Hello everyone,

I am sorry, it turns out I am a terrible blogger!  However, I am really quite good at sending direct mail and e-mail updates, so anyone who would like to be kept up to date on Thirst-Aid’s progress in Myanmar please go to our web-site www.Thirst-Aid.org and e-mail me or fill out the contact us form and ask to be added to our e-update list.

Just FYI I use the update list very sparingly, sending out e-updates about every 6 weeks.  I DO NOT share or sell your e-mail addresses with anyone for any reason.  You can always change your mind and remove yourself from the e-update list.  I have just learned how to imbed photos into the updates so you also get to see the works in progress.  At the moment Curt and Cathy are in Pathien building our fourth filter factory.  The kiln footprint is down and the walls are going up.  Factory employees are learning how to mill and sift the clay and “burn-out” material, how to mix the clay, form charges, press filters etc.

In addition Curt and Cathy will be leading a bicycle tour through Myanmar in early November.  It is a two week tour to show some friends and supporters the real Myanmar as well as offer them a first hand look at the Thirst-Aid projects.

We are working on finding ways to speed up the filter making process without compromising quality.  We are also looking for ways to bring down the final cost of the filter units to make them affordable for the middle class of Myanmar.

Our Thirst-Ed team is booked solid for months out and we are looking into hiring more Thirst-Ed teachers to help out the team.  We are looking for funding to create an independent quality control board to ensure that every filter that makes it into the field has been fully tested and is producing quality safe water.  We want to ensure that every factory is producing filters that meet our stringent quality standards. 

All this news, plus pictures can come to you directly through your e-mail by going to www.Thirst-Aid.org and contacting us.  I will also be sending out quarterly snail mail updates to interested people lacking e-mail.  If you or someone you know would like to be added to that list you can write to us at 2855 Calkins Place in Broomfield, CO 80020 and ask to be put on our mailing list.  Be sure to include your correct current address!!  Again we do not share, trade or sell personal information with anyone for any reason.

Best wishes to you all for a happy and peaceful holiday season!

Blogged out

 - Bree Ervin

Thirst-Aid US Development Director

Hello again from Thirst-Aid!

Thank You Thirst-Aid!!

Thanks to all of you and your fantastic support we have just been contracted to open five new ceramic water filter factories in Myanmar with an additional three in the planning stages.  Most will be in the delta region, one is being looked at near the beach, another in Mandalay and one in the dry region.  These factories represent the first step toward taking our new WASHED (Water, Sanitation, Hygiene Education) program nation wide in 2009.

            Our WASHED team is reporting early success for their pilot program in all four test villages.  Filters are being used properly; latrines are being dug and installed.  It will be months yet before we can accurately report an increase in public health.  For now it is simply great news that people are becoming interested and investing themselves in a sustainable solution to their own public health problems.  Thanks to you we are providing the tools, our team is providing the education, and the people themselves are implementing the solution.

            We’re helping the Twante factory with their first major order.  We’ve had to loan them buckets, taps and brushes as well as moral support. They’ve hired local basket makers to weave simple shipping baskets that the filters can nest in for protection.  UNICEF ordered 4000 filter units from them to go to schools in the delta.  Consequently we’re helping them to double their production capacity by adding another press and mold as well as two more kilns and a larger soak tank.  We’re also assisting the CDA factory in Yangon with a new kiln and drying racks.  The Thirst-Aid team will begin training the crew at the third Yangon factory beginning next week.  We’re always ready to assist any factory to help them boost production to meet the growing demand while maintaining the highest quality.  We have recently offered the NGO community the services of Thirst-Aid as quality control inspectors for every shipment of filters ordered, as well as the use of our education team and material to encourage its use.

            Thirst-Aid staff is also training the Foundation for the People of Burma volunteers on how to use our successful WASHED program.  We’re also furnishing FPB with medicine and rain water catchments and encouraging them to include water filters in their many projects.   We continue to distribute medicines to several medical groups as well as giving them rainwater catchments and use of our education material and trainers.

            In one week Curt and Cathy, our International Directors, will be stepping out of Myanmar briefly for a return trip to the USA to catch their breath, meet with donors, hug their families, catch me up to date and recharge before heading back into the fray.  They have stops scheduled in Oregon, Colorado and Michigan.  If anyone is interested in helping to spread the word about their amazing work in Myanmar and Thirst-Aid’s plans for the future please drop me an e-mail.  I have press releases which include interview opportunities for each area ready to go and would happily accept any assistance in getting them sent to local press contacts.  (National media would be OK too…)

            We appreciate all of your continued support.  Preventable waterborne diseases are still the number one killer of children world wide.  With your help, we are changing that statistic, one sip at a time!

Check out our website at www.Thirst-Aid.org to learn more!

Here’s the tale of my 35 hour delta trip which was magical, frustrating, amazing, sad, awesome, and overwhelming.  It began when G.L. ordered 140 filter units for their model village and Thin Nwe Soe the Thirst Aid education coordinator accompanied the filters.  When she saw the group of villages G.L. was working in she decided it was the perfect place to pilot the new WASHED (Water Sanitation Hygiene Education) project.  As we have been partnering with G.L. since the beginning we thought it was a grand idea little did I know that Kyaw the G.L. lead and Thin Nwe Soe would figure out a way to get us permission to visit the project.  I was the volunteer delegate as Curt had a full schedule of meetings that needed attending. 

We set out early Monday morning in two vehicles. I shared a car with Chirstoph from the Foundation for the People of Burma and Linn of G.L.  Thin Nwe Soe, and the “Thirst-Angels”, Nyein Nyein and Hsar Moo Paw rode in the other vehicle. The 3 ½ hour drive went extremely quickly.  We rode by freshly planted rice fields and then paddy that was destroyed by Nargis and was now fallow.  We went by some of the most devastated areas where the death toll was extreme.  The stark landscape is now covered in tall grasses that can grow in the salinated water but are devoid of huts, water buffalo, and farmers tilling fields, planting paddy or any signs of human life.   We saw the freshly rebuilt homes with shiny zinc roofs and the donated tents that had been set up as a market place showing an array of donated goods for sale. 

We arrived at the jetty inside a muddy monastery as comrades and loaded our supplies, backpacks and selves into the two tiny boats with their long tail motors for the second part of our journey.  The villages we were going to are not accessible by car.  There are no roads only foot paths and canals. 

G.L. chose these four villages to rebuild because the people were willing to do the work, they had trees for rebuilding and there was a chance to get people back on their feet.  Jowarwa was our first stop and the true model of what G.L. is trying to accomplish.  It’s a beautiful spot on the turn of the river with lots of trees and nice paddy.  The town was famous for its coconuts before the storm knocked down most of the trees.  G.L. has helped them restart the school, rebuild homes, gardens, walkways and the jetty. They’re also working on a scheme to plant the paddy.  From Jowarwa we boated to Kyaut Ye’ then onto Kyaung Su and Ngar Eain.  Each narrow village had its own flavor and its own set of needs. 

G.L.’s first step was to help organize a committee in each of the villages which included teachers, monks, the headman, business people, farmers and fisherman to help them assess what was needed, what the villagers could do for themselves, what had to come from the outside and what G.L. could realistically contribute.  Kyaut Ye’ is relatively well off.  G.L. has their headquarters there.  The villagers of Kyaut Ye’ adopted the Thirst-Aid team.   The village committee found a lovely family to take us in. I think they must have looked hard to find someone with enough floor space for the four of us to sleep on plus mats, mosquito nets, towels and sheets.  The family fawned on us bringing us snacks and tea and hand fans for our comfort.  They even had an indoor facility for urinating so I wouldn’t have to go out in the night.  Another family who had an indoor shower insisted that I couldn’t possible bathe in the open like the Myanmar people and brought me home for a private cold bucket shower, and yet another family provided all of our meals.  It was an amazing community effort to make us welcome.  Once we were settled in and all of the introductions made Thin Nwe Soe and the “Thirst-Angels” went off to interview prospective volunteers and hand out Thirst-Aid t-shirts while Christoph and I got the delta tour.

Just down the river from Kyaut Ye’ is Ngar Eain.  It, like its wealthier neighbor, is bordered by the river on one side and paddy on the other.  Both villages stretch for about 3 kilometers, with a single row of houses and grass huts lining each side of the mossy stone walkway that separates the north side of town from the south. And just across the river from Kyaut Ye’ and up river from Jowarwa is Kyaung Su the poorest of the villages.  Here we met families who proudly showed us their international aid packages.  The pots and pans were so beautiful they were still in their boxes as they were the nicest thing people had ever owned and they wanted to save them for a special occasion.  We walked by the small swampy pools that will make great mosquito breeding grounds and toured the old school that was destroyed by Nargis and the temporary new tent school.  We learned zinc roof was donated to the school but they were told that they were not allowed to use nails to install it or they’d be fined.  Consequently it’s still in storage.  We boated for hours around the small inlets and walked in countless villages and heard many stories of bravery, loss and kindness but hardly any requests for help. We returned exhausted to Kyaut Ye’ for showers, dinner and bed.

After a silent night’s sleep I woke at 5 am to the sound of roosters crowing, the alms gong and boat engines starting.  I had a long morning to look forward to as Thirst-Aid training wasn’t scheduled to begin until 9.   Thin Nwe Soe and the “Thirst-Angels” also woke early.  Thin New Soe had to hop a boat to the market to replace her broken sandals and Nyein Nyein and Hsar Moo Paw wanted to practice using the educational flip chart.  I watched their earnest efforts as they enlisted the children of our hosts to be their students. The “Thirst-Angels” were nervous as this was the first training they were participating in and by 8 they decided they should go to the monastery and start setting up.  I tagged along so I could watch the whole process. 

By 8:30 the first students were arriving by boat.  And at 8:45 Thin Nwe Soe returned from her emergency shoe buying run and began scurrying about directing everyone.  By 9:15 all 38 students had arrived with their Thirst-Aid t-shirts. 

The class began with what Thin Nwe Soe calls doing the icebreaking.  First she assigned everyone a number 1-4 and asked all the 1’s to sit at a table and the 2’s, 3’s and 4’s to sit together and then had everyone tie twine around their wrists while also weaving it through their neighbors with the object being that the first couples who figured out how to get undone won.  It was cause for much laughter.  The ice had been successfully broken and Nyein Nyein could begin her presentation.  Both Nyein Nyein and Hsar Moo Paw did well.  They kept their students engaged and neither suffered too many corrections from Thin Nwe Soe.  They were so good even the monks stayed and listened to their lessons.  Many of the villagers sat out in the hall and took notes and the students that were later chosen to back teach what they had learned did a surprisingly good job.  I had to leave before they taught the actual hands on filter cleaning segment, played hand washing games and did the community dialogue exercises but I could tell that they were on a roll and the trainees would become good community trainers.

During the 20 minute return boat ride to the muddy monastery we suffered under a full tropical sun and also from a drenching deluge.  And on the drive back to Yangon we stopped and talked to survivors and heard their sad stories.  We again were surprised by the resilience of the victims when a family told how they lost their 8 year old and 9 other members of their family but were happy that they had all died together because now they won’t be lonely in the afterlife as they still have each other.  The car was often quiet as we sat lost in our own reflections and other times we talked about what was still needed and what we could or maybe should do next and from time to time we also talked about our wins, about what we’d accomplished. 

Thanks,

Because of you

A member of each of the 563 households from the four villages will be invited to receive an education on the prevention of waterborne illness and correct hygiene practices.  All participating households will be given a water filter which will make it so they’re able to produce safe water, they’ll also be given instruction on building a latrine and the tools to do it and will be given a family starter kit (toilet bowl brush, soap, basin, tooth brushes and tooth paste) so they’ll have the tools to encourage their family to improve their hygiene behavior.  We’ll also put filters and latrines in the schools and monasteries.  

And another update from our almost regularly scheduled program:

• Working with two engineers from Evergreen Enterprises of Myanmar who have invented a machine to take heat from one kiln and blow it into another so while filters are being fired the factories can also dry clay and filters.
•  We’re expanding the capacity of the Twante facility by adding another press and two more kilns.
• We’re expanding the capacity of the CDA factory by adding another kiln, drying racks and testing the new machine.
•  We’re working with the owner of an independent filter facility to make sure they understand the process and adhere to quality guidelines.
• We’re helping set up an independent quality control monitor.
• Working with Evergreen Enterprises to design the new press for Twante.
•  Working with the international NGOs to figure out the future demand so the facilities can meet it.
• Talking to possible partners in the north for a future factory that can fill non-Nargis needs.
• Working on making sure there are enough receptacles and taps to meet the filter demand.
•  Distributing 100 rainwater catchments designed by MHAA – one of our Myanmar partners.

And we’ll be assessing the WASHED intervention and begin planning the next and keep going until the money runs out or the need is satisfied.   

More information can be found at our web site www.Thirst-Aid.org

You can also contact Bree Ervin, our Communications Director at thirstaid2(at)gmail.com

We’d again like to thank everyone who is supporting Thirst-Aid.  You’re part of an incredible effort that is changing and saving lives.  We’ve been on the ground for a month now and have already moved from emergency response into recovery and thanks to you we’re helping communities re-build better. 

Since I last wrote Curt attended and presented a poster at the WHO Symposium on Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage in Ghana.  Dr. Win, the proud owner of the first ceramic water filter facility in Myanmar, was awarded a WHO grant to attend and present at the conference.  Curt was able to reconnect with old friends and introduce Dr. Win to the foremost authorities on household water technologies.  Curt then took a short layover in Holland so he could visit some wonderful friends and donors.  We’d like to thank Pronovo High School’s staff and students for giving Curt such a warm welcome. 

Dr. Win and Curt returned to Yangon invigorated, with plans on how to boost production, start country scale-up, and set-up an independent monitoring system to make sure all filters produced in Myanmar adhere to strict quality standards.

Meanwhile, the Myanmar Thirst-Aid team began a scale-up of their own.

Thin Nwe Soe and staff managed to get the IEC (Information, Education, Communication) materials ready and much of it distributed, they got copies of pertinent IEC materials produced by other INGOs, distributed another 300 filter units and 140 toilet pans with schematics on how to build fly proof, delta ready latrines, sent out more of the medicines that were brought in, distributed 50,000 aqua tabs, randomly tested 60 water filters from the two existing factories to make sure they’re maintaining quality and worked with CDA to get supplies ready for rural health centers in 4 townships.  Thin Nwe Soe also went on three missions where she taught safe-water education classes and introduced the ceramic filter to the village elders.  Cathy and Thin Nwe Soe hired and trained two new Myanmar women on how to use the Thirst-Ed curriculum as well as how to navigate a day in the T-A office. 

Cathy also got to go on a rushed trip to Dedaye.  There she was able to visit the local hospital and see examples of the toilets she’s been promoting and also help get permission for CDA to donate medical kits to the rural health centers. 

In the team’s spare time they drew up a plan and found partners to introduce the new Thirst-Ed comprehensive water, sanitation and hygiene package that will not only include the training of village health workers, but will employ 30 of them for 13 days to help introduce the program and will employ 8 villagers for 6 months to monitor the program.  The program will teach villagers how to use and maintain the ceramic water filter units, it will teach them about the prevention of waterborne illnesses, hand washing, tooth brushing and how to build and use a fly proof latrine.  Villagers who are willing to invest their time to take the classes and pass a simple oral test will be given a safe-water certificate, ceramic water filter unit, hand soap and plastic basin, safe-water comic book, tooth brushes and tooth paste and every five households will be given the tools and materials to construct a latrine.  We’ll also be conducting WASH poster contests in all of the primary schools.  Grand Lotus has a professional artist that has volunteered to help.  The team will begin implementing next week. 

In addition, Thin Nwe Soe and Nyein Nyein are busy procuring the supplies for the above project, which will also include T-Shirts for the village health care trainees.  The filter units are ready as is the transportation network.   Curt, Cathy and Hsar Moo Paw are looking at houses that would be able to serve as office, lab, storage, living quarters, training center and meeting room as we have really out-grown our very basic office in the common housing development. 

Curt and Cathy continue to attend NGO meetings so they’ll be up to date on government and INGO policy, meet with new partners and eat at least one relaxed meal a day. 

And lastly 100 filters are being delivered to the Minister of Tourism’s special delta project.  Thin Nwe Soe will go and do a Thirst-Ed presentation on Monday and again on Thursday.  And a Myanmar film crew will be going to the Twante filter factory this coming week to begin making a new info-commercial on the filters for UNICEF. Thin Nwe Soe will accompany them so she can also introduce the Thirst-Ed package as well. 

Thanks, gotta run

Team Thirst-Aid 

For information on what the INGO community is doing and for maps: http://myanmar.humanitarianinfo.org/pages/home.aspx

Some of the places we’re working in:

Thirst Aid is partnering with Grand Lotus to bring the comprehensive WASHED (Water, Sanitation, Hygiene Education) program to Jower, Kyaut Ye, Kyaung Su and Ngar Eain in Pyapyone Township.

We continue to work with Tour Mandalay at Alwansut village, Ace Dragon in Kayin Seit, Hlaing Thrayar, Kunchenkone, the Myanmar Health Assistant Associates in Myaung Mya, Kyung Gyangone, Kyemyindine, Aung San and we’re also continuing to work with the Community Development Association, they now have branch offices and volunteer teams in the capitals of every affected township.

To learn more about Thirst-Aid visit our web site www.Thirst-Aid.org

Thank you all for your continued support!

Burma’s Non-Political Flood
 
Water, water, all around me
But I am so.. so… thirsty.
Here, there, human bodies’ everywhere
But none alive accompany me and share.
And I look at myself
Broken hopes and empty handed.
And I look further around
Just like a post heavy-battled ground.
Wild cyclone has wiped all things down.
 
Where are those kids from innocent playground?
Where are students in the green and white uniform?
Where is my town always singing along country rock songs?
Where are my mates who search for freedom and independence?
Where are those local chicks with new-leaf-color lips?
Where are those parents with a too busy habit?
All my questions disappear,
All my answers whisper… and whisperer.
Collaborated disaster of the nature and the dictator!
 
And I constantly hear voices from my empty stomach
Asking me food, forcing me speak out and stand up.
I silently speak with my loudest, to the entire world
Then mankind’s sympathies come and knock my door.
 
Let me now open my door
‘Cause those sympathies will help to fix my wounded floor.
Let me invite them with an open heart
‘Cause those sympathies will help my life reconstruct.
 
Hello Mr. militarists,
Your guns are currently useless,
My demands are urgently needed,
Here, I’m alive, not a corpse yet,
Neither much time left.
Together, let’s work out as a nice diplomat!
 
(Poet Dedicated to His/Her Mother and People of Burma Who Lost Lives And Who Are Hardly Survived Under Both Natural And Political Weathers!)

Hello and welcome to the first installment of the Thirst-Aid Myanmar Update!

            First let me start by reassuring you all that not only is 100% of every donation going to immediate relief work in Myanmar but also that Thirst-Aid is maintaining its safe water focus.  This update talks about a lot of organizations, people and angles that Thirst-Aid is working with.  In an effort to make sure that there is an effective response to this disaster we are partnering with many groups to pool resources.  Some groups have personnel resources, some groups have permission to enter the delta region, some groups have food, medicine, clothes, tools for re-building, etc.  We have safe water technologies and a staff that is expert at creating safe water and hygiene education materials.  Those are our resource contributions.  We also have Cathy Bradner, logistician extraordinaire, queen of delegation, and all around “get ‘er done” gal.  Not to mention our wicked cool multi-use visas which have allowed us to get into and out of the country via Bangkok to pick up multiple supply shipments for other groups unable to secure entry visas.

            The Thirst-Aid headquarters hosts regular meetings of what is being called the “Myanmar Grassroots Association”, a mixed group of small NGOs dedicated to sustainable disaster response that leads toward rebuilding and actual recovery.  These groups understand that while air dropping a ton of rice into the delta region may feed the people for a few days, air dropping rice seed, plows and shovels will sustain them and help them rebuild for the long term.  While the ton of rice is needed today, these people want to make sure that the seed and shovels follow in short order.

            So, the question of the day – where has your donation gone?  Who has it helped?

Thirst-Aid is using donor money in three primary ways –

The first is the purchase and distribution of ceramic water filters and buckets.  To date we have shipped 1,500 ceramic filters with plastic buckets to hold the clean water.  Each filter creates enough water per day to sustain 8 people.  These filters are being given to families, schools, monasteries, and medical clinics throughout the affected area.

Second, we are creating and distributing Family Hygiene Kits.  Each kit contains a cup, plate, powdered soap and longi (A skirt type garment worn by both men and women in much of S.E. Asia).  To date we have distributed 3,000 of these kits and have orders for 10,000 more.

Third, we are continuing our Thirst-Ed program.  Cathy describes the work and the reasoning in a recent e-mail “We’re also producing health education materials for each group and asking Thin Nwe Soe to train someone from each group and someone from the villages they’re working in on how to use the Ed. materials.   Though some believe that health and hygiene education is not an appropriate emergency response, we say what better time than when people are acutely aware of the dangers lurking in dirty water and unwashed hands and are willing to learn how to avoid getting sick… now they’re asking questions and want to learn about solutions.”

Some things that we are doing that do not use donor money, but save lives all the same include:

Creating reservoirs of potable water using our filters and some electric battery powered filters donated by Global Medics.  These reservoirs are located in population centers, refugee camps, etc. and allow anyone with a clean receptacle to come and get free safe water for themselves and their family until we can get a filter into their hands.

We are hosting meetings of the Myanmar Grassroots Association and lending our organizational and networking abilities to the cause.  We are helping to ensure that every aid boat that makes a delivery down the delta has a bit of everything: food, medicine, water treatment options including filters and Aqua Tabs (Again donated by Global Medics and brought into Myanmar by Curt Bradner, Thirst-Aid’s International Project Director/supply mule.)

We have helped rebuild a large UNICEF water filter that can produce enough safe water for 5-8 thousand people.  (Thank you Curt – a mechanical engineer in a former life!)  It is waiting now for some electrical fine tuning.

We have served as human mules for multiple organizations resulting in the successful delivery of 5 million Aqua Tabs, 4 electric water filter units (Thank you Global Medics), a shipment of plastic tarps and buckets left over from the 2004 tsunami relief effort (Thank you UNICEF).  Tarps were used as roofs and for the collection of rain water. 

We helped put together a relief shipment of medical supplies, 150 filters with buckets, 1 ton of rice packaged in 1 kilo bags and some family kits to send to the delta region.  It was a cooperative effort of many groups that has resulted in one of the most successful aid deliveries post cyclone.

Most recently we were able to get a shipment of 45 boxes of medicine into Myanmar.  To date that is the first large shipment of medicine to arrive in country unmolested that we know of!!

Cathy ends her latest e-mail with this, “Both ceramic water filter factories are running at the fullest production possible given that the rainy season has begun but we’re trying a few new tricks to get them up to dry season output.  The third factory will be up in 3 weeks and the new plastic bucket mold will be in the country in 10 days and hopefully producing within 4 weeks.  We’ve got big hopes to turn this disaster into an opportunity for better health by providing the thousands now homeless with ceramic filters as they rebuild their villages.  There were 15 million people in need of safe drinking water before the cyclone, now is a good time to start reducing that number.

Needless to say, all of us are still running pretty much on adrenaline and caffeine… Given the circumstances however, things are going relatively smoothly.”

That brings us up to date on the last three weeks worth of Thirst-Aid work in Myanmar.  I am attaching some pictures so you can all see your donations at work!

To see recent Thirst-Aid press coverage visit our website www.Thirst-Aid.org and click on the press link.

Thank you all for your continued support and interest!