Hi everyone
Happy First Day of Summer!
Water and Well-drilling.
As you know we attempted a well-drilling effort in Pestel this Spring with Water Missions International and Blue Ridge Well-drilling. Unfortunately the effort was not successful. Despite going down about 450 feet, they were unable to identify water. At this point Water Missions International is in the process of developing a Plan B. The need for clean, safe water is crucial to the future of the people in Pestel. Their current water deprivation underlies a great degree of disease and death. This is avoidable and we hope to do something about it by working together.
One of the strategies we will be pursuing will be the purchase of household ceramic water filters. This is a great strategy for those who have good access to water because it can provide safe water for a whole family for at least 3 years. At $35 per filter, that's a bargain! We'll be developing a strategy to roll these out over the next couple of years to reach as many households as possible in Pestel.
Health Workers
The 18 health workers (called APPAS) are currently finishing up the Vitamin A and Deworming campaigns this month. In July they will be starting to provide immunizations, which is a huge step forward in terms of public health efforts for this region. They have been trained to provide the vaccines, and we intend to eliminate childhood tetanus as well as prevent the recurrence of diseases like measles which are deadly in this setting.
We were able to purchase motorcycles for the different sections in Pestel to improve the efficiency of the health workers. Less time spent walking means more time to reach more kids.
Extra Notes
We were thrilled to participate with the international company Deloitte recently on their annual Impact Day. Two of their team leads put together a group of volunteers from Deloitte to redesign our website. We are really excited about the new look and are thrilled with the genuine heart of service that these folks exhibited. We know they were so happy to contribute to this important efffort, and we can't wait to show you the new website when it is finished! We'll be sure to pass it along when it is! (see photo attached of the team from Deloitte that worked all day on the site--it includes Nelson in the back)
Nelson left for Haiti on Monday. He is now reunited with his parents. We need a great deal of wisdom as we try to navigate issues of safety and health and future prospects in this setting.
Finally, one of my good friends and colleagues, Dennis Gingrich, recently co-authored a blog post about the value of family medicine. He cleverly included a mention of the work we are doing (see hyperlink about 3/4 down into the article). :)
Ben
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President, Thriving Villages International
I do not doubt that the modern Western church badly needs a lot of things, one of them being more confidence that God is working powerfully among us and wants us to do more than we have been willing to do in his service. John G. Stackhouse
