Provide Communities in Africa with Clean Water

Hi, my name is Rachel Brouwer, and I am the Founder of The Purification Project. I am raising money to manufacture, ship and implement complete water purification systems in communities in Kenya and the Gambia. Your support will directly improve the drinking water in these communities and fund The Purification Project's first large-scale initiative. 

Here is our story…

 

When I was 11 years old, I read Malala Yousafzai’s memoir, not knowing that reading her story would completely change my life. In her book, Malala talks about a cholera outbreak in Pakistan that causes severe illness in women and children. While I was reading this book, I was on a hiking trip, and as I looked up at the trees that surrounded a nearby river, I saw “Contaminated DO NOT DRINK” signs nailed into them. At this moment, I realized not everyone has the privilege of turning on a tap and drinking clean water.

 

When I got home from my hiking trip, I started researching ways to purify water, hoping that I could figure it out in a couple of nights and fix everything. To my surprise, this wasn’t the case. However, I refused to give up and dedicated the next 6 years to researching and eventually designing, developing and testing a simple water purification tool that now has the potential to change millions of lives.

 

I successfully competed in multiple national and international science fairs throughout this process, and my project was recognized in the scientific community as a novel invention. The only thing that I was missing was the international connections to get this technology into the communities that need it the most.

 

Recently, all of that changed. I joined a program promoted by my university that connects youth from Nova Scotia with youth in Kenya and the Gambia to talk about sustainable development goals and our community issues. During this program, our group of 30 met every Sunday morning for four months to share photos that captured problems impacting our communities. The youth participants from Africa took pictures of their wells and water sources and explained that their water causes severe illness in their communities. They also outlined that these illnesses impact young children the most. A Gambian participant shared the photo pictured here with our group as he explained to us that his community well is heavily contaminated.

 

As soon as I heard these stories, I knew that this could be an opportunity to go beyond discussing community issues and solving them instead.

 

I had the privilege of presenting my work on water sanitation and purification to the group participants from Africa, and with their support, we decided to form The Purification Project - an initiative that aims to improve access to clean drinking water in vulnerable communities in the Global South.

 

I am now raising funds to produce, ship and implement complete water purification systems in the communities of those I have met from Kenya and the Gambia. Your support will directly improve the drinking water in these communities and fund The Purification Projects’ first large-scale initiative. Additionally, successfully implementing this technology in these communities will allow us to expand and get this into as many hands as possible in the near future.

 

At its core, this project is about youth working together across borders to create lasting change. Thank you for supporting our initiative and investing in a better future.

 

Visit https://www.thepurificationproject.com to learn more.