A heavily populated indigenous “homeland” is just to the south of us,
but like many “homelands” set aside for indigenous people it’s
extremely poor.

Large dams started construction where we work, attracting thousands
of indigenous men — and their families — in search of jobs and medical help
often unavailable in their homeland. Thousands of school-aged children
came with their parents. 

 One overwhelmed school principal called it a “human tidal wave.”

Schools’ existing water supplies –already inadequate – became a
health crisis, with many indigenous children sick.

VALLE RISCO – 985 students and no water on-site.
“Bucket brigades” were sent to the nearest stream 15 minutes away,
but the stream was often dried up or polluted by people and
animals upstream.

This emergency situation called for an emergency response.
We installed our first MEGA-SYSTEM of four rain catchment tanks. 

Our four tanks enter Valle Risco school on two trucks

Local school fathers help install the rain catchment guttering

Ken Eide of OSDW puts the finishing touches on the Mega System

NANCE RISCO – no water, no school lunches for four months

Photo – a visibly-shocked visitor sees unusable food stacked to the ceiling
in the closed kitchen. Piles of food, but no water to cook it with.

LA GLORIA  – 500-plus students in need of safe water
get our second MEGA SYSTEM. 

A very happy principal now has safe water for her kids!

BUT — 4,000 students in six schools are still waiting for for safe water.

Water not fit for human consumption.
photo: the water supply for  144 students at
Playa Hermosa on Peninsula Valiente.
The school “well” is an unprotected hole at the bottom of a hill.
Everything on the hill drains into it during a rain.
 

IT’S EASY TO HELP

$20 will provide safe, disease-free water for 50 students and villagers
for years to come.

$50 will provide safe water for 150 people

$100 will provide safe water for 300 students and villagers

$975 will provide your own rain-catchment tank with your name
on it (The choice of many families, schools and groups)

At age 71 Joe came out of retirement to start
Operation Safe Drinking Water. At 75, he’s still
going strong, climbing with his team to remote hill villages
like this one.

 3 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT US

We’re a 501 c 3 charity.
No one receives a salary or compensation
We’re all volunteers — and donors.

 Click here to donate

When minutes are a matter of life and death…
…our new 24 / 7 dedicated ambulance-boat for remote
indigenous people will help save lives.

Those sick or injured will no longer have to paddle their
canoes for hours to reach a hospital. 

(below ) Our small, fast, purpose-built  ambulance boat is ready
– a life-saving tool when time is a matter of life and death. 

 Just launched, our new ambulance boat is named “Maribel”, in honor of
Maribel’s 4 years of work among indigenous people.
They often call her “the angel of the islands”.

( lower left ) Maribel is there for them — visiting, caring and helping.
Location: a “platform-house” over a salt water marsh in Tierra Oscura. 

( below ) Rushing a young girl who severely cut her foot
with a machete to one of our boats in a wheelbarrow.  

A wheelbarrow for patients?
Out where we live, you use whatever works!

Up to 20,000 indigenous people live on these
islands and on the 80 miles of roadless coastline where
access is mostly by boat.

Most indigenous people live in remote coastal settlements with no
land access. The water is their way in or out.

Sick or injured people have set out to get help in
their dug-out canoes, but didn’t make it in time.

Any population of 20,000 will have a certain number of
emergencies — sicknesses or accidents — that require
immediate professional medical care.  

All school principals will be given our emergency
contact number to call. 

OSDW’s dedicated 24/7 ambulance boat will save lives.

(below) a typical coastal dwelling. Most indigenous people
live on coastal waters like this, with access only by the boat. 

Until now, we’ve used our large water-tank carrying boat
for emergencies, but it’s often busy installing rain catchment tanks.

Our new, small, faster ambulance boat will always be available.

( below ) A midnight life-saving run for a snakebite victim.

“Five minutes later and he would be dead,” the doctor said

His condition was so critical, after 6 months he’s still
not fully recovered. But at least he’s alive.

 (Below ) a mother with critically ill baby.
She clutched her baby with one arm while
desperately  paddling her canoe with the other
to get to us.

“I was going in circles,” she said.

We’re glad to say mom and baby are now doing fine. 

With the help of friends like you,
our 24/7 ambulance service will
be there for remote, isolated indigenous peoples.

Remote and isolated – yes.
Too far to get urgent medical care — no longer

( Below ) Blood was oozing from this man’s swollen
right eye.

Maribel took one look and said, “Get him to the hospital.” 
He was treated and is now recovering.

“It’s always a race against time,” she said.
“Blood loss from machete accidents and snakebites
are our main problems. Childbirth complications
often need immediate hospital care.“

Joe Bass, Founder/ President of Operation Safe Drinking Water says,

“Prevention through safe drinking water is our priority, 
but when lives are lost  because of the time
it takes to get to medical help
you do what you can.” 

How you can help:

$20 will pay the initial hospital fee for an indigenous patient.
$50 covers the fuel costs of rushing a typical patient to the nearest hospital.
Your help —  of any amount —  will save lives of remote, isolated
indigenous people.

They have no “911″ to call.

Clifk here to Help

.4 things you should know about us:

1) We’re a 501 c 3 charity.
2 ) No one receives a salary or compensation
3) We live among the people we help.
4 ) Our 92 rain catchment tanks provide safe,
disease-free water for 35,000 indigenous people. 

This year — make a difference in people’s lives
you can see with your own eyes.  

– Joe & Maribel Bass – Operation Safe Drinking Water
- Bocas del Toro

“Maribel” …we heard a thin child’s voice calling from outside our
house over the water.   Maribel went out to see who’d be out on the water
in a canoe with night coming on.

It was Angela. She was on a mission sent by her mom.

She stood up in her canoe and shyly told Maribel
why she was there. 

ANGELA ON HER CHRISTMAS EVE MISSION

Maribel had to coax the story out of the shy little girl.

Her mom needed “a box”
What kind of box, Maribel asked.

“My baby brother died and my mother needs a box for him.”

Maribel got it. Her mom needed a coffin to bury her baby
the next day — Christmas day.

To Angela it was just a box.  Most indigenous villages have
someone who builds wood “boxes” — or coffins — so her mom sent
Angela for help — for a few dollars — to pay someone to build a
small wood box for her brother. 

With a few dollars her mom could have a box built
overnight and bury her baby today — Christmas Day. 

Maribel asked what happened to the baby.

“He went to sleep and didn’t wake up,” Angela said.

Though deeply moved, Maribel wasn’t surprised.
Indigenous children under two are the main victims of water-borne
diseases.  School age children get good water from our
rain catchment tanks at schools, but
weaker, younger pre-school age children
drink whatever water there is at home.

And what there is is often polluted and deadly to small children.

Typical water supply in many indigenous villages.

Maribel knew from sad experience the cost of a small, wood “box”
and gave Angela enough so the carpenter could make the
box overnight for a burial on Christmas Day.

Angela shyly thanked her, pointed her canoe homewards
and paddled off. 

Maribel is all-too-familiar with such tragic deaths,
but our little Christmas Eve visitor touched her heart. 

Maribel Bass ( below ) comforts a child at a medical clinic.

PREVENTION IS OUR FOCUS, BUT WHEN VICTIMS OF BAD
WATER DIE WE DO WHAT WE CAN TO EASE
THE SUFFERING OF THE FAMILY. 

Please help us reduce child deaths from bad water.

Support Operation Safe Drinking Water

Clifk here to Help

 3 Things you should know about Operation Safe Drinking Water.

1)  We’re a 501 C 3 charity
2 ) No one receives a salary or compensation
3 ) We live among the people we serve. 

Where will the next ten tanks go?
To schools with absentee rates over 50% due to water-borne diseases
To schools with kitchens closed for lack of usable water.

The school kitchen at Nance Risco, a school of 400-plus students
was closed for four months due to lack or usable water.

Packages of food supplies were stacked to the ceiling.
There was plenty of food, but no usable water to cook with.
We installed two rain catchment tanks at Nance Risco.
The kitchen is now open. Children now have nourishing food
every school day.

“Water wells” — the water source for many indigenous schools — are a hazard.
Most are just open holes at the base of hills with no protective lip.
Run-off from the hillside goes into the wells, polluting them

 MEGA SYSTEM # 2 GOES IN AT SCHOOL OF 500 STUDENTS

Joe Bass, founder of Operation Safe Drinking Water, with tank # 83 at
Rio Oeste Arriba school. Joe says, “health starts with safe, clean water. “

HELP US REACH 100 TANKS BY CHRISTMAS.
INDIGENOUS CHILDREN NEED SAFE, CLEAN WATER, TOO.

3 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT US:

1. We’re a 501 c 3 nonprofit charity
2. No one receives a salary or compensation
3. We live out among the people we serve.

Donate today, so we can reach our goal by Christmas.

Click here to Donate