Haiti earthquake – more aid desperately needed!

AQUABOX has responded promptly to the devastating earthquake which hit Haiti on August 14. Our volunteer teams immediately concentrated on stepping up production of Aquabox water filters, and an initial consignment of both community filters and family filters left our depot in Derbyshire on September 17, to join an Air France air freight consignment to the Haitian capital Port au Prince.

This Aquabox consignment will ensure that thousands of people in Haiti – one of the poorest countries in the world – will at least have access to clean, safe water for drinking, for cooking and for washing. But the sheer scale of the disaster means that much more aid is desperately needed.

The 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit the Tiburon peninsula, about 150km west of Port au Prince, at 8.29am on August 14. The scale of the damage is horrifying – it is the worst natural disaster the world has seen this year. As of September 7, at least 2,248 people were confirmed to have been killed, and the number of injured was estimated at 12,000 and rising. At least 136,800 buildings were damaged or destroyed, and more than 900 aftershocks were recorded in the following weeks.

Les Cayes, Haiti’s third-largest city, was the closest to the quake, and suffered massive damage. On August 18, the Haitian Civil Protection General Directorate reported that more than 60,700 homes had been destroyed, and 76,100 others were damaged. At least 53 medical facilities suffered partial damage, six were totally destroyed, and the quake damaged or destroyed more than 300 schools.

The Haitian government immediately declared a state of emergency, and on August 30 Unicef reported that that at least 650,000 people – 250,000 of them children – were in need of humanitarian aid. An estimated 81,000 Haitians had no access to safe drinking water.

Faced with numbers like this, you might think that you couldn’t possibly make a difference. You would be wrong! One Aquabox family filter costs about £30, and has the capacity to process up to half a million litres of water over its life.

The basic human need is about four litres a day to sustain life – so just one Aquabox family filter can provide life-saving water for scores of people, day after day, week after week. The larger community filters, intended for use in schools, hospitals and community centres, can help to save thousands of lives. And because Aquabox is run almost entirely by unpaid volunteers, nearly all your donation goes directly to making more water filters, and shipping them to where they are needed most.

Will you help us? We need to assemble and pack more filters, and to get them to desperate communities in Haiti as fast as possible. Aquabox can’t do anything about the massive destruction or the thousands of injured people in Haiti, but we can ensure that desperate Haitians at least have access to clean, safe water. Because without that clean, safe water, in a very short space of time nothing else matters.

Please support this vital work. Go to https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/Aquabox-Haiti2021 and give whatever you can. Thank you!

“Our Aid Will Get Through” – AQUABOX

Here in the UK, we rarely experience such physical events as earthquake, mud-slide and landslip. In Nepal, these occurrences present a regular threat to life and communities. 

One such event happened on 14^th August this year in the Sindhupalchowk district. This area is characterised by narrow valleys and steep mountains. It is highly rural with woefully inadequate health services. The communities are wide-spread and heavily reliant on cultivating the poor soils typical of this hilly region.

Over many years Aquabox has developed a strong relationship with the country. It maintains a contingency supply of aid boxes in Kathmandu, ready for secure distribution, through the service of the Gurkhas, Nepal Armed Police and local Rotary clubs at times of need.

Once our aid reached the areas where it was needed, but this was by no means the end of the story. Roads were destroyed by the August landslip and communities were left isolated. 11 people died and 30+ declared missing. Houses were either destroyed or seriously damaged.

The only way to move the aid that arrived was on foot and often through dangerous and difficult terrain as illustrated by these images. But the local people met this challenge with alacrity. It is humbling to witness the efforts they were prepared to make to deliver aid to those in need. Every box hauled up the steep, crumbling pathways represented a life-line for a family, in particular by providing access to safe drinking water where none is available.

All our aid costs a significant amount to supply and distribute across the world and  all our income is contingent upon the generosity of donors

If you would like to support us and help families survive the aftermath of disaster such as this please see how you can do this on our website https://www.aquabox.org

Aquabox Reaches Yemen For The Third Time In Two Years.

The terrible situation in Yemen is the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time. People there are trapped in a dreadful cycle of conflict, starvation and sickness. Access to safe drinking water is extremely limited or non-existent.

It is estimated that 17 million are currently at risk (including 11 million children). There have been over 85 000 child deaths since the conflict began.

Water supplies and sanitation systems have been decimated – in some cases deliberately targeted.  Cholera is at epidemic levels as a result.

We have acted to support and empower the people in this dreadful environment.

Rotary District 1220’s own charity, Aquabox, and a partner charity, JOY (Jubilee Outreach Yorkshire) have delivered and successfully distributed three humanitarian aid packages to the country over the past two years. This has been accomplished despite the intrinsic danger to those acting on our behalf.

The joint consignments contain Aquabox’s family water filters and other items of humanitarian aid together with much needed dried food and medical supplies/equipment from JOY.  Over 5000 people have been supported by our aid, many in small family groups. More is needed.

The latest shipment has now been distributed to local groups and we were so pleased to received images of our aid reaching families.

Please help support us in this and other work we do to supply safe drinking water and aid to those in need in disaster areas across the world.

www.aquabox.org