I'm taking the water challenge

  Access to clean drinking water is

  a major problem in Haiti.  

A recent study by the Pan American Health organization, reports that...

less than half the population has access to safe drinking water.

The vast majority of health problems in Haiti are caused by lack of clean water to drink.  Consuming contaminated water is what caused the recent Cholera outbreak and acute diarrheal disease from bacteria in water is the number-one health problem and contributor to death in children.

You can make a difference

I am taking the water challenge!  That’s right!  I started yesterday, Monday, May 9^th.  You can go to this website to find more details.  You can either go one week or two!  I am only doing one week, cause let me tell you going without coffee is hard!  So basically, what you do is drink water instead of coffee, juice, milk, etc and take all the money you would be spending and give it to Haiti!  The water situation in Haiti is absolutely terrible.  It is so sad that they do not have clear water, as Americans we prefer bottled water and our drinking fountain water is amazing compared to drinking water in Haiti.

Take the challenge with me! 

We are raising money to provide...

water filtration systems.

Each filtration system will produce a chlorine concentrate to add to contaminated water to make it safe to drink, enabling thousands of gallons of contaminated water to be purified.  

Our goal is to be able to purchase and distribute 12 filtration units to the people of Luly, Haiti, a small village outside of Port-Au-Prince.

Access to purified water will:

...better health in the community.  

   

Healthy individuals can help rebuild their communities and are more able to care and provide for their families.  Healthy children are able to attend school and have the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty.

...provide jobs through micro-enterprise.  

   

Each system will be provided on loan to men and/or women who show entrepreneurial skills and strong work ethic. These businessmen and women will enter into a repayment agreement whereby they sell the chlorine concentrate in the marketplace and slowly repay the cost of the filtration unit.  These units will provide an affordable way for people in the community to have access to clean drinking water while simultaneously providing sustainable income for the business owner.   

Watch a video to see how they work.

 

Cheap

I am so cheap or desperate because one of my new year's resolutions was to not purchase any cards.  So I have been trying to make them.  Well, I have no envelopes and was running out of time when Easter was just around the corner.  So I decided to 'reuse' the same envelope to the same people that sent us Easter cards.  I thought it was hilarious but kinda sad.  They look so bad I had to take pictures.  The funny part was that no one noticed!!!!!  I need to call them to see if they actually made it lol :)

I blurred our address and the people we sent them to for privacy reasons.  

Envelope ripped and tapped

used an old card that I just wrote the name on it and scratched it out

put paper over our address and to cover up post office information

I made this one look pretty neat despite the reusing effect

This is by far my favorite because it looks so funny.  The paper is such a contrast to the pink envelope.

Rudy Wednesday

picture

Spring Fest

loving the sunshine

Happy...

We were scared here....on the mini roller coaster

WSU put on a free fair for all WSU students.  It was a lot of fun riding the rides and just having fun in the sun.

Rudy and Daddy

Even though, Rudy is a momma's boy, he loves spending time with Daddy.

Jewelry Tree

I have been wanting a way to organize some of my necklaces and this tree is so neat.  I got it at Bed, Bath, and Beyond this weekend.  I have been eyeing this forever and finally got it!

Renaissance Fair

On Saturday, Sean, Rudy, and I went to the Moscow Renaissance Fair.  It was really fun to be able to take Rudy and he was quite popular with everyone.  We also watched interesting ribbon wrapping around the stick and then they eventually unwrapped it.  Overall, it was a lot of fun to get out.