How You Can Do Twice the Good

Photo: A local community member distributing Caminos de Agua educational materials in the community of Agustin Gonzalez

Thanks to the support of two families,  who are long time major supporters of Caminos de Agua, your gift will be doubled this month, during our current Match Campaign – up to USD $10,000 – helping us reach more people through our educational programs and materials.

The Importance of Water Education in Our Region

Critical to Caminos de Agua’s mission is providing communities at risk with access to clean water. Educating communities about the health risks of contaminated water, what they can do to mitigate those risks, and how to take action, is paramount to that goal and as important as the physical solutions themselves. In this email we’d like to share with you why community education is so important and how your donation will make such an important difference.

Arsenic and fluoride plague water supplies throughout the region of the Upper Río Laja aquifer in the State of Guanajuato, Mexico, the main reservoir where San Miguel de Allende and hundreds of rural communities and several urban centers – representing nearly 700,000 people – get their water from. We have registered levels of these contaminants at more than 12 and 23 times the maximum allowable limits for fluoride and arsenic respectively. We have witnessed firsthand the health impacts of drinking this water – dental and skeletal fluorosis, chronic kidney disease, children with cognitive and physical impairments, and several types of cancer are all closely tied to these contaminants. Yet, all too often, people simply do not know what is most likely causing their health problems. While working in both rural and urban areas, we frequently find that many affected families and communities don’t know about the levels of arsenic and fluoride in their water, much less that this contamination is a likely factor in making them sick.

While all of us in the region are impacted, rural and urban alike, the reality is that the water crisis disproportionately affects those who are most vulnerable. Addressing the situation with those most at-risk, requires raising awareness through community organization and educational programs as well as technical trainings and on-going workshops to both install and maintain water solutions over time. 

Photo: Saul and Casilda (from the far right) of Caminos de Agua’s Community Relations Team planning an educational program with local community leaders

Creating Awareness through Education

Creating successful and self-sustaining projects requires that we not only implement technologies but also provide educational workshops, conduct technical trainings, maintain a full-time dedicated staff, transport our team to impacted communities throughout the region, continually follow-up, and develop and distribute our printed and digital educational materials. Through this educational effort, people learn what is happening to their water, the ways they can organize in order to take action, and the necessary tools for implementing and maintaining the different technological solutions available to them.

Currently during the pandemic, it's been increasingly difficult to bring our educational initiatives to the different rural and urban communities with whom we are collaborating. We’ve had to adapt our workshops to make them either virtual or limit them to very small groups or even work directly with individual families at times to prevent the spread of the virus. Our educational efforts cannot stop during these trying times, and we remain committed to helping as many people as possible. Right now we are still working in more than a dozen rural communities to deliver these programs as responsibly as we can, and we are also developing a new urban education program to be launched this year as soon as things become safer.

Photo: Casilda (middle) and Ana (right) from Caminos de Agua distributing educational materials to the local public.

Knowledge is Power, Help us Reach More People

To prevent more sickness and economic hardships, we’ve had to adapt and deliver education and solutions to more people than ever before. These programs cost more and require more time due to the necessary changes we’ve had to make in our operations given the pandemic. So we are reaching out to you, our supporters and friends, to help us increase our reach. 

Bringing awareness to people threatened by unsafe and dwindling water supplies is more urgent now than ever before. Your contribution today will be immediately doubled. Thank you for considering making a donation today.