King Zero: The Miracle of clean water!

Thursday, August 4, 2011

The Miracle of clean water!

“The people had never seen anything like this before; they just could not believe it. It was like a miracle to them.” ~ Ashin Issariya aka King Zero

It all began with a Teddy!
I became aware of Linda Dimichelle and her wonderful work with teddies for displaced children via a contact on Facebook – the social networking site. I was very moved by what I read of how these little teddies were lighting up children’s faces all around the world, children displaced, traumatized, orphaned or unwell would cuddle their woolly friends and be helped and supported beyond words, by the love that each was imbibed with. I am not the world’s best knitter, but I can knit, and I was inspired to get involved. 5 teddies later (and counting!) my tale takes a turn in another direction.

I need to share a little bit of background information with you so that you can follow my story which goes as follows – my partner and I are both aware of the significant challenges facing the human race at this time and so we decided to invest in a clean water filtration flask, just in case there was ever a need to be able to access clean water. This is how I knew about Lifesaver Systems and their water filtration products. So now back to the story!

Being a Best Friend
Another post appeared on my FB page about refugees who had fled Burma and its human rights abuses, crossing into Thailand and living on a rubbish dump in Mae Sot on the borders between Thailand and Burma.

About 300 people including around 100 children were trying to scratch a living from the mountains of waste, building their homes from what they found, trying to make enough to buy food, but they had no papers, no legal standing, no security – life on the dump looked very dismal. Then I noticed the water they were drinking, filthy, contaminated water from the dumpsite lake. Many got very sick from drinking this water but they had nothing else to drink. The dots joined in my head. They needed a Clean Water Filtration System and I knew exactly where to get one!
Social networking for a greater good
I felt compelled to raise the funds to buy Lifesaver’s charitable Gerry can for them and so I turned to Facebook. Within 24 hours I had raised pledges for donations from 22 warm hearted friends. We had done it! On 18th February 2011 we had raised 450UK sterling to purchase the can and a few replacement filters. Some gave a little, some gave a lot; it didn’t matter as every penny got us closer to the goal.

I discovered that The Best Friend charity were working closely with the refugees in Mae Sot and got in contact about what I had now called the Clean Water Fund – they were delighted. The Best Friend organization was established in Burma by two Burmese monks called King Zero (Ashin Issariya) and Ashin Sopaka in 1999 to offer free education for the people in Burma. My contact was a beautiful lady called Alexandra Rösch who helped the process through from beginning to end.
We had plenty of hoops to jump through that I don’t need to go into here, but we kept going with bundles of positivity and perseverance until the job was done and done it was on 22nd June 2011. 4 months later the Gerry can arrived at the Best Friend Library in Mae Sot. One cannot help but have a tear in one’s eye when one sees the Greater Good in Action.
The people are still living in dreadful conditions, still struggling on a daily basis with the authorities, ill-health and poverty, but at least they have clean water to quench their thirst now. My story doesn’t end there. The Clean Water Fund needs regular donations to cover the costs of replacement filters – 75 UK sterling per month. We are looking for sponsors and also individuals who would make a one off payment or preferably regular monthly donations (no matter how small) in order to buy the filters needed to maintain the system. I hope you feel as moved as I was and will support this Fund.
You can make a payment to contact@thebestfriend.org making sure you add ‘clean water’ in the Paypal message box or contact Sally Morningstar sally@sallymorningstar.com for further details or assistance. Thank you.