A little bit of SONshine

In 2001 Todd Ziems came to one of CAWST’s very first ever biosand filter workshops. In February 2003, his family of four from Michigan decided they would make their way south to the land of the Serengeti, Mount Kilimanjaro and the Ngorongoro Crater – Tanzania.   Adventurous in spirit they came with a mission to get rid of the murderous creatures in the water.  They didn’t come to wrestle crocodiles or hippos, they came to capture and kill helminths protozoa, bacteria and viruses.

10 years later with more than 4000 biosand filters installed in people’s home they are succeeding.  

I had the opportunity to meet a Tanzanian eager to buy a biosand filter for $12 USD (the rest is subsidized by the Ziem’s organization Server Our Neighbors or SON) and a safe storage container at full price of nearly $7 USD.  This gentleman attended one of the regular Saturday trainings they hold for people interested in getting a filter.  He showed up because of word of mouth along with 16 others.   

Emmanuel Mollel lives in a household of 5, gets his water from a spring and says it is contaminated.  He has tried chlorine, but then stopped because of his wariness of the effects chemicals.  Since giving up the chlorine his family has been boiling their water.  When his colleague who attended the training previously shared what he learned about the biosand filter, Emmanuel made the 1 hour trip to the next training. He is looking forward to receiving his filter within the next 2 weeks.

I am looking forward to seeing more amazing success from Serving Our Neighbors Tanzania.