India Bio-Sand Water Filter Project Update 11-20-2008
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From: Cathy Forsberg
Sent: Thu 11/20/08 8:53 AM
November 20, 2008
We are in the middle of a whirlwind of activity and haven't had a chance to catch our breath. However there was one meeting we attended that still haunts us that we have to share it with you.
We have been working on a program with Rotary District 7890 in northern Connecticut and southern Massachusetts to provide Bio-sand water filters to families that are affected by AIDS in Kolar district. We are doing the project in cooperation with a non profit organization called Myrada that has been active in AIDS awareness and prevention in this area since 1994.
People with AIDS in this country are discriminated against and treated as social outcasts, even shunned by their own families. We were approached six months ago to create a program to donate 500 Bio-sand water filters to families with an HIV positive member. Typically these families carry an extra burden of poverty because the infected member can't work as much and requires medication.
We attended a meeting at the local Myrada office of a Federation of groups concerned with AIDS. These were board members of their respective groups from different geographical areas of the district. They meet monthly to exchange information and develop best practices for giving relief to AIDS victims. They have developed a network of peer groups that advocate for people with AIDS and disseminate information on prevention and the treatment programs available.
We discussed our Bio-sand filter program and our willingness to donate the filters to the neediest families. We were stunned when they said that each filter recipient should be required to pay something for the filter and should not get a pure donation. Just like our Adopt-A-Village Partnership program, something free is not valued or appreciated. They said a family contribution of $2.00 would be sufficient. We agreed to the amount and said the amount collected would be donated back to their organization.
After meeting with the group we were lead into a small office with four chairs in a circle. For the next one and one-half hours we heard the life stories of two of the bravest women we have ever met. They are both HIV positive who have risen from the most incredible abusive and miserable situations to become leaders and advocates for others with AIDS. Both of them were innocent village girls, married at a very young age. Their husbands were abusive and infected them with AIDS before they even knew there was such a disease. One of the women gave their child AIDS at birth because she was unaware of her condition. They were both abandoned by their spouses and left to fend for themselves.
We heard of twelve hour days laboring in a brick yards, thoughts of suicide, despair over infected children, abandonment by family and friends, days of body racking illness. We were stunned and amazed at the sheer guts and determination of these two women to take their desperate lives into their own hands and make a difference in their communities. One of them sought counseling when her situation drove her to contemplate suicide. She started a support group with several people. That was twelve years ago. Now the organization has two thousand members and has developed awareness programs, lobbied to have treatment clinics and physicians available to AIDS patients. They developed a program with the Gates Foundation to provide life extending medication free of charge.
This woman has given up her presidency of this organization because she is too weak to travel and speak to the various groups in the district. As we were leaving we saw her leaning against the door jamb after we said goodbye. She closed her eyes and rested her head on the door jamb; the effort to tell us her story had taken a toll on her. We knew the disease was on the verge of taking a precious soul from us. We both had to fight back our tears.
We have spent our last four Thanksgivings in India and there is no better place to give thanks for what we have. We often lose sight of our good fortune to have been lucky enough to be born in and live in such a prosperous and caring society.
Fortunately there are a lot of lighter moments during our days that balance the sobering realities of India. One of them is what I call the "Coffee Day" fiasco. We have a good relationship with the Rotary district Governor in Bangalore who is very supportive of our Bio-sand filter program. He has developed a matching grant program with a Rotary club in Minnesota to provide filters for three villages in our district. The District governor from Minnesota was traveling with five other Americans visiting various projects and sightseeing in India.
We were the local "greeters" and the plan was to meet them at a modern coffee shop, Coffee Day, India's answer to Starbucks, just a few kilometers from our hotel in Kolar. They were supposed to arrive at 10:00am, get a snack and use the only clean toilets in a 50 mile radius! We were to wait for RamaChandra, our project director, to pick us up at 9:30 at the hotel in plenty of time to get to Coffee Day before 10:00. Of course experience told us that time is not a precise commodity in India, it is more like a large loose rubber band that can be stretched to great lengths without breaking or offending.
The SUV arrived at 10:30 to pick us up without RamaChandra and there were two drivers in the vehicle. Humm, we thought, this is going to be interesting!! We were driven to RamaChandra's home where he was working on some last minute information for the district Governor. Around 11:00 we drove to the Coffee Day. Thinking we still had about 20 minutes until they arrived, I took our guest, a Rotarian from Elk Rapids, Michigan who is also supporting another village project, for a walk to photograph some women who were washing cloths in a nearby pond. We returned about 20 minutes later, just in time, the caravan of visitors was just a kilometer away according to RamaChandra who was in constant cell phone contact with the Indian hosts accompanying them.
Five minutes went by, ten minutes went by and fifteen minutes went by all with good natured ribbing about how the Indian mile was similar to the Indian minute! After a bout of furious cell phone exchanges, it turns out that the caravan had gone to another Coffee Day, 5 kilometers past our hotel in the opposite direction. Long story short, we finally teemed up with our guests at noon! Our greeting jobs were taken over by some local Rotarians who had presented the visiting Americans with garlands and a package of some locally made incense.
It is gratifying to see support for our project coming from different areas of the USA, the United Kingdom and Canada. As more people learn about the difference we are making in the lives of the least fortunate of India, the more support is gathering. Our challenge now is to harness this support and increase our capacity to transfer this Bio-sand water filter technology to willing partners. We need to pass the baton to sure footed teammates who will continue to make a difference by providing clean water where it is needed the most.
Cathy and Mike
South Asia Pure Water Initiative, Inc.
2832 Whitney Avenue
Hamden, CT 06518
www.sapwii.org
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