WHF Needs Help To Ship Tsunami Water Purifiers

World Help Foundation (WHF) is preparing to send safe water equipment to Indonesia in response to the earthquake and tsunami devastation but it needs more help.

The foundation, founded in Newtown ten years ago, has two tractor-trailers filled with equipment that is almost ready to be shipped to Indonesia and also to Ghana, where Rotary International is spearheading a countrywide safe water effort.

Mary K. Tauras, WHF chief executive officer, said this week that a Rotary Club in Medan is being supported by another Rotary Club from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to rebuild a village near Acheh. The local Rotarians are determining the best sites for this safe water equipment. There will be ten locations where the community can access safe water. At each of the sites, there will be a system that can serve 12 people simultaneously.

“Picture 12 queues at each Disaster Relief System [DRS],” Ms Tauras said. “Picture a faucet per system being plumbed to a sink stand where containers can be washed before bringing them to the faucet to fill them. Hands and faces can be washed at this stand, prior to washing the container. Washing faces is the most effective way of preventing the eye disease trachoma. We can all understand the need to wash containers before filling them with clean water. These and other hygiene message, such as protecting the water once at home, help to make this intervention successful.”

Over the 12-month life of this equipment, more than 20 million gallons of water can be delivered where it is so desperately needed, she said. The ultraviolet light (UV) purification and carbon filtration (taking out metals and chemicals while improving taste) are already to go.

But, because of the turbidity of the water, each of the systems may need to have two pre-filters to remove the particles of mud and other contaminants first.

Ms Tauras said monetary donations are needed immediately to build these units so the equipment can be shipped.

“Our goal is to raise $10,000 for this purpose — $1,000 per site,” she said.

Meanwhile, WHF is preparing to place its next Community Water Distribution Systems (CWDS) in Ghana, where most rural areas do not have safe drinking water.

“We are collaborating with the Ghanaian government and other safe water aid agencies to develop and implement a national plan for universal safe water coverage,” Ms Tauras said. “As part of this plan, WHF intends to place two demonstration CWDSs in a rural area just outside of the capital, in a location easily reachable for government officials and representatives of major donor agencies. WHF also intends to place a CWDS at a site where arsenic must be removed from the water, as well as CWDSs where purification/filtration is needed in addition to prefiltration to take Guinea worm egg-infested water fleas out of the water before it is consumed. The Guinea worm problem, once rampant, is now almost solved, thanks to the aggressive response of the Carter Center.”

The Carter Center has reduced Guinea worm incidence by 99.9 percent, she said. Seventy percent of the last one percent is in Ghana. WHF will be working together with the Carter Center and other members of the umbrella group, WaterPlus, to see this helminth eradicated in Ghana, Ms Tauras said.

The country having the most cases after Ghana is the Sudan. This will be a very difficult action but one worth all of the effort. The Guinea worm is called “the fiery serpent” because of the excruciating pain that occurs when the meter-long worm, after having grown within the body, comes out through the lower extremities, forcing the victim back into the cooling water – only to have the worm lay its eggs in the water, the cycle then repeating.

“WHF is honored to work with the tremendously successful Carter Center so that, having saved people, many of whom are children, from this suffering, can also help prevent their deaths from otherwise contaminated water,” Ms Tauras said. “Besides the work in Ghana, WHF works with sponsor and host groups to develop projects in other countries. WHF needs your help with this on-going development program, too.”

Tto carry out both the disaster relief and the development programs, WHF needs funds for its core expenses. The foundation is looking for a new home in Newtown since its prior location, the former Newtown Manufacturing building on South Main Street, has been sold. For now, the Scalzo Group is providing free office space in Danbury while the foundation looks for another home in Newtown.

Ms Tauras said volunteers also are needed to help with operations and technical positions. “Youth can contribute fruitful hours and earn community service credit. Please, come and join us at World Help Foundation,” she said.

Donations to the World Help Foundation, can be sent to PO Box 500 Newtown, CT 06470. Donations by credit cards are accepted over the phone by calling 800-814-2500 and 203-798-0833. Ms Tauras also can be reached at mktauras@worldhelpfound.org.