“From the bottom of our hearts, on behalf of the villagers of Gorhad, we are thankful to the Shree Nityananda Education Trust.”

Do you wonder if your donation dollars are really making a difference in people’s lives? Here’s a sample of what recipients of the Shree Nityananda Education Trust’s bio sand water filters are saying about their new water-cleaning device: “Wow, in this hot summer time we can drink cold, very clean, very tasty water. … We are surprised to see how clean the water comes out of it.” “…It is very useful… very easy to use… Dirty water cleans faster…We are confident about the purity.” “You have given the filters for the betterment of health of villagers…very good concept for purifying water.” “The water tastes sweet… We like to drink the water again and again.””We rate this filter as best of the best.” “This is very good, very simple.” “It functions without electricity.” “Overall it is great and gives us safe water to drink. We are thankful to the [SNET] Trust.” “It give us clean water in a short time.”

Do you make a little sacrifice each month to send in a donation, the price of one dinner out, and then wish you knew it mattered? Do you want to know what kind of impact a water filter makes in the lives of mother’s concerned about the health of their family? Read here the effect of using the water filter and how long it took before the positive effect was noticed: “We feel very healthy and confident that now water-borne diseases will not affect us.” “We felt the effect within a week’s time and we feel better when we drink filtered water.” “After using this filter for one month, we started to notice very low illness in our home and it is like a refrigerator in the summer season.” “Just in a few days we noticed a difference. It is great. The earlier fear of bad water [has left] and now we drink filtered water confidently.” “I feel it is good for the family health.” “We feel more healthy and energetic now-a-days.” “Before we were unsure about our well water, but now we can drink it confidently.” “We feel positive after drinking the water that comes out of the filter.” “We used to feel that we were ill but after drinking the filtered water, we feel safe and healthy. Within a week’s time we began to feel the effect.” “Can’t say what illness we used to experience, but after using [the water filter] we are sure that we will not feel ill.”

Do you doubt that people really suffer from lack of clean water? Do you want to know what kind of sickness they experienced before receiving the water filter? Listen to these answers: “We had fever, malaria,” “We fell ill periodically and had malaria and other illnesses.” “Lots of illness like dysentery and quick fever,” “water-borne illness like malaria, jaundice,” “in the rainy season, there is bad water in the well. In this [hot] season we can use it a lot,” “illness in the rainy season,” “We face many illnesses during the rainy season but now, for this upcoming rain we will be fine.” “illness throughout the year, maybe due to bad water,” “illness like malaria, fever, dysentery and diarrhea,” “During the rainy season, the whole village use to feel ill.”

Do you wonder if this is the best model for this population? Do you want to know what problems they have experienced with the bio sand filter from SNET? Not many really. One out of ten surveyed said, “We have some leakage around the bottom,” and this one will have to be repaired. This is one of the reasons why we are doing the survey, is to discover if there are problems.“It would be better if we had some kind of container with a tap to use in dispensing the clean water.” (We will be providing a new water catchment container with a spiget when our new health educator makes house visits.)  “It is very heavy to move.” Since they are heavy, the filter is less likely to be moved and broken. Many, many people say “No problems.”  “We need some kind of container to catch the clean water so that it will not spill all over the floor.” “takes up a lot of space,” “not movable,” “very heavy.”

What Suggestions do the recipients have for the SNET? “ We need a collector with a tap system. [SNET] Trust is doing a great job. We wish the Trust should get more help to serve more countryside villages.” “From the bottom of our hearts, on behalf of the villagers of Gorhad, we are thankful to the Trust.” “Thank you to the Trust. The filter should be light weight and easy to handle.” “the Trust is doing a great job. We need a bore well to ease our life. If possible, can the Trust arrange a bore well? The filter is beautiful.” “Thank you to this social welfare Trust. If they want to help us more, installing a bore well would be great.” “It would be great if SNET could provide a bore well to the villagers since it is so much hard work to take water from the well.” “With folded hands, we say thank you! And now, distribute to every village.” “Try to help us by donating a bore well. Thank you for giving the filter.” “We are so pleased and happy due to the donation of the filter to our family.” “Thanks for giving filters. SNET is doing great seva to mankind. We are in need of a bore well.”

SNET staff and volunteers are so excited to hear the first results of the SNET water filter survey. We will visit all of the 960 recipients of the SNET bio sand water filters that have been given out over the last 3 ½ years to hear what the effect of our efforts has been. Gorhd, the first village to be interviewed and from which these comments were captured, have had the filters for just over six months. All of the families had between 4 and 9 family members utilizing the filter. We are so pleased to hear and announce that in just a short time, these ten families have received life changing benefits.

WHY IS THIS WOMAN SO HAPPY??

Why is this woman so happy? Please play a little imagination game with me. Imagine that you are this woman and you have enjoyed having the water filter from SNET for long enough to experience that your children are not getting sick anymore, nor you husband and his aged mother that lives with you. And, remember when you and the children were sick at the same time and the grandmother needed lots of attention, and you had no energy but had to keep going and you were worried because sometimes the children die from the "bad watersickness." Sometimes you were desperate because there was nothing you could do. The smile she has is because she has a very reliable, low maintenance, no cost water filter. See how the woman loves the filter, has organized it in her home and she’s made a stand for the water bucket - - she tells us she is very pleased, her family is much healthier now and her children are doing better in school. Clean, healthy water is just absolutely necessary - - something we are so lucky to be able to take for granted. There are many women like this one who have received free water filters from SNET and who tell us what a great change it has made in their family’s lives.

Now let’s play another imagination game - - one that is grim and difficult but has a happy ending. Now we imagine that we are a woman with a family living in the rural tribal areas of India. We don’t have reliable clean healthy water. Our children are often sick. The grandmother is also struggling with intestinal/digestion problems and you are feeling weak yourself. You don’t know what to do. You don’t have transportation to a doctor and you couldn’t afford to pay him if you did. The folk remedies are not working, and you are afraid it might be one of your children that dies this time. Maybe you have already experienced one of your children dying from diarrhea. Oh, this is an unhappy game and I think I want to escape and not think about it. But wait! There might be a happy ending that you will love to experience.

Here it is - - it’s so simple. You hear a noisy vehicle outside. It’s a little blue diesel 3 wheel cargo truck from SNET bringing water filters to your village, and because your family has sickness now, you are getting one. The delivery team begins first to educate you about how sickness comes from dirty water full of pathogens. You have never seen a microscope or the little bad guys in the water, but you have seen the little wiggly worms. You learn about how this bio-sand water filter takes the “sickness bugs” out of the water, and how your family was being infected day after day by these pathogens in the water. Hey, you don’t care how it works - - about the multiple layers of sand and the biological film of beneficial organisms that “eat” the bad bugs - - you just want it to work - - You just want a well and energetic family. Well , wow, happy ending eh? And it’s all, of course because you gave the water filter which cost you so little compared to the great feeling in your heart as you open the refrigerator door and again see the Generous, Loving Human Being certificate you received by email from SNET which you have taped to the refrigerator door - - it warms your heart to know that you are being such a great blessing day after day to this family and the other villagers that come to them for water.

You haven’t really missed the small amount it cost you and you are daily comforted to know that you are helping every single day. That’s why the Mother is happy - - the Mother you are helping. Don’t even hesitate - - you might start to think your way out of being of great benefit and lose out on the day by day happiness of being an even more Generous, Loving Human Being. (Click here) to make a Mother happy and see some of the other wonderful things we are doing.

 Write to Jeanette and Dewa at snetseva@gmail.com to tell us about how happy you are to help and ask any questions about what we are doing. Connect with us on facebook. We are having some really amazing adventures you might really enjoy reading about and participating in - - it could take you places you will really like.     Write soon. J and D

DRINK THIS WATER and call me in the morning . . . . . . . . . . .if you can

Drink this water??  No way! Notice the murky algae and bio masses suspended in the water. 

We look closely in the skin crevices of the hand holding water from the community well in this rural area two hours north of Mumba .  What are those tiny transparent oblong wiggly things?  Oh my Goodness!  Those are worms, parasites, and lots of them!  What else is suspended in these waters of the community wells and the river that the village people use for drinking water?  Yes, dysentery, cholera, parasites, a host of illness by the cup!

We look at this woman washing clothes in the small hand dug pond.  Picturesque eh?  But wait!  Is that a boy bathing in the same water?  Is this the same water they use for drinking? Does everyone bath in this water?  Yes!   Do they have another source of water ?  Well, no!

Look at the picture of the village landscape.  How much water do you see?  Right.  No water, just hand dug wells and ponds open to surface contamination.   And to make matters worse, when the monsoons come there is water everywhere- - inside the houses through leaky roofs, pouring dirty surface water down into the wells,  open latrine areas adding toxic load to the water.Water is very friendly - - it embraces nearly everything.




Here's a statistic that should shake us a bit - - enough to pledge a small bit of our riches, - - a child dies every 20 seconds from water borne illness just in India alone.  Hmmmm - - this is a reality so horrible that we either run from awareness of it or decide to do something.  Let's help a little.

   

How can we help?   Well, simple, you can donate enough for one or more of the simple, sturdy, low tech, no moving parts, concrete water filters that SNET delivers to families in these rural villages in India.  These filters provide clean potable water for even large families, and require no extra expenses from the families.  The filtering is done by graduated-sized levels of sand and a powerful bio-film medium that forms naturally and “eats” the “bad guys” in the water.  The family need only wash the top layer of sand occasionally.  No moving parts to wear out, no expensive (for them) parts or filters to buy.   You have then established yourself as one of the loving ones who doesn’t ignore our common responsibility to help these people have a healthy future.   Congratulations for not ignoring and repressing the ability to share with others.   And, we will email you a certificate of GREAT LOVING KINDNESS to  hang on your wall, your refrigerator, and forward to your friends so they can feel as good as you do.

Love matters.  Love conquers poverty and disease.  You are the best of the best because you care and share.   Send this to your friends and your woman’s and men’s clubs.  Facebook about this. The love that spreads through a group of people who donate to help others is pure bliss.

Stay tuned with SNET’S  spreading distribution of effective water filters and enjoy your part in this happy story of health and happiness for the village peoples.  Their life is tough in many ways, and also very beautiful and important.  You are a part of it.  We love your caring hearts.

Click Here:
 Shree Nityananda Education Trust
  

and write to us, Jeanetta and Dewa, at snetseva@gmail.com