A team of Ladner Rotarians, including a couple from North Delta, has recently returned from delivering water filters and education supplies to remote villages in Laos as a part of the club’s Adopt-A-Village initiative.
This year, the team travelled to five villages in the Luang Prabang province, distributing 240 water filters to each community.
Providing water filters significantly reduces water-borne illnesses that would otherwise prevent kids from attending school and adults from supporting their families, according to a press release.
“Education was the original aim of Adopt-A-Village, which has expanded into providing clean water, in a poor country still suffering the impact of the Vietnam War and struggling to look after its people,” the release said.
It was the fifth Adopt-A-Village tour for two North Delta residents, Mike and Kathy Storey. Mike said that helping people with limited options and means is worth the continued investment of time and money.
“We see first-hand that what we do has tremendous meaning to them, and we can see the appreciation in their faces,” he said. “I have found that these trips abroad give me a new appreciation for Canada and for the opportunity and freedoms that we have here.”
Each family that receives a filter pays a small amount of money, and at least one family member must go through a hygiene course to learn how to use and maintain the filter.
Last year, the Rotary Club of Ladner led a project to fund and help build two small dams, 6½ kilometres of pipe, a large concrete water tank and 15 tap stations spread throughout the village.
sasha.lakic@northdeltareporter.com
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