As I am riding a bus along the base of Volcano Agua outside of Antigua I finally have some time to reflect on this year’s trip. Agua, water, water, water. It is easy to take for granted in our comfortable lives back in the United States how easy it is to get clean water. You can drink water safely out of the tap almost anywhere in the USA. Unfortunately the same is not true in places like Guatemala, and much of the rest of the world.
I met a little baby named Levi here a year ago. He was 6-months-old and had failure to thrive. With the help of my amazing interpreter, Diana, we talked mom through why his growth curve was worrisome and discussed practical ways she could get him to grow better. The family drank water out of the tap and all the kids suffered from chronic diarrhea. We talked about how they could get a water filter from Ecofiltro at a subsidized price and cautioned against Levi being given unclean water with his at-risk growth. I put Levi on my list of kids that I knew needed close follow-up. This year I had the pleasure of seeing him again. He is now a beautiful toddler and is thankfully back on the curve on the lower percentiles.
At least he is growing marginally better. But he wasn’t well. Mom brought two of her other 6 kids with her this year to see me. They all have chronic diarrhea, distended abdomens; the older ones often complain of headaches and dizziness. The family never got the filter, they still drink water out of the tap. Diana and I careful explained that all of her children are suffering from not drinking clean water. You can treat them all for parasites, amebas, the GI pathogens ubiquitous in unclean water, but as soon as they drink from the tap again they will once again get sick. I think she understood this year. It helped so much to have the few plots on the growth curve (a birth weight, last year’s weight, this year’s weight). I think when families see that plotted out and explained it helps to put it in context for them. I was not surprised she didn’t get a filter after last year’s visit. These families have lived off of unclean water for generations, they don’t change overnight.
Today we just took the Xavier team to tour Ecofiltro, the factory where the filters are made. I have been here once before. A year ago in January Rabbi, Abie, Eric, our pharmacist and I came down to Guatemala for a scout trip. We were looking to plug into a new community to try to help them become more self sustaining with their own health over a period of years. When we toured the clinic in the town where Levi lives I asked the community health worker if the families drank clean, filtered water. She told me no and I knew at that point we had our work cut out for us. I told our Guatemalan host, Jose Roland that we can do very little good in a place like this without providing a way for them to get clean water. The next thing we knew we were touring a factory outside Antigua called Ecofiltro. They make water filters using clay, sawdust and silver - all materials harvested in Guatemala and manufactured in an environmentally sustainable way, organically using the sun and wind. The employees are not even allowed to bring junk food or soda to work. I love Ecofiltro. It gives me hope, hope for the lives of people in places like Guatemala. The technology Ecofiltro developed is used in 38 countries around the world.
The company agreed last year to help us in our work here. They come to our clinic and families can purchase a filter at a subsidized price - basically for the equivalent of buying bottled water over three months they will pay for the filter. The filter will last for two years. Needless to say, Diana and I asked every family last year and this if they drank filtered water. Last year none did, this year 5 families had filters. We made a dent. This year Diana and her super saleswoman skills was able to convince all of the families that we saw who didn’t have a filter to let her put their names on a list of families interested in getting a filter. Now Ecofiltro will meet with those families for further education about the filters and hopefully will sell some. We can change the trajectory of a community little by little (poco y poco). It is work, a lot of work, but it is worth it. It is life.
Here is the website link to Ecofiltro for more information:
http://ecofiltro.com/en
Lauri Pramuk, MD
No comments:
Post a Comment