AVI Honored by Battle of the Brains Contestants
Agua Viva was honored to share our vision for water with a group of 5th grade students at Harmony Elementary School in Overland Park who entered the Battle of the Brains Contest. During our discussion and presentation students asked Agua Viva what problems are encountered when installing purification systems in developing countries. After exploring several options, they decided to focus their research on the problem of transporting water from the purification site to a home, school, or kiosk. When a 5 gallon bottle of water weighs 40 pounds, and many communities do not have motorized vehicles to deliver water, the students brainstormed ways to carry heavy bottles of water.
The design prototype they created is a cart that can be pulled by a child, and best of all can be disassembled and packed into a suitcase. The Harmony kids thought of everything!!
Agua Viva plans to use their prototype to build a cart to take to Ecuador in April. Way to go 5th graders. We are so thankful you chose Agua Viva for your project!!
Thoughts from Jenn Foy from Atahualpa, Ecuador
Agua Viva International is a non-profit faith based organization that takes and installs water filtration systems to communities around the world that need clean water. The founders noticed sick kids on a mission trip and commented to a doctor “they need more doctors down there!” And the doctor commented- “what they really need is clean water so they don’t get sick”…so began this local organization about 15 years ago…
Brian & I joined their recent trip to a remote school in Guote, Ecuador named Atahualpa. This school has around 400 children 1st-12th grade. Some kids walk up to 15km (an hour and a half!) ONE way to school. Spanish is their second language- the indigenous language called Cetchzwa is the language they speak at home. The school includes a school of husbandry, teaching them how to raise rabbits, guinea pigs and also an extensive garden. Their curriculum includes how to raise different types of vegetables; available for the community with the goal to increase the variety of vegetables they grow/eat.
There were two teams on this trip- an education team and an installation team. Brian helped with the installation. This group has to be innovative and flexible- as each community provides it’s own complex situation for it’s water source. When the installation is complete, Agua Viva GIVES the system to the community to do with as they need.
I was on the education team. It is a comprehensive curriculum that weaves biblical truths with principals about the parasites/viruses present in water that can make you sick, how germs are spread, and the uses of this purified water they were getting. We taught 6 teachers from the school, who in turn takes the curriculum and teaches it to their students; with the hope the students will in turn take this information to their parents. The school decided they wanted to in turn take this curriculum and educate 14 more schools around them locally!
Some of the things the students were shocked about? That there is a living world beyond what our eyes can see. That it’s not a good practice to have pigs & chickens running around in your your house where you eat and sleep; and how easy it is to spread germs.
The last day is usually a day of celebration and blessing of the installation of the water filtration system. This was so lovely! The community comes and celebrates with us. The pastor of the community came to speak- it was humbling he asked God would bless us in return- which I felt we received by guarding our lives the very next day!
Take time to watch the videos they are really fun to watch!
Brian & I feel very blessed by the friendships we made and being around such hardworking faithful people that made this all happen.
Red Sox at 7:15 pm, on June 19, 2017. Please watch us on TV! Or, better yet, come to the Royals Stadium and watch us on the big screen! Curt Mader and Agua Viva International have installed 15 water purification systems in poor indigenous communities of Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, and Tanzania, Africa. Each system serves a community of about 2,000 people. More than three million people die each year from water related illnesses and nearly one billion people in our world have no access to clean drinking water. Agua Viva also brings health and hygiene education and dental serves to these communities touching the lives of thousands. Curt Mader, in addition to his full time employment at Olsson and Associates, has worked tirelessly to build this Kansas City based humanitarian organization from scratch to lift up and embrace the needy people of our thirsty world.
Agua Viva arrived in Flores to find our water purification system fully operative and our new operating partners doing fantastic. This was especially satisfying to our team considering how this all came about.
Then, at Jipongato, our Operator Moises, said when we arrived, “Did my friends bring us some water-based O-ring lubricant?” Oooops! We have never carried water-based lubricant jelly before. How does an indigenous mountain-man know what a “water based O-ring lubricant” is??? After a lengthy “Bull Pen” session, we came up with a plan. Oh, why didn’t we pack some “water based O-ring lubricant”?
At Promesa Divina, our operator Jonathon Guaman, asked, “Why is water backing up into my Ozonator?”. After a quick look, we noticed that this installation by Agua Viva pre-dated the addition of a manual shutoff valves in the Ozonator tubing which prevents this phenomenon.
But, that is only the tip of the iceberg. Our team also included Mario Mejia from Quetzaltengo, Guatemala. Mario is an excellent translator but he is much more than that. Mario knows our purification system inside and out. He also understands the rest of the program: Health and Hygiene Education, Covenants, Micro-Economy strategies, and (most importantly) water diplomacy. And, he speaks very fluent English and Spanish.
So altogether we had seven, but that is still only the beginning. What about our constituents back in the United States that make it all possible? What about the preachers, teachers, school principals, system operators, and others who have come before us, like Pastor Truesdale and Don Pablo Poz Pom? Yes, by no less than divine appointment, we have assembled quite a team!
Today we completed follow-up trips for all of our Agua Viva Water Sites in central Ecuador. Site after site, we heard and observed first-hand, the same thing from our friends, “The water system is working great. Thank you so much”. Without exception, all our sites were 100% operative, clean, and cranking out water.
Our proudest moment was when two our school projects, Pomachaca and Flores, both with about 500 students, exclaimed that absenteeism had dropped to a new amazing low level, beyond what either of the principals ever thought possible.