An Important Year-End Message from Dylan Terrell

Dear Caminos de Agua supporters,

I can’t begin to tell you how much we appreciate you. Through your generosity, and that of all of our supporters, we have been able to finance approximately 40-50% of our annual operating budget from donations from individuals over the last few years. This has allowed us to pursue our work and our mission of “improving human health and community well-being through adequate and affordable access to clean water” with the tremendous vigor and intensity that it requires.

I know that 2020 has been a very challenging year for everyone – including us here at Caminos de Agua. Here we are, just a few days before the end of the year, and our ability to raise enough money to support our current operations and projects is still up in the air.

If you’ve been reading our recent news, you know that there are tens of thousands of people living in our region of Mexico whose water supply has dried up, will dry up imminently, or who have no choice but to drink water that is seriously contaminated with arsenic and/or fluoride.

The human health and economic impacts directly related to this crisis are almost impossible to overstate. Dental fluorosis (the browning of the teeth), crippling skeletal fluorosis – a chronic disease that weakens and deforms the bones, learning disabilities in children, serious cognitive development issues, kidney disease and proven links to a host of cancers, are just some of the more serious conditions associated from drinking this contaminated water.

Caminos de Agua is a unique organization in that we are both a technology-based non-profit, developing and providing innovative low-tech engineering solutions to complex water challenges, and an environmental social service agency that has nearly ten years of experience successfully engaging with communities to mitigate their water issues. Our approach involves high levels of community participation and ownership, which leads to more successful projects than traditional top-down methods. We design, prove, and continue to monitor our solutions in the real world, instead of solely under laboratory conditions, to assure that they actually work, and continue to work, for real people. We are also committed to a policy of “open-source” technology development – meaning anyone in the world suffering from similar water challenges can use our designs and data, and learn from our experiences, without restriction or license.

We have an unusually broad combination of partners and resources, including universities and researchers in several countries, international NGOs, local grassroots community organizations, and government agencies which significantly broadens our capabilities. In fact, I’m proud of the fact that our efforts to work with government at all levels and to secure support from foundations that support work in our sector, are continuing to grow and are increasing our impact. However, working with institutional funders comes with numerous limitations and is a much slower process. So, right now, the fastest way we can continue to expand water access into communities most at-risk is through personal donations.

I want to sincerely thank all of you who have already given to us so generously during this incredibly difficult year. It is what has kept us afloat and allowed us to continue delivering much needed clean water and grassroots education where needed the most. I honestly don’t have the words to thank you all for being such an intimate and important part of our mission. This makes me reluctant to continue to ask, but for those of you who are still planning to make end-of-year charitable donations, please know your gift will make a big difference with us here at Caminos de Agua. To do that, just click on the donate button below.

I look forward to being in communication with you in 2021, and I hope you and your family are well and that your holidays are a time of joy.

Sincerely,