Giving the gift of clean water for Christmas

Last Friday in 23rd November we received an email from an old colleague - our former Production Director, Phil Herborn. Being of the Antipodean persuasion he left us to return home, via South America - but not until we’d showered him with gifts.

Turns out he’s not just surfing and drinking beer - but putting himself to good use locally. Below is the email he sent:

Subject: Want to help out with my volunteer project in Nicaragua??

Hola Amigos!

Louisa and I are in Nicaragua and we have found some volunteer work on a project for a resource we know, love and need - water!

A group led by a guy named Fidel, is building concrete water filters (filtros de agua) for families who live in rural and remote areas and do not have access to clean and safe drinking water as the local wells and rivers are polluted. So far we have helped to mix the cement, build and paint the filters. On Thursday, we ventured out to a remote village to set up filters in 10 houses and train the families on how to use and maintain them. All with only our basic Spanish, and alot of charades.

We are now low on cement and this is where you come in. Want to help us buy some more?

For AUD$8.50 you can donate a bag of cement which is the expensive ingredient in the process. This is a great chance to make a donation and know that it is going directly to the need - because we are here to buy the cement… and mix it!

So go on, give a Nicaraguan family some clean water for Christmas.

Donate 1 bag of cement (£3.72)
(links to a paypal donation page for AUD$8.50 - you don’t have to have a paypal account)

Donate 2 bags of cement (£7.44)
(links to a paypal donation page for AUD$17 - you don’t have to have a paypal account)

Photos of the project here.

We are here.

Thanks!
Muchas gracias!

So, what better way to start the Christmas festivities than to make a small donation and a big difference? And what better use for social media than to help out a social project - which is why we’ve made this widget and made it available as a facebook app too so anyone who wants to can help spread the word.

*UPDATE 11.12.07

Just had the following response from Phil and Lou:

Sorry for the slow response to say thank you for your donation to the water filters project in San Juan Del Sur.

Sooooo…. THANK YOU so much for your contribution to the water filters project. We had an awesome response and altogether you guys donated USD$645!

It was just in time as the workshop had ran out of supplies, so it was cool to come through with the goods at the eleventh hour. And fun driving around town loading up the truck with supplies.

We were able to sponsor 12 complete filters for a small village called “Ojo de Agua” - Eye of the Water. So now, each house in this entire village will have a water filter inscribed with “Amigos de Australia y Inglaterra” (Friends of Oz and UK).
More Pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/philherborn/sets/72157603271148147/

Thanks so much, it made a huge difference!
Phil & Lou

Jenni wrote this on 29.11.07 –
It's filed in the NixonMcInnes, Off topic, Social media box

4 responses

1. On November 29th, 2007 at 1:04 pm, wayne responded:

   Hey

   The website: http://www.kruddler.org/cement/

   it’s down - can you contact yer mate - I’d like to donate :)

   w://

2. On November 29th, 2007 at 1:11 pm, Trevor responded:

   Hi Wayne. You can still contribute by clicking either of those two Paypal links above. In the mean time I’ll let Phil know that his server is busted!

3. On November 30th, 2007 at 10:40 am, wayne responded:

   Hey - cheers for that :)

   I actually spotted it just after I hit submit.

   http://tinyurl.com/2uuxng

   w://

4. On December 12th, 2007 at 11:38 pm, phil herborn responded:

   Hey Folks, thanks for posting this on the nice new shiney NM website!

   Double thanks for widgetizing it!

   It’s super cool that we were able to take lots of small donations from our families and friends and then turn this into water filters for a Nicaraguan village without any money getting lost in administration costs. That’s the power of the Social Web right?

   I’ll email you guys about making this something that Comunidad Connect can use with all of their volunteers and then the world…

   thanks again!

   BTW late donations are cool, we are still getting donations and I am basically just transfering money into the water filters bank account at Comunidad Connect when it comes in.

What do you think?