Help Build Sanitary Well for Peruvian Village

We are five college friends from Davidson College: Trey Nordberg, Alex Price, Jeremy Christensen, Noah Wieland, and John Henderson who will volunteer to help construct a solar-powered water pump, filtration system, and well for a small village on the Rio Napo, home to an indigenuous Siekopai community on the border of Peru and Ecuador close to the Amazon rainforest. We plan to do this trip right after some of us graduate. It is the ideal window to get to work and volunteer to help this community out.

Recently, the Amazon and the Siekopai communities living off the Amazon River have gone through rapid changes in their natural environment.

Actions taken by large corporations and the National Government such as extractivism, deforestation, contamination of chemical substances, and dumping of solid waste and fecal matter have greatly changed the local population's ability to live off the land. The growing effects of climate change and temperature increase further cause the irreversible loss of biodiversity and contamination of the Amazon River.

The contaminated water is unsafe for many of the locals to drink. The presence of bacteria, parasites, and toxic waste in the water can cause cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A and typhoid fever. The World Health Organization estimates that unsafe water supply and poor sanitation cause 88% of diarrheal diseases and other waterborne diseases. Young children remain at the highest rate of risk for these diseases with only 20% having access to clean water and proper sanitation. In a recent study, it was found that in Ecuador, the life expectancy of indigenous people are 39 years shorter on average. The study found that the biggest factor for this is clean water scarcity. Indigenous people, on average, get sick 9 times more frequently because of the water they drink. By providing the local Siekopai people access to filtered water to their homes, these communities can conveniently drink clean water to stay healthy and increase their life expectancy significantly.

We are fundraising on behalf of a non-profit entity called the Raiz Foundation. They will provide us with the materials and tools to get us to our location and get to work helping the Siekopai community. The objective of Fundación Raíz is to promote the conservation of the environment and the Siekopai culture. They have held a commitment for many years with the indigenous peoples of the Amazon, especially the Siekopai people.

We could not do this trip without their expertise and help.

100% of your donations will go directly towards the Raiz Foundation. They will provide us with building materials, tools, and local transportation for this project. All money donated is considered a charitable donation that can be used for individual tax purposes!

Here is a youtube video of our friend, Vinson Martin, who did a similar trip last year. This video shows a very similar experience to what we plan to do.

https://youtu.be/D9_y_IL5zGk?si=pTwASWRo9PE5Sqk2

More information about Raiz Foundation Inc: Raiz is a US-based non-profit entity created to support work in Latin America associated with:

Providing cost-effective, practical approaches to alleviate humanitarian crises caused by natural disasters; Supporting indigenous peoples seeking to protect and reclaim ancestral territories; Providing indigenous communities with education respectful of native culture; Supporting conservation and sustainable use of fragile ecosystems; Reducing poverty in marginalized communities.

I'm raising money to benefit Raiz Foundation Inc, and any donation will help make an impact. Thanks in advance for your contribution to this cause that means so much to me.

More information about Raiz Foundation Inc: Raiz is a US based non-profit entity created to support work in Latin America associated with:

Providing cost-effective, practical approaches to alleviate humanitarian crises caused by natural disasters; Supporting indigenous peoples seeking to protect and reclaim ancestral territories; Providing indigenous communities with education respectful of native culture; Supporting conservation and sustainable use of fragile ecosystems; Reducing poverty in marginalized communities.