Clean water for Estanzuelas Families

One of the cornerstones of PazSalud's work in El Salvador is our commitment to our mission communities well after our two main medical brigades are completed.  We live that commitment in a number of ways: one of the most significant is working with a local NGO to provide water filters to families.

During PazSalud's February General Medical Mission, our medical team identifies patients - especially children - who suffer serious health effects from drinking contaminated water and 'prescribes' them a filter.  We then work with our local mission coordinator to follow-up with these families by training them on the need for, and use of, a water filter.  Simultaneously PazSalud raises funds to purchase the excellent and easy-to-use Sawyer water filters (http://sawyer.com/international/products/sawyer-pointone-filter-with-bucket-adapter-kit-3-ft-hose/) in the U.S.  Our goal is to provide 100 filters to every mission community we work with.

We collaborate with the CIS (Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad) to provide the training that makes the water filter project work.  Participants are required to come to three sessions, in which they learn why clean water is essential, and how to install, use and clean the Sawyer filters.  A local Water Committee is formed that visits all the families to make sure they are using the filters correctly.

Here are scenes from the training sessions in Estanzuelas, our 2013 Mission site:

This woman is drilling a hole in her bucket (the filter packets come complete with a small hand drill) as preparation for installing the filter.

The completed assembly: the Sawyer system works with two buckets, with water fed by gravity from a higher bucket through the filter and into a lower bucket.  The group photo below shows what the completed system looks like: