Shields Gazette – Published on Thursday 28 March 2013

“Volunteers at a South Tyneside church are proving life-savers by providing vital support to 1,000 children at schools in Africa.

Every year, West Harton Methodist Church in South Shields stages an Advent Appeal to support good causes locally, nationally and internationally.

This year, one of the beneficiaries is the Safe Water Trust, which sends water filter pumps to 20 developing countries throughout the African continent, where people are drinking unsafe water from ponds, rivers, lakes and open wells.

Aquafilters, which cost £250 each, remove bacteria, viruses and spores, and can be used for up to five years, providing safe drinking water for about 500 youngsters. 

The parishioners at West Harton raised £1,000 to buy four machines for schools in Sierra Leone, where there has been a recent severe cholera outbreak. Cholera is a water-borne bacteria that can be removed from the drinking water by an Aquafilter. 

Also supporting the effort is South Shields Masonic Benevolent Committee, which provided £280 to pay for the water pumps to be transported to Africa. 

George Branch, property steward at the Boldon Lane church, said: “This year, the Advent Appeal raised £1,164, and we also received a £500 anonymous donation. 

“This year, our local charities were Street Angels and Cancer Connections, who both received £300. A member of our congregation had been contacted from someone in Sierra Leone, where half the children at schools in one area have died as a result of bad water. We agreed to use the remaining £1,000 to buy four pumps, which should be in the country by next weekend.

 “These are pieces of equipment that will save lives, and we will be hopefully finding out later about the positive impact they have in the communities there.”

Meanwhile, South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust has sponsored three Aquafilters in Dervas, West India, and the 3rd Explorer Scouts in South Shields are supporting another appeal in Rwanda.

To read the Shields Gazette article on-line, please click here

GIVING IT A BASH: Barnard Castle rotarian Robert Hartness and aquafilter inventor John Griffith are pictured with runners lining up for the intermediate boys race at this year’s Barney Bash.

“Youngsters at Barnard Castle School came under starter’s orders for a historic race which this year will help provide safe drinking water in more than 20 countries.

The Barney Bash has been staged for more than a century. It began life as a paper chase but has developed into a cross country run around the school grounds and nearby Demesnes sports fields.

As well as running for a host of cups and shields, the young athletes were raising money for the Safe Water Trust, a County Durham charity established by John and Gill Griffith, who were guests of honour at the Barney Bash.

The trust provides aquafilters, which were designed and developed by Mr Griffith, to communities without a safe supply of drinking water. The trust also works in partnership with rotary clubs and rotarians in Durham District have agreed to match the sum raised by the school.”

Darlington & Stockton Times 11:31am Monday 18th March 2013 in News by Stuart Laundy, Reporter (Barnard Castle & Teesdale). To read the report online, please click here

Read the latest news from The Safe Water Trust, March 2013.

We now have Aquafilters in more than 20 countries and with the help from our many partners, 1000s more people have access to clean drinking water.

Some important projects are underway in Somalia, Rwanda, Kenya and India; for more information, please click on the following link  Newsletter number 8 March 2013

In another piece of important news, test results from the State of Arizona University have recently been received, showing that the removal of bacteria and viruses by the Aquafilter Family exceeds USEPA standards. Read the test results and the report in detail on our Technical page    

Read about how we now have more Aquafilters in Somalia, Guatemala and India, and how with the help of Rotary around the world, we are implementing a major Aquafilter trial in Rwanda.

To download Newsletter 8 please click here on Newsletter 8

Last Thursday the National President of Rotary, Mr John Minhinick visited the Cummins Engine Plant at Darlington to see for himself the benefits of co-operation between local Rotary Clubs and Cummins, the global manufacturer of engines.

Along with Rotary District Governor Celia Leach, District Governor Nominee Jean Thompson and the Presidents of Darlington Rotary and Cleadon Rotary, Roland Lang and Joyce Welsh respectively, the visitors were given a guided tour of the facility by the engineers of Cummins, assisted by John Griffith, Aquafilter pioneer from The Safe Water Trust.

A joint press release was issued to mark the occasion:

“North East Organisations work together to provide Safe Drinking Water

Employees at the Cummins Engine plant in Darlington are volunteering to build Aquafilters for Africa; and Rotary Clubs in the area are funding 1,000 filters for Rwanda to provide clean drinking water for over 30,000 people.

The filters have been designed and developed by a local charity, The Safe Water Trust, in conjunction with the Rotary Organisation. Parts are made by local companies and are assembled in the Cummins Engine Plant for free. This is part of the Cummins social responsibility programme in which employees spend half a day a year in voluntary activities.

Aquafilters go to countries in Africa, Asia and South America where people do not have clean drinking water. One hundred filters left here today for Somalia and next month 300 will go to Honduras.  Later in the year 1000 Aquafilters will be on their way to Rwanda. Thanks to the co-operation between the Rotary Clubs, Cummins Darlington Engine Plant , The Safe Water Trust Charity, and local parts suppliers,  over 40,000 people will have safe drinking water. Not only will people who receive them not be sick, but money will not have to be spent on medicine , children will learn more effectively in school, and parents will be able to work.”

If you want to see how we are really helping, see the video from our recent visit to The Gambia,  click here 

We would like to thank everyone who is helping with this very important work. We are making such a difference to the lives of people who were previously drinking contaminated water.

John addressing conference delegates

During the recent trip to Ghana, a Press Launch for Aquafilters was organised in the capital Accra.  The Daily Guide Ghana reported on the conference …

With the single objective to develop and provide a solution for safe drinking water to people in developing countries, John told the conference that Aquafilters were already being used in some parts of Afram Plains and the Eastern region of country.

The Press Conference was attended by around 50 delegates and everyone agreed it was a great success. To see the coverage on the website of the Government of Ghana  click here. 

To download a pdf version of our latest Newsletter click on  Newsletter 7

Gambia Visit

In June we returned to our test sites in Gambia, one with 42 Family Aquafilters and the other with 18 Community Aquafilters. All Aquafilters are still being used regularly and all were in good working order. With the generous donation from Washington Forge Rotary we also took 9 more Family Aquafilters to distribute to families in need of clean drinking water.

Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

This is a large project in partnership with the Littlestone Charitable Trust and the charity Water for People, who are planning to distribute over 1,000 Aquafilters early next year. Great news that Rotary is helping to support our efforts, but we really need more donations to ensure this project a success.

Ghana

Thanks to Original Volunteers more Aquafilters have been taken to Mpraeso to help the many villagers who are having to drink contaminated water. 

India

Mike of the Cummins Group is back in the Pune area and took an on-site water testing kit with him to several villages where he confirmed that the sites will greatly benefit from the introduction of Aquafilters.

Honduras

You may remember that last Spring 306 Family Aquafilters were sent by sea container to Honduras. We have received feedback that they have arrived from Jenn of Children of Honduras.

Following an Aquafilter presentation at the school by Rob Hoy, the children planned the whole project and sold all the cakes, raising the fantastic amount of £100 !

The £100 will be put to good use, 5 more Family Aquafilters will mean clean drinking water for over 150 people in Africa.

We would like to thank each and every one of the children and the whole school for their efforts, and of course, all the mums and dads.

Here is the letter from Dave Evans, Deputy Head Teacher.

Another of our visits was to a clinic just outside the capital Kigali which serves around 20,000 people from surrounding villages. We were shocked to hear that since the introduction of bed-nets by the government, 70% of people attending the clinic were ill through drinking dirty water. The Safe Water Trust has now started working with our partners there to set up a    programme to introduce Aquafilters to the area and to monitor the results.

During our visit, our Aquafilters were approved by the Government Standards Bureau which means we now have the support of the Rwandan Government for a large scale introduction of the filters. Donations are needed to sponsor this important project.

While we were there we were visited by three pastors from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and they told us of their problems with drinking water. You can watch a video of our conversation by clicking here.  

Aquafilters have been taken to Honduras, Ghana, Zambia, India and Bangladesh. To read more, please click here for Newsletter 6 March 2012.