Outreach Africa Testimonial

e took the system with us on the Outreach Medical Missions, which was in the last two weeks of January. We had a total of 57 team members in the mission. The Medical mission traveled into the interior of Central Tanzania to the city of Singida. Singida is a copy of approximately 150,000 people. Singida is located on a high plateau at an elevation of about 5,000 feet. The region is arid and is now in the third year of draught. Potable water is non existent. Typhoid is a major problem in the area along with many other water born parasites and diseases. If you can think of a disease, it is there! When the medical team arrived we found that there was no sterile or potable water available at the hospital in which we were to work. We had purchased water in Arusha and had shipped the water to Singida for use by the team for daily drinking water. We require each team member to drink two liter of water each day, as dehydration can be a major problem for the team members with the high temperatures and dry conditions. We purchase all the available bottled water, approx. 500-liter, which was available at the local water distributor. The distributor advised us that it would approximately two weeks before he would receive another shipment, as bottled water was in short supply throughout the country. The portable system was immediate put into use. Our kitchen staff used the 12 volt unit to product the chlorine, which worked perfectly. The ceramic filter system gave us some initial problem, but we read the instructions and it worked perfectly. I would estimate that we made over 600-liter with the system. The cleaned water was used in the team kitchen and at the hospital. It was amazing to see how simple and effective the system appears to be and how wonderfully it works. We are now preparing for the 007 Outreach Medical Mission and we have over 60 medical professions signed up and preparing for the trip. The mission will be from March 16 through March 29, 2007. The Singida Region Government Hospital is approximately a 130-bed hospital and serve a large area of over one half mission people. There are three hospitals in the Region (one each Government, Lutheran, and Catholic) and 11 dispensaries. If there would be any possibility of providing a larger station unit for the Singida hospital it would be a blessing. You can be assured that the portable unit will accompany us on the 2007 mission. The water situation has deteriorated since we were in Singida in January. We returned from our second trip this year to Singida on July 12. Water for sanitation is extremely limited, supply to most public and private toilets has been shut off. This will in the short term create many more problems for the people of Singida. We were in country for 4 weeks and there was no precipitation. The situation is very serious and is deteriorating daily. Potable water remains none existent and the water tables and lake levels are the lowest in memory. We are so grateful that you introduced us to the system. You helped save many lives.

-Hammer, Outreach Africa