Twenty Years of Safe Water through Safe Water Social Ventures.
First Biosand Filter installed in Southern Sudan (January 2004) and the 2006 delegation asking for help starting a locally owned & operated safe water proiect.
Twenty years ago this week, Enviro-Stewards’ founder, Bruce Taylor, traveled to Southern Sudan to help construct the St. Bartholomew orphanage in Kajo Keji county, South Sudan. At that time, the widow’s association operating the orphanage (IWASSRU) were walking 3 miles to the nearest source of safe water at the local hospital (which turned out to not be safe when it was tested for E. Coli with a solar powered incubator).
Bruce had brought a Biosand filter water purifier with him on the trip to set up at the orphanage (so that water from a nearby creek could be purified to produce safe water with less work & less time away from the children). Two years later, when Bruce was helping enlarge the orphanage, a local group asked to be taught how to construct the water purifiers (pictured below) and the water projects struggled and grew from there (TEDx talk).
Throughout 2024, please help us celebrate the safe water teams bringing safe water to their communities. The celebration commences this month with an entrepreneur (Vicky) and two technicians travelling from Jinga, Uganda to Pakwach, Uganda to learn from the safe water social venture team there and then return to Jinga in February to star their own project (the Jinga team has previously completed a market assessment that confirmed there is urgent need and potential for a viable project). Footage will be collected from this training & launch to weave into a 20th anniversary safe water film to be premiered at the 3rd annual Impact Film Festival on November 21, 2024.
With your shared interest in empowering teams to provide safe water, please keep an eye out for materials we will be making available soon to encourage individuals and organizations to help even more families secure sustainable access to safe water during this coming year.