a student
there to find out if there’d be any lunch today.

Two older boys struggled up the hill carrying large cooking pots
half full of water from a water hole somewhere down below.
One mother rushed from the group to look at the water,
turned and shook her head no. The water was unfit to cook with.

The group surrounded the pots of cloudy, murky water.
The two other mothers disagreed. The water wasn’t that good,
but was passable.

The head teacher told us,

”Sometimes we can use the water, but
most times animals get in the water and pollute it.
The cooks have a say, but I have to decide.
School lunch is the only food most of the children will have today.
Their families depend on it, so if they don’t eat here,
most won’t eat today.”

She looked weary, burdened by the decision she now had to make.

I don’t want them to go hungry, but I don’t want
to make them sick, either.

It was her decision. No one else could make it.

She looked at the cloudy water, hesitated and
said, “go head, use it.”

She turned to us and said, “this is the hardest part of my job.”

The waiting student ran back to pass the word – they’d eat today,

An On-the-spot Decision

She made her agonizing choice and we made our decision.
We’d install two rain catchment tanks so she’d always have enough safe water.
“How soon?” she asked. “Within two weeks,” we promised.

Keeping Our Promise

How we kept our promise.

Loaded up and ready to roll. Our Operations Manger, Ken, (left) gives the signal to move out.

We arrived and our volunteers went to work. The younger, more agile
volunteers climbed up on the school roof to put the guttering in.
Others worked on the tanks. They all worked, drinking coconut water
the school brought to help keep them hydrated in the hot sun.

Volunteers Ken and Fernando ready the final hook-ups. Operation Safe Drinking Water is an all-volunteer charity. No one receives a salary or compensation.

Soon the work was all done, except for final adjustment of the faucets.

They did the hot work on top of the zinc roof. They share the joy of helping others.

The three uses of water from our rain catchment tanks.

Three uses of safe water we provide: Washing hands, drinking and washing dishes.

The school shares its safe drinking water with
the people of the nearby village.

The people of the surrounding village come for their safe water. The tanks refill with disease-free water every time it rains.

Health starts with safe drinking water.
Without it, medical care
is a revolving door.
You and I can’t live without it.
Neither can they.

Why must indigenous children be sick from bad water where it rains so often? Our tanks catch and share water for schools and villages suffering from polluted water.

An indigenous boy shows the effects of bad water. It brings anemia, dysentery, malnutrition and can lead to a lingering death. A simple rain catchment tank provides safe drinking water for years to come.

You can provide a rain catchment tank installed at
an indigenous school or village for $900.
They’re simple, easy-to-maintain.
They have only one moving part — the faucet.
They last for years and refill with disease-free
water every time it rains.

Operation Safe Drinking Water is a 501 (c) (3)
nonprofit charity. No one receives a salary or
compensation. We’re all volunteers and donors
ourselves.

We need you to join us.

donate

See Operation Safe Drinking Water at work – Watch our Videos

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