Water Tank Project at Health Center

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope this finds you well! I’m in the last few months of service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cambodia; it’s hard to believe how fast the time has gone and an experience it has been to say the least.

I’m writing to tell you about an opportunity I have, to work with an organization called Water Charity www.watercharity.org . They are helping Peace Corps Volunteers worldwide with any project related to water and water sanitation. If you’re interested in directly helping the people in my village on a water-related project at my town’s health center, which I am facilitating, please read on about it.

Originally I was thinking about doing a project at my high-school, but after much research, what I had in mind wasn't feasible with the amount of time I have left here. Alternatively, I asked my host-mother (who's a mid-wife at the local health center, with 30 years experience) if there was any sort of water-related project that could benefit her line of work.

She immediately suggested an elevated water tank, which would allow for a clean, constant supply of gravity fed running water to the delivery room. Currently the health center's water supply comes from a rudimentary, privately owned town system which shuts off unexpectedly and sometimes at night; which presents a problem as babies are born at any given time. (FYI: Most households in Cambodia get their water manually from a well (we have one in our yard that we use for our water) and the current infrastructure, or lack thereof, isn't set up to have running water within the majority of the country. If a family is wealthy enough, they'll have a well, if not they'll share one with their neighbors or use the nearest river or lake.)

Anyway, we had a meeting at the beginning of this month with the staff and the director of the health care center and everyone agreed that this project would be a great benefit.

Here are two links with more information about the Water Charity Organization and their new initiative, "Appropriate Projects" to help Peace Corps volunteers worldwide with small scale (under $500) but large impact projects related to water.
http://appropriateprojects.com/node/9
http://appropriateprojects.com/

I sent in an application and my project has been approved and details are currently posted to their site. You can read about my project here: http://appropriateprojects.com/node/150 (The woman in the white Medical Outfit is my host mother and you can read about her in many of my blog posts.)

The organization has already funded my project, but they count on us to help raise the amount of money necessary for our projects so they can continue to help initiate others. It’s easy to donate, and you can do so over a secure internet connection from the link on the site to my project. So with that, I'm sending this to all of you, to give you the opportunity to contribute to a project that will directly impact the people of the community we live in, work with and have become very close to. A small sum will go a long way in this country and with a handful of my close friends and family having recently had children, I think you can appreciate my host-mom's need and want for being able to easily wash her hands when she and her colleagues are delivering babies.

I’ve also posted here, a few more photos that they weren’t able to post to the site. The Health Center here is really quite basic. The poverty in this country is tremendous. I’ll never forget the first time I toured the health center; I felt as though the facilities would match that of what we might have had in the US in the late 1800s. Any contribution will go a long way here.

Anyhow, if you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me willandsteph@gmail.com . I would greatly appreciate any funds you might kindly wish to donate, and I know my host mother and the health care staff will be forever grateful.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I hope this finds you well. We look forward to seeing you all sometime soon as we should be back stateside in August!

Warm wishes from Cambodia! (Although, I hear spring is finally breaking in some places back home!) Take care…..

Thanks,

Stephanie

Peace Corps Cambodia 2008 - 2010
www.InCambodiaLand.blogspot.com