aguapuraparaelpueblo.org

Dear Friends-
We hope that this end of the year letter finds you in good health and enjoying the Christmas holidays with your families and friends.  Recent tragic events here in Portland and elsewhere around the county and world tend to make us appreciate and cherish  those close to us even more.  We  do believe that the world is slowly becoming a better, safer place however, and that when we focus on that fact we can see past our current problems to a more positive future for us all.
You are part of that better future we can see. With your help and support our organization and others like ours have been able to continue to work this year and plan for future programs.  
It’s been another busy year for us at Agua Pura and we look forward to the growing challenges and growing opportunities in the years ahead.
Those of you who follow our work on our website  or have contributed to our Global Giving campaign may be familiar with some of our programs, but for others I want to briefly share some of our progress and our successes this last year.
 
Agua Pura works by cooperating with other non profits.  We are invited and hosted by  organizations and government agencies.  We do not come and build things for people, but instead help them provide for themselves.  We teach health leaders to test drinking water for contamination and support them with the tools and supplies for their work.  We show families how to make their own water safe to drink, rather than wait for someone to provide a well.  We show how improved sanitation can keep them and their families healthy and safe.  Our motto is “una familia a la vez” which means one family at a time.

This year we spent time in Southern Mexico working with our partners at Amextra the Mexican Association for Urban and  Rural Transformation.  They have a number of programs throughout Mexico and we worked with them in Mexico City and in Palenque in Chiapas State.  We trained their staff in modern methods of water testing and simple methods of pasteurization.  We also helped repair and restore a school latrine that was not functioning and added a hand washing station so that the students had a safe, sanitary bathroom at their school.

Here in Oregon we have trained and supported several volunteer groups with other non-profits that were going to Latin America countries such as Nicaragua and Peru.  This helps extend our impact into new areas, and where we can follow up with other programs in the future.   
We’ve started taking interested volunteers with us on our projects  as a way to train more staff and to help with our programs.  We work mostly in Spanish, but even beginner level skills can be helpful and local families love to talk and find out more about us and our programs.  If you are interested in participating, or want to be trained in water testing methods please let us know.

These are only a few of the programs we have worked on this last year.  You can read a lot more about them here on our website and our Global Giving site.  We are extremely grateful to you and our other friends and never take you for granted. If you wish to make a year end contribution to support our work we would really appreciate it.  You can donate through our secure website or send a check directly.  Of course all donations are 100% tax deductible.
Thank you very much and please stay in contact, I love to hear from our friends.
Tom
Tom Carter
Executive Director
Agua Pura Para El Pueblo

Friends-
Agua Pura recently completed another service project in Mexico. We returned to continue our water and sanitation work at two locations, at Tultitlan near Mexico City, and in Palenque in Chiapas in southern Mexico. Thanks for your continued support and you can read about the trip at our Global Giving site: http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/pasteurize-water-in-latin-america-with-wapi/updates/
Thanks,
Tom

Agua Pura is happy to announce plans for its latest service trip. From July 7^th through the 22^nd, 2012 we will traveling and working in Mexico with our local partner Amextra, The Mexican Association For Rural and Urban Transformation. Agua Pura has worked for several years with their organization promoting clean water and sanitation and will be returning to continue our programs with them.

 This year we will be visiting our ongoing projects in Mexico City and Palenque in Chiapas as well as new programs in San Cristobal De Las Casas and Oaxaca, Mexico. We will be giving workshops to local organizations and heath professionals on current methods of water testing and purification. We’ll also be giving demonstrations in local communities on simple methods that families can use to make their water safe to drink. Agua Pura also provides testing materials and Water Pasteurization Indicators (WAPI’s) free of charge.

WAPI’s are simple reusable devices that show when water has been heated enough to have killed all dangerous organisms.  They save lives in developing countries with unsafe water and are also useful here for camping and emergency preparedness.  Read more about WAPI’s by scrolling down our website.  If you want to purchase one for $5.00 for your own use and to help support our work, click on our “donate” button or send a check to Agua Pura Para El Pueblo at 15035 SE Monner Road, Happy Valley, Oregon 97086.

Here are some photos from last falls’ trip.

School Handwashing class

Water Testing Class

Rocket Stove Workshop

Water Testing and Water Purification Workshop

Agua Pura Para El Pueblo announces its third annual water

testing and purification workshop on

Saturday, May 12 from 10 am till 4 pm at the home of director Tom Carter.

The workshop will include training in accurate testing and evaluation of drinking water for bacterial contamination. Participants will practice the procedures necessary set up and incubate specimens and will learn to interpret test results. Also, participants will learn about various simple methods of water purification that families can use to protect themselves against diarrheal disease. These include filtration and pasteurization using the Water Pasteurization Indicator (WAPI).

This workshop is intended for a variety of persons who wish to learn these procedures for use in their own programs, whether as service projects in underdeveloped countries or for other non profit humanitarian purposes. There is no cost for the workshop and all materials are provided.

For more information or to register please contact :

Tom Carter

503-658-2414

or

tom@aguapuraparaelpueblo.org

It’s been a busy fall and winter for Agua Pura’s staff! We’ve given workshops and attended others.   We’ve made presentations and worked with experts to improve the supplies and materials we donate. All to help our program to grow and and be more useful.

 Last October Agua Pura was invited to give a workshop on water testing at the West Coast Conference of Engineers Without Borders. This large meeting had a number of groups of engineering students as well as academic and professional engineers. These different groups were responsible for a large number of interesting programs and projects all over the world, including water and sanitation projects, bridge and school construction programs and solar energy projects.

Agua Pura gave a workshop demonstrating our methods of water testing. Though the two hour program was too brief to completely train the participants, they did receive a thorough introduction to the methods. We suggested that any water or sanitation project should include water testing for bacterial contamination. They should be able to demonstrate that the water they provide is safe to drink and they should train local community members to continue monitoring after they have finished. Agua Pura provides training, materials and support to non profits and community organizations at no cost, and we offered to help any EWB group that wanted more training or support for their projects.

Contaminated Water Samples and After Pasteurization, Demonstration at EWB Conference

In November Director Tom Carter traveled to Sacramento California to work with Dr Robert Metcalf at Cal State University, Sacramento. Dr Metcalf is the developer of the modern water testing techniques that Agua Pura uses to check water samples for bacterial contamination. He took testing methods used in the food processing industry and simplified them for use in areas without laboratories. While there Tom showed a new style of Water Pasteurization Indicator (WAPI) he developed. Previously they were made with nylon fishing line to suspend them in the water being treated. Our new WAPI’s come with stainless steel wire for increased durability. Agua Pura now has the capacity to make large numbers of these new WAPI’s at low cost for its programs.

In late January Agua Pura staff attended a conference in Seattle focused on small, efficient “biomass” stoves. These stoves are inexpensive to build and burn materials typically discarded, such as corn husks, twigs and sticks and other locally produced fuels. They are safer to use than open fires, use less fuel, burn cleaner and contribute less to deforestation and global warming. Agua Pura supports their use both for cooking and for disinfection of drinking water. With only a few moments use the stoves can easily heat water to the temperature of pasteurization.

In our workshops in Latin America we demonstrate use of one type of biomass stove called a “rocket stove”. It was designed by a group in Eugene, Oregon called Aprovecho Sustainability Education Center. It works by providing a separate fuel and air intake that mix and combust with a powerful updraft and high temperatures. Aprovecho’s principal can be used in a number of different designs, and are simple and inexpensive to make locally. When they are burning well they produce very little ash and make a whooshing sound, hence the name.

Commercial "Rocket" Style Stoves

Another new type of design we saw in Seattle at the conference is called a “gasifier” design because it heats the fuel to very high temperatures in a low air environment. The fuel then gives off hot volatile gases which are burned. The result leaves carbon charcoal which itself can be burned or the charcoal can be used for other purposes. Some people believe the charcoal can be used as a soil amendment or aid in composting and making fertilizer. These stoves are called Top Lit Updraft stoves or TLUD and are also very effective at cooking and heating water for pasteurization.

Various "Gasifier" Stoves

In Agua Pura’s poster presentation we suggested that the various stove manufacturers should include emphasis on using their stoves to pasteurize water. Now, often, families do not boil or heat their water because of the increased fuel use. We offered to provide WAPI’s that could be distributed with the stoves when they are sold. We also encouraged the design of simpler stoves like the rocket stove that could be made locally.