Thanksgiving Offering 2009
UPDATE FROM THE FIELD:
“We had a very eventful day. We delivered filters out to villages, and schools. When I say villages, that is out under a tree. This is usually a gathering point for the area. At these places the villages will build one of their traditional reed and stick houses around the filter, to protect it and make it available to all who pass by.
While we were leaving the last place for the day a girl, with what appeared to be cholera, was loaded into one of our vehicles and delivered to the nearest med aid station.
The people are eager to use these filters, they know they have a problem and there has been no reasonable way to help them. The region here is surely living on the edge of life. Water is always on your mind, and the heat can be overwhelming. The people here will agree with you it is hot, but that is the end of that part of a conversation. So, you suck it up and bear it.
Tomorrow we will be traveling to the Lake Turkana. We will be install filters at the Friends compound. This place ahs been operating since 1966. Many of the church officials were raised at the Friends orphanage.
Going out to the villages is like living the National Geographic. Seeing their homes, families, all children and women carrying water long distances. Only in the town do you find roofs with sheet steel. Here it is small round dwellings made of sticks and woven in grass or palm leaves for cover. I have seen a large number of the structures that are a round cage of woven sticks, that’s home.” Del Livingston, from Kenya
Each year, the churches and meetings of Northwest Yearly Meeting take a Thanksgiving offering to support special projects of local or global outreach. This year, we hope to raise $9,000 to assist Del and Suzanne Livingston (Olympic View Friends), begin three biosand water filtration micro-businesses in Burundi.
Everyday 1 billion people drink water full of harmful viruses, bacteria, worms and parasites. A child dies every 15 seconds from drinking this water. A “BioSand Water Filter” is a simple and effective solution to this problem. Del and Suzanne have traveled to Kenya and India teaching hygiene, sanitation and production of household BioSand Water filters. In each location, they assist people to start a micro-business, allowing them to continue spreading drinkable water as well as maintain a living wage for an initial 8 people.
The Livingstons have received three new requests to start projects in Burundi. All associated with Friends through the Great Lakes Initiative, groups in the towns of Mutaho, Magarama, and Maranvya will benefit from our Thanksgiving Offering.
It costs about $3,000 to set up one self-supporting micro-business. Plan to join us in this offering as we live in thankfulness for God’s presence and provision in our lives.
Download this powerpoint to show to your faith community.
Right-click to download the above video, made by the Livingstons about the projects, to share with your faith community as a mp4 file or as a .wmv file (for windows media player)
And you can right-click to download a 5-minute video that gives a general description of how biosand filters work, showing before and after photos of the water quality.
For each community/water group we need:
- Training materials about sanitation, hygiene, manufacturing, and maintaining the filters.
- A steel mold used to manufacture the cement water filters. The mold varies in cost by country. In Kenya, the cost is about $750(US) each. This mold will produce 1 water filter per day… forever! One filter per home provides clean water for drinking, cooking, and washing dishes, clothes and bodies. There is no ongoing maintenance cost.
- Each group will need hand tools, s wheelbarrow, shovels, cement, sand, gravel, and vegetable oil.
- Because of the extreme poverty, we usually need to feed a noon meal and provide minimal wages during training.
- Del will help each group develop a business plan so they can keep the business going. We leave enough supplies (cement, sand, gravel) so they can continue making filters.
- It is always good to have one to give to a church or a school.
- Usually we have unique situations with each site…for example, Del had to buy a donkey and cart so one group could deliver the filters. This is unknown until we are there.
- The micro business will provide jobs for 8 people, both men and women.
Do you want to participate in this offering of Thanksgiving?
- If you will be in an NWYM Friends church on November 22 or 29, you can put your check in the offering basket with “Thanksgiving Offering” in the memo line.
- Or you could send a check directly to: Northwest Yearly Meeting, 200 N. Meridian St, Newberg, OR 97132
- Or contribute online at: Facebook Causes
For each microbusiness we will provide the items below. Consider contributing the amount of a sack of concrete, a wheelbarrow, or a mold, or....
$2/day - Minimal wage per person during each 10-day training session. (Because of the extreme poverty, the meal and wages have become an essential and practical component of the ministry.)
$10 - A bag of cement (30 are needed).
$20 - Bags of sand, gravel
$50 - Wheelbarrow
$75 - Shovels, saws, hammers, wrenches, etc.
$100 - A noon meal for 10 days of training. \$150 - Training materials about sanitation, hygiene, manufacturing, and maintaining the filters.
$300 - Each micro-business is launched with a community celebration and dedication
$750 - A steel mold used to manufacture the cement water filters. This mold will produce one water filter per day…forever! One filter per home provides clean water for drinking, cooking, and washing dishes, clothes and bodies. There is no ongoing maintenance cost.
For More Information:
Del Livingston waterforafrica@gmail.com
www.biosandwaterfilters.org
"Providing clean safe water and jobs to families of the less developed world."
Great job! I thank God for people and groups who are mindful of others needs in life. Am deeply touched and thinking of similar ways God can use me to become channel of His blessings to others. God richly bless you!
Giving Update:
Over $31,000 was raised for this project! Thank you so much for all who prayed and contributed.
For updates on this project, follow:
Twitter: biosand
Web: http://www.biosandwaterfilters.org
Facebook: Del Livingston