Imagine that your neighborhood only received water twice a week, that though your house is plumbed and you’re connected to the main, that the utility only provided service to your neighborhood 2 out of 7 days. That’s 8 days of access to water a month. Imagine also that the water never runs on the same 2 days. That’s what the community of Los Perez lives with. In fact, neighbors leave the tap on so that the sound of water alerts them to waters presence in their neighborhood and then they shout and spread the word. Imagine how your life would be different living around the availability of water and your ability to store it well. Imagine how it would affect how you do laundry, wash dishes… wash yourself. Imagine having to randomly stop what you’re doing and switch over to your water based chores… you’re reading this post and then suddenly you have to stop because the waters on and dishes need to be washed and so does the baby. Along with all of that, imagine the likelihood of waterborne disease in the water you have been able to store and is all you can afford to drink.
For years now, Pastor Nico, has served this community. He lives here with his family and has established a church. Through G.O. his church is able to provide a nutrition program to the children there that would otherwise be hungry. He and his wife have taken it upon themselves to teach the illiterate adults in the community how to read and write. They have a chalkboard mounted to the exterior wall of their little house under a makeshift patio.
This summer we were able to collaborate with Pastor Nico and Mac Parrish to install a water purification system. For Pastor Nico it was an opportunity to provide safe drinking water to the people of his community in Jesus’ name in an affordable way. 5 Gallons of drinking water goes for 40 pesos (about $1.50 US). He is able to offer it for 10 pesos. This meets the people of his community where they are financially and helps to run the cost of the program. Because water is scarce we later constructed a cistern to hold enough water to be purified throughout the week. For Mac this was an opportunity to execute what would be a tremendous Eagle Scout project. At 16 years of age, he took on this very ambitious project, the fruit of which will not only improve lives but save them.
This is one of 8 water project G.O. has done on the island to date. Take two minutes and check out our quick clip highlighting this great project.
The Clean Water Project in Los Perez, Dominican Republic from Jeff Rogers on Vimeo.
We are moving our family to the Dominican in June. If you'd like to help us and help further this kind of ministry please consider making a one time contribution to "Send Us" as well as partnering with us monthly. Details and links to donate via the web are in the panel to your right.
