So Grateful for Clean Water!

By: Brenda Towell - Board Chair During our recent visit in November 2021, we did four home visits to meet with water filter recipients. Some had had their filter for just one month, others for more than a year. Uniformly, they reported better health since having their filter. Bertha, an 80 year old woman, tearfully enthused: "Gracias a Dios, y a ustedes!!" She was thanking God, and us, in that order, for supplying her family with the filter. She has 50 family members living in the little compound around her house who are using the water filter, and everyone's health is much improved. Diarrhea is no longer a problem, stomach aches-not a problem. The children have learned to drink only filtered water. We walked through her dark, cinderblock house to the back yard, where the kitchen was set up under a tin roof--a wood burning adobe stove with a pot of beans simmering, the filter prominently placed, with the opening in the bucket carefully covered with clean cloths that she laundered daily. She backwashes the filter daily with the clean, filtered water. She knows she can call the local coordinator, Olga, if she has any problems so they can be quickly resolved. With proper care these filters can last 10 years. We then visited the local clinic where a filter is set up in the waiting room for patients to use. The nurse reported that they are seeing much less diarrhea in patients from Rancho Obispo and Pataste, two communities that now have filters in every home. Every time I get a drink of water from my tap here in Austin, I recall the gratitude expressed by women who have never known such simple pleasures. It is very humbling, and I thank God that we have the opportunity to share our blessings with these people, while they share their joy of life, and their faith in God with us! And I thank God for the wonderful donors here in the States that share financially in this mission, without whose help we could not do these good works!