Alfredo (1) gathered a team this morning of a dozen children from 10th grade (14 & 15 years old) accompanied by two teachers to distribute water filters to a rural community up in the mountains. Los Pechiches is located 15 km away from Bahía de Caráquez; yet it takes about 40 minutes to reach by car as the roads are very bumpy. This village gets its name from a black sweet fruit that grows on the coast of Ecuador. The earthquake wiped its church and damaged many houses; some villages have been sleeping in temporary shelters since.
The mission was to distribute 25 water filters to the villagers who have difficulties in accessing clean water since the earthquake hit them in April. These filters were donated by Waves for Water (2); thanks to this wonderful organization, Alfredo and his students have distributed more than 300 kits so far. This revolutionary technology allows to clean one million gallons of water with a single device. The only constraint is that it must be kept clean to work properly; reason why Alfredo taught the villagers how to use it for close to two hours !
As shown in the slideshow here below, mattresses were also distributed to villagers, alongside toys, food and drinks.
Click on the image below to view the slideshow
(1) Alfredo Harmsen is an Executive Director of the Sri Sathya Sai Baba Foundation which runs Sathya Sai's School.