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The end is in sight for the Pathfinders as they have arrived at the final stop of their multinational service project. They are currently in Guatemala, where they are working on education and enrichment for underprivileged children with organizations Safe Passage and Avivaria. With the Project almost complete, it’s worth reflecting on what it has…

By Liz Moody

Until recently on Isla Puná, Ecuador’s second largest island, there were two choices when it came to drinking water: Pay $1 for a 3.5-liter bottle of purified water from the mainland, a price few residents of the rural town can afford, or take a chance with water from one of the local wells. With the cost of bottled water prohibitively high, most opted for well water, which came with its own cost—every week, children and adults flooded the local hospital with diarrhea, vomiting, and rashes and sores on their skin, all symptoms of infections that come from drinking dirty water.

But as of this week, everything changed. The Azul Pura water purification center is complete! This project, a collaboration between Pathfinders Project and Water Ecuador, will sell pure water to residents at $1.50 for a five-gallon jug (a cost of 8¢ per liter, compared to 29¢ per liter for other bottled water).

Sediment filter, activated carbon filter, water softener, another sediment filter. In addition, the water passes through UV purification and a reverse osmosis system.

But it’s more than safe water at a good price—it’s a local institution, run by locals for locals. Water Ecuador provides the design for the system, subsidizes the cost of the equipment, and assists with the installation process, but then backs out, reappearing only to help with occasional maintenance and to perform tests to ensure the continued quality of the water.

Heriberto Napa Tobar, president of Water Ecuador on the Ecuadorian side, tastes the azul pura.

Pathfinders and Water Ecuador created a video about how to maintain the water system.

The day-to-day running of the center—operating the purification system, bottling the water, sales, etc.—is handled entirely by the center owner, a member of the local community. As Pathfinder Ben Blanchard notes, “The work Water Ecuador does is not to come in and save a people, nor to reap profits off the impoverished, but rather to help locals help themselves get rid of a serious public health hazard, unclean drinking water.”

Education is also a large part of Water Ecuador’s efforts. While in Puná, Pathfinders gave presentations on water at a local school. The inauguration of the Azul Pura center included a presentation about the water, explanations of the filtration process, and free samples.

The presentation, given several times over the course of the day, proved quite popular.

Congratulations and felicidades to Conor, Wendy, Michelle, and Ben on a job well done.

The Pathfinders will be continuing their work with water in Santa Marta, Colombia. In this coastal Caribbean town in the far Northeast of the country, they will be focusing on water sanitation issues and some natural resources work with Mision Gaia. If you’d like to help support the Pathfinders and their yearlong service trip, click here.

By Liz Moody

We take for granted that when we drink water from the tap, we won’t develop a serious disease. This is, however, not the case in much of the world. In Isla Puná, Ecuador, not getting sick from your water is a luxury for the rich. The only source of uncontaminated, potable water is bottles brought over from the mainland. Bottled water is prohibitively costly for most residents, not just in terms of the cost of the fuel needed to produce plastic bottles and to transport them by boat to the island, but also the cost to the environment of importing water to a place where there are existing freshwater sources. To residents of Puná, the problem was clear—they needed a local water purification facility.

The Pathfinders are working with Water Ecuador to build a clean water center in Puná. Not only will this provide an affordable source of clean water, it will empower the community to take their health into their own hands. Once completed, the center will be entirely owned and operated by residents; water from Puná, for Puná, with no continued reliance on outsiders, just Water Ecuador playing a supporting role.

This is the kind of service Pathfinders Project embraces—no agenda, no presuming to tell people what they need, just service in its purest form; the Pathfinders show up and do what they’re told to do. This type of service requires trusting the community to identify local issues that they want to address, evaluate options, and choose a course of action. The Pathfinders just help make it happen. As Wendy notes, “we are helping hands, not saviors coming in with the ‘answers.’” When the Pathfinders discussed this with a local shopkeeper, he responded with the adage, “Si uno no vive para servir, no sirve para vivir” (“If you don’t live to serve, you don’t serve to live”). This is humanist service in action—helping other humans solve human problems and effecting change at the community level.

The Pathfinders will be continuing their work with water in Santa Marta, Colombia. In this coastal Caribbean town in the far Northeast of the country, they will be focusing on water sanitation issues and some natural resources work with Fundaci Misi Gaia. If you’d like to help support the Pathfinders and their yearlong service trip, click here.

By Liz Moody; photos by Wendy Webber

The Pathfinders are in Puná, a community on an island off the coast of Guayaquil, Ecuador. This community of about 5,000 people lacks a real sewage system, and both wells and the local piped water are dangerously contaminated. Doctors at the local health center reported that more than half of their daily patients have a waterborne illness caused by lack of clean water. The most highly regarded well in town, Pozo de la Virgen, even had high levels of bacterial contamination (>100,000 CFUs / 100 mL).

Although it is widely known for having palatable water, Pozo de la Virgen is hazardously close to sources of contamination, including septic tanks and animal pens.

Residents of Puná were eager to have an affordable source of clean water, and Water Ecuador agreed to help renovate an existing building into a water center. This center will be a micro-franchise, owned by a local entrepreneur, with Water Ecuador providing technical and marketing support.

There is much work to be done inside and out.

The exterior of the building had to be scraped and repainted.

They have also been giving presentations about clean water and hygiene at local schools.

To demonstrate how germs spread, a few children got glitter in the palms of their hands.

They then did a “human knot” activity, which involves everyone holding hands and trying to disentangle themselves.

By the end, everyone was covered in glitter. It was an effective way to remind students how easily germs spread.

Designing the logo for the exterior of the water center was an opportunity to get creative.

Water Ecuador has been a strong partner and work is moving along swiftly. Soon, the residents of Puná will have clean, affordable water

¡Gracias, Pathfinders!

FBB members and our community gave more than $124,000 last quarter to improve the lives of people around the world. Three of our featured charities, Roots and Wings International, Water Ecuador, and Apopo, will receive grants of more than $10,000 each. And your donations to our Humanist Crisis Response fund drive for immediate needs in the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan surpassed all of our previous projects, raising $63,000 for Citizens’ Disaster Response Center and Team Rubicon. Many thanks to our members and supporters for making these life-changing grants possible.

Here’s a breakdown of fourth-quarter contributions: 

	Education Encore Beneficiary: Roots and Wings International	$11,195
	Poverty and Health: Co-grantees Water Ecuador and Pathfinders Project ($5,000 to Water Ecuador and $6,065 to cover Pathfinders Project’s  housing, food, travel, and other necessities while they are volunteering with Water Ecuador)	$11,065
	Human Rights: Apopo	$10,740
	The Natural World: Bat Conservation International	$9,640
	Challenge the Gap: Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice	$9,025
	Foundation Beyond Belief	$5,955
	Humanist Crisis Response:  Citizens’ Disaster Response Center Team Rubicon: Operation Seabird	$50,000 $13,970
	Small Grant: FBB Kiva Microfinance Initiative (Look for more information in the near future about how we’ll be engaging with Kiva)	$2,500
	TOTAL	$124,090

Q4 2013 beneficiary grants are distributed during the first quarter of 2014. Click here to learn more about our new slate of beneficiaries for the first quarter of 2014. And if you’re not yet a member of our Humanist Giving program, click here to join.