Panama Mission Trips
News from the Panama Mission
Reports/Journals from Mission Trips
Operation Safe Drinking Water
Sickness rate at an indigenous school falls from 75% of the student body to 10% after a safe drinking water tank is installed.
A school principal’s urgent canoe trip.
We looked out to sea from our island base and
saw a small canoe coming
in. To our surprise it was Senorita Quiroz, the principal of the school at Bahia Grande.
She explained that an urgent problem brought her.
Seventy-five percent of her students were
sick and out of school enough
to damage their grades. Some of her most
promising and brightest students were falling
behind due to chronic sickness. She asked for
a safe drinking water tank for her kids. Her appeal
and her journey by canoe-touched our hearts.
We said yes. Because the need was critical we
promised a tank within a week. We promised
a quick response ----and we delivered!
A promise kept: within the week we installed a new rain catchment tank for the school of 72 Indigenous students.
Months later we went back to the school to
ask Senorita Quiroz about the difference
the tank made. She sent us a note the next
day after checking her records. She said:
“Before we had the water tank, around 75% of the
children had some kind of disease like
diarrhea, vomit, parasites and other kinds of
stomach problems that kept them out of
School. Since you gave us the water tank the
number of children absent due to sickness has
fallen to around 10%.”
Many indigenous schools are in urgent need of safe drinking water.
Far too many promising young students are missing school due to sickness. The water tank for Senorita Quiroz cost only $900, but has cut absenteeism due to sickness from 75% to almost nothing. It has spared children from chronic sickness and got them back into school.
Recent rains have refilled Senorita Quiroz’s tank with safe, disease-free water. Frequent rains in the area will keep it full for years to come.
But water-borne diseases knock far too many children out of school. We need 17 new tanks within the next thirty days. You can make a difference in the lives of indigenous children.
Pablito, on the left, a bright young student, doesn’t miss classes from sickness as he did before.
The brother and sister below, once hard-hit by sickness, are healthy and happy- and doing well in school.
Photos from mission trips to Panama
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Watch these videos regarding rainwater catchment system installations.
Operation Safe Dri http://operationsafedrinkingwater.org/blog/videos nking Water
Video - Installation of a water system donated by the Decorah Rotary Club
February 2011 - DLC team participates in a Milestone Event















