Category: Uncategorized

Click to view digital copy with working links online.

SaveSave

SaveSave

To view the newsletter online with working elements and links, click here: http://conta.cc/2gkBsjK

Click here to read the full version with working links online: http://conta.cc/2f7Xk1g

SaveSave

Help us improve! Take our Clean Water Fast 2017 Feedback survey now:

Create your survey with SurveyMonkey

SaveSave

Member of an organization that partners with Engineers in Action? Join the Partner Challenge and 50 percent of the funds your raise will go toward a future trip with EIA.

Partner Organizations include:

• Engineers Without Boarders
• Bridges to Prosperity
• Service Learning Organizations
• Contact our Executive Director with other ideas!

1. Decide if you will fast as an organization or individuals within the organization. EIA suggests each participating member of your organization create their own fundraising page.
2. Set up fundraising page(s) here: bit.ly/FastWithEIA2017
3. Promote your fundraising page as much as possible before, during and after the Fast Sept. 28-30
4. Send direct email asks to your professors, friends and family.
5. Use the social media guide to ask your social networks, including your organization’s social media channels, for support.
6. EIA will earmark half the money you raised for your team.
7. The other half will go to Engineers in Action to help us support your team and many others as we work to provide clean water to Latin Americans in need.
8. Follow up with your donors with at least one thank you and announcement of funds raised after the fast.

A little friendly competition never hurt anyone, right? Rally friends, family or other connections and challenge them to join you for your 36-hour fast!

It’s a great way to create accountability for the length of the fasting period while also increasing support of Engineers in Action. The more fasters participating, the more likely EIA is to eradicate water poverty and increase capacity in rural South American villages, so get your group together now.

Ready? Get started here:

1. Sign up as a faster: bit.ly/FastWithEIA2017
2. Decide who you want to invite to fast with you. Ideas include:
   • A group of friends – a simple group text sharing the link above should get you started!
   • Coworkers – Walk around with a sign-up sheet. If they don’t want to Fast, they might give you a donation instead! Once you get a list of people interested in fasting, send out an email sharing the link above so they can create their personalized faster page.
   • Youth Group or School Org – At your next meeting or function, share why EIA is important to you and why you’re fasting, then invite others to join you! Follow up by sharing the link above.
3. Once your group is set, start a string of communication (via Facebook, text or email). Tag Engineers in Action if it’s on social media.
4. Before the Fast:
   • Plan your asks for donations using the templates available on your Fast page or here
   • Share articles or information about the benefits of fasting
   • Celebrate when you get a donation supporting your commitment
   • Post on Facebook about the #CleanWaterFast and tag your group members
5. During the Fast:
   • Get together the day before to prepare mentally
   • Communicate during the 36 hour fast for accountability and support
6. After the Fast:
   • This is the best part! Remember to be gentle as you break the fast
   • Make plans to break the fast together. Gather for a small meal directly after the fast, or plan a larger dinner later in the day. This is also an opportunity to invite donors to hear about your experience of fasting with Engineers in Action.
   • Send a follow up email to donors thanking them for their support
   • Thank your group participants for joining you
   • Share your fasting experience, including pictures from any group meetings, on social media with #CleanWaterFast and @EngineersinAction

 

 

Hi all,

I just pledged 36 hours to Engineers in Action’s 2017 #CleanWaterFast and need your help.

For 36 hours, I’ll abstain from everything. Everything except the pure, unpolluted, easily-accessible, life-giving water that we so often take for granted. In some countries, clean water is considered a luxury, with many rural children and families consuming unsanitary water that causes illness. Engineers in Action works to change all that, and I want to help them succeed.

I hope to raise $500 before my 36 hour fast Sept. 28-30. Will you support me?

Water is not a luxury. Help me make that a reality for two entire villages in rural South America by donating to my fundraiser now.

Give today.(insert link to your faster page)

Giving online is easy and fast, and your support will make a real difference. I appreciate your help!

The Chiquitano Forest is the largest tropical dry forest in the world, covering 44 million acres, roughly the size of state of Florida. Because of its remoteness, between 80-85% of the 60,000 inhabitants live in extreme poverty*.

200 Chiquitano Communities Suffer as Water Wells Fail

From 2000-2004, the Bolivian government, with funding from the Japanese government, drilled an estimated 200 water wells throughout the Chiquitano at a cost of more than $3 million.

However, they did no testing of the water, and simply left the well with open casing, often welding a lid on top. So, while a potable water well had been drilled in their community, people had no access. In a few locations, ingenious locals actually pried off the lids and developed their own crude bucket system just to get at the water.

Efforts to Salvage These Wells Fall Through

In 2004-2008, Hermes Justiniano, the Director of the Chiquitano Forest Preserve Foundation and a Rotarian in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, found $1.3 million in funding from Canadian Rotary groups to put 96 hand pumps on these wells. However, in 2008, they discovered that over a fourth of the hand pumps that had been installed were not working because of the lack of maintenance.

Hope for Real Change in Chiquitano

In January 2009, a new partnership was formed between the Chiquitano Forest Preserve Foundation (FCBC), Rotary Clubs of Canada, and Engineers In Action (EIA). This partnership seeks to repair, inspect, and maintain the 96 wells with hand pumps. We will also install hand pumps on the wells which don’t have them.

The MiraFlores Rotary Club

The Rotary Club of Mira Flores (a neighborhood in La Paz) has agreed to be our "Bolivian Connection" to Rotary Clubs throughout Bolivia. EWB chapters often raise money from Rotary Clubs in the US but need to partner with an "in-country" Rotary Club to get additional funding from Rotary International and additional support from the clubs.

We asked the Rotary Club of Mira Flores to be the partner for the Rotary Clubs of Kansas who are supporting the EWB-KU team. But they went even further!

Rotary Mira Flores has said that they will coordinate partnerships for any EWB chapter that needs a Bolivian Rotary Club `partner.They will try to match up a Bolivian club which is closest to the where the EWB project is. This should greatly facilitate fund-raising from Rotary Clubs in the US.

In addition to that, we discussed with the MiraFlores Club the possibility of supporting the fund raising efforts of the EWB-UMSA (Universidad Major de San Andres of La Paz). Unfortunately, there isn´t a culture of donating to good causes by Bolvian individuals and Bolvian businesses.

The Rotary Clubs of Bolivia are trying to change that. Fund raising by the Bolivian Engineering students of UMSA has been very difficult. They made a great presentation of their joint work at Azacilo with EWB-KU to the Mira Flores Rotary and really impressed these business men and women. They will be speaking as a club about how they might help fund the costs for these young bolivian engineers.

If your EWB chapter is raising money from a US Rotary Club for a project in Bolivia and they need a Bolivian Rotary Club to partner with, contact David Stephenson by email at: tulsadstephenson (at) yahoo.com

Thanks to all of the Rotarians who are helping EWB and EIA. “Service Above Self”