Who: Lizzie and Kate Thompson, Wear Eide, Clara
Medalen
What: a water filtration system that will provide
3000 liters of clean drinking water per day to the village of
Phukradung, Loei, Thailand
When: January 2015
Where: Phukradung, Loei, Thailand
Why: When my daughter Kate was a baby I read a lot of books about girls and their development. It seems that in our culture many girls feel very powerful and capable going into puberty, but too often come out of it meek and insecure. I find this troubling and want to do as much as I can to not allow that to happen to Kate. I decided that when she was old enough to participate in and feel empowered by a service project that I would find something to do with her that would give her a strong sense of her ability to make a difference in this world and to know the wonderful feeling of helping others. I also want to take her to a place where she will begin to recognize how very fortunate she is to live where she does and to have the resources we do. Wear and I have talked for years about taking Kate to Thailand to do some kind of project at the village school she went to as a child. We thought a covered play area or a library...
Then, in June of 2013 Wear’s mother died. In Thailand a person is honored on the one year anniversary of their death. So, Wear returned to Thailand in June of 2015 to honor her mother by hosting a children’s festival day at the village school. She provided the children with a beautiful lunch of traditional Thai foods and bottled water. The “special water” was a huge hit with the children and when it ran out they were sad to have to go back to the “old water” they drink daily -- unfiltered water collected in plastic tanks from rain running off the roof. Their “normal water” has red paint sediment from the roofing and whatever else the rain picks up off the roof.
The project we needed to do seemed suddenly very obvious.
Please help us reach our goal of $4500. All donations go directly and entirely to the water project (we are covering all of our travels expenses personally).
Thank you!
