Children's Safe Drinking Water

Seasons Greeting Card, New Video with President Clinton, and off to Kilimanjaro

This is my last blog entry for the year. In order to wish you a happy holiday season and to thank you for supporting our efforts, we’ve created a special electronic greeting card. It’s definitely a one of a kind and I’m willing to bet it’s the first you’ve ever seen using flocculation!  Check out the card (LINK TO ELECTRONIC CARD).  I wish you peace this holiday season. 

Getting Ready for Summit on Summit: Kilimanjaro and seeing that Water is a Woman’s Issue

It’s my last day in Tanzania this trip.  I’ll return in early January for Summit on the Summit: Kilimanjaro.  Last night I went for a run in Arusha as part of my training for the hike, and the altitude made it pretty tough to breathe.  Right afterwards, Mt Kilimanjaro peaked out of the clouds.  It was the first time that I’d seen Kili during the week that I was in Arusha and it was only visible for a few minutes before dark.  I used my Flip video camera to record a short video about my initial impressions of seeing the big mountain.  As you can tell, in this hand-held amateur video taken at dusk, I’m a little intimidated with the thoughts of climbing to over 19,300 feet.  (link). 

Meeting "God's blessing" and wondering about random connections

Do you sometimes wonder how random events and connections seem to lead you to the place that you’re supposed to go?  Well they seem to happen all the time to me in my job leading the Children’s Safe Drinking Water (CSDW) Program.  I’m learning to go with the flow.  That’s the subject of this blog and my current visit to two groups in Arusha, Tanzania.  So, if you don’t want to hear about this, just skip this blog and come back for the next one.  I’ll understand.

From Despair to Hope among the Maasai

I’m back  with the Maasai prior to the Summit on the Summit Kilimanjaro.  Our work here will continue long after the climb of Mt Kilimanjaro has come and gone, but it will be great to help put a focus on the global water crisis and the practical and cost-effective solutions to address the crisis by bringing Jessica Biel, Kenna, Alexandra Cousteau, Isabel Lucas, Kick Kennedy, and the other climbers to this village.

The Maasai of Tanzania

I’m in Tanzania visiting several new programs in the shadow of Mt. Kilimanjaro.  I'll be returning to Tanzania with Jessica Biel, Kenna, Alexandra Cousteau, Isabel Lucas, Kick Kennedy and the rest of the Summit on the Summit climbers  in January.

CSDW Honored with 2009 Humanitarian Award by Action Against Hunger.

The P&G Children's Safe Drinking Water program was honored with the 2009 Humanitarian Award from Action Against Hunger.  You may have heard of this well-known humanitarian group by their French name,  Action contre la Faim, or ACF.

Food for the Hungry’s Good Water Program in Maru, Kenya and Budding Romance

I leave Nairobi early in the morning to travel to Meru, Kenya.  We crawl through traffic in downtown Nairobi in the morning rush hour and then past the industrial area of Thika.  The countryside opens up after about an hour to reveal the farm lands.  Then we drop down a plateau to a low lying area that’s full of luscious green rice fields for as far as the eye can see.  After another hour, we can see majestic Mt Kenya in the distance.  By about five hours, we reach our destination of Meru, in the shadow of Mt Kenya.

Working with Project HOPE in Korangi

During Keith’s August trip to Pakistan, he also visited with one of our social market partners in Karachi.  The guest blog entry below, describes his visit with Project HOPE to see their Children’s Safe Drinking Water work in Korangi.

Mama Juliana, Mzungu, and an Elder Water Giver

I’m in coastal Kenya with World Vision to help kick-off a program to provide the PUR packets in schools and communities in four of World Vision’s area development programs (ADPs).  We’ve had success with World Vision in providing PUR to school children in Malawi and now are expanding that work to Kenya.  Of course, we’ve also had success with World Vision in responding to emergencies in Asia and Africa.  We’re providing PUR now in Indonesia with World Vision in response to the earthquake.  And, we responded to save lives in Zimbabwe during the cholera outbreak.  World Vision recently ran an article on their home page to talk about our partnership.  To view the World Vision article about the P&G collaboration follow the link to their website, click on “World Vision News” and then “A Partnership to Fight Cholera”.  World Vision also shared the attached video to thank P&G for our partnership following my visit to Zimbabwe.(link to video)

Providing water to displaced people in Pakistan

Introduction:
Keith Zook, my good friend and long time second in command on P&G’s Children’s Safe Drinking Water program, traveled to Pakistan in August to work with our production plant and social market and disaster relief partners.  This blog entry describes his visits with two of our partners, World Vision and HOPE, that are providing water to displaced people in Pakistan.  Drinking water is critical to these populations as they are forced to move into formal camps, homes and other temporary housing.  In these crowded situations, drinking water many times becomes a major avenue of disease transmission.  The use of PUR packets helps avoid this disease and improves the quality of life of the people.