LifeStraw pt 3

On Friday of last week I was invited to share a little of my upcoming venture with the 500 plus children and staff at the school where I work.  Now as you may recall, I'm not big on this whole public speaking thing.  But when I began this journey I made a pact with myself, that I would overcome that fear not let the fear overcome me.... I vowed never to turn down the opportunity to share this story, so Friday at 2:00pm found me standing before a sea of faces.

When I say "share my story", I don't mean bore everybody senseless by talking only about me, because that really wouldn't be very interesting for anybody to listen to.  I'm compelled to share the stories of the families and the children of Nakuru, Kenya.  If I can help my friends, family, colleagues and even my local community realise how incredibly blessed they are, maybe they will extend just a fraction of that blessing to those less fortunate.  The generosity, warmth and compassion for others that I've experienced from the outset of this project has been phenomenal.  Time and again, support has come from both the obvious and the not so obvious places, but it never fails to move me.

So, there I was, 2:00pm Friday afternoon, after just one and a half hour notice, standing nervously in front of a hall full of children, all waiting to hear what I had to say.  I had a pretty tough act to follow, Constable Steve had just swooped in and wowed them all with news of a BlueLight Disco taking place the following Friday....dancing and free BBQ, surely I couldn't top that.   But with the help of the Principal, we held a little Q&A session and in no time at all the school community became a little more informed about where I was going, and what I was doing.  This was topped off with a generous donation by the school of 10 LifeStraws to the children of Giotto....

As is always the case with children there are those that were interested and those that it was just another 'gap filler' in assembly.  But I was buoyed by the response the talk generated, teachers and staff have come to me wanting to know more, wanting to contribute.  One teacher alone bought four LifeStraws and two more bought a couple each.  The teacher and Learners from one of the Year 5/6 classes have also been discussing the LifeStraw itself, they have invited me to come share a little more with them....  The way I look at it is, if my ten minutes of discomfort standing before five hundred children has enabled 18 more children to receive a LifeStraw that will give them three years safe drinking water, then it was worth every second.

Before I have even visited their class, the Learners of Room 5 began to ask me questions, questions I didn't know all the answers to, so some research was necessary.
One young man asked me......

"How does the LifeStraw really work?" 

I knew the basics, but really, these enquiring minds needed a much deeper answer... so here is what HowStuffWorks.com taught me.

LifeStraw Personal 

• Water passes through a mesh filter that removes the larger sediment and dirt. The holes in the filter are about 100 microns in diameter.

• A polyester filter with a much smaller mesh of about 15 microns -- about a tenth of the diameter of a human hair -- catches bacteria.

• The next step sends the water through iodine-coated resin beads. Iodine is a halogen (reactive nonmetal) that kills parasites, viruses and bacteria. These halogenated resin beads lie in a specially designed chamber that maximizes the exposure of pathogens to the iodine.

• The water passes through an empty chamber.

• The water is pulled through an active carbon filter to remove any taste left from the iodine and block any remaining pathogens. Carbon is the porous result of burned organic material and is activated by a special chemical process that makes it even more porous and more able to absorb impurities.

Then, as I dug a little deeper, I found some pretty disturbing photos on the LifeStraw Facebook page.  Photos highlighting the desperate need for more LifeStraws to be given to children in Africa, and other under developed countries, photos that showed the horrors of what drinking contaminated water brings.

Warning: 

The photos below are of a graphic nature

They highlight the need for safe drinking water.

Ascariasis found in water
contaminated
the parasites eggs

These images show a young child suffering from Ascariasis, an intestinal roundworm.  

Ascariasis is found in a massive 90% of the children, that are living in poverty in Kenya.  This alone is the most common parasite that a LifeStraw will eliminate.  

Young children are more likely to be affected by this parasite than adults, and those born with HIV or Aids, are at an even higher risk.

This is not the only water borne parasite or disease that a LifeStraw will prevent, just the most common.

As I said in a previous post, we can turn away, and choose to ignore that which is difficult to face, or we can ask ourselves

                                    "What can I do?" 

I won't lie to you, I didn't like what I saw, but I was heartened to know that in December thanks to my friends, family, colleagues and community at least 74 children in Nakuru will receive this simple tool, a tool that will eliminate these potentially life threatening horrors for the next three years.  

It is common for the parasite to come
out as the Host sleeps

So what are you going to do???? 

Turn away and ignore? 

or ask

 What can I do....?