A Local Solution to a World-Wide Problem
The 15 students and one staff member who traveled to the Dominican Republic over winter break last year learned quickly how critical drinking water is in a country where many people collect rainwater runoff in buckets or haul water from streams. 鈥淚f it didn鈥檛 rain, we didn鈥檛 have water,鈥� remembers Ryan Mahan, one of the group鈥檚 student leaders.
It was a good lesson for the students, who volunteered for 10 days, through the College鈥檚 Alternative Break Program, with a nonprofit, Wine to Water, that works to bring clean water to people in need around the world. In the Dominican Republic, the organization鈥檚 workers make ceramic water filters that are sold to households for a nominal fee 鈥� and that remove bacteria that cause diseases including typhoid and cholera.
In addition to working in the factory, where they also bunked, the students went into the community to provide hygiene education to kids, distribute filters, and make follow-up visits to households already using the filters. 鈥淲e could see how the filters had actually impacted families,鈥� said Will Holden, the other student leader. 鈥淚n every house, they were telling me how their stomach pains are gone and how their lives have been changed because they鈥檝e started drinking clean water. They showed us how important access to clean water is.鈥�
Back home, the students are determined to continue the good work by forming a campus chapter of Wine to Water. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a Dominican Republic issue; it鈥檚 a world-wide issue,鈥� says Mahan. 鈥淥ver 750 million people lack clean water, and 840,000 die from water-related illness each year. Two billion people lack basic sanitation.鈥�
It鈥檚 a great thing to go to the Dominican Republic and volunteer, notes student participant Emily Kenney, but, she says, 鈥測ou can鈥檛 just leave everything you learned down there. You have to bring it back and share your stories.鈥�