H2OKits.com Water Blog

Update:

Tonight is the last night of VBS and I just wanted to drop a quick update.  Doing this week the children have learned to serve others and they have done this by doing various service projects.  The children have made trail mix for emergency personnel, potted plants, made bookmarks for prison ministry,  made shirts, soccer jerseys and personal pillow cases for the children at Faith Home in Honduras.  Also, we have had a penny war each night with the girls winning two nights and the boys only winning one night so far.  If the boys win tonight, then it will be a draw. However, the money raised will go to Feed the Children and the total amount raised will be match by an anonymous giver.  So, I'm asking you to please help the boys be victorious tonight by going to the bottom of this post and donating you pennies or by Twittering this "P $1 @H2OKITS".    Please help us reach our goal of feeding 300 children for 1 month.  God bless.

Original Post:

I'm going to switch gears today and talk about something beside "water" and something that is dear to my heart.  We all know that clean, safe drinking water is the must important substance to sustain life and the second most important element would be - food! Most of us are spoiled, in that we get three or more meals per day.  Americans are so spoiled that a majority of us are over weight.  Unfortunately, there are children that will die of starvation before you can read this entire post and just $10.00 would have fed that child for one month - 30 plus days! Think about the cost of your last meal.

My wife and I are very involved with Vacation Bible School (VBS) at our church ( First Baptist Church of Williamstown) and each year we have a service project that the kids raise money for.  This year the service project is Feed the Children.  At VBS, we teach the children a very simple core principal, to serve others like Jesus did.  The children raise money be have a penny war, boys versus the girls, to see which group brings in the most pennies each night of VBS.  The winner is determined by the most weight of pennies.  Also, the children are given more information pertaining to the cause they are supporting and each night they will do an activity that will positively impact someone else, ultimately learning to love others as they love themselves and to have a servant heart.

So, in order to help the boys win the penny war (I have 3 boys) and to help Feed the Children, I'm asking all my twitter followers to tip me $1.00 before June 18, 2009.  At the time of writing this post, I had 297 followers on Twitter.  So, if each follower tipped $1.00 that would equal $297.00 which would feed over 29 children for one month.  That also would be 29,700 pennies which would greatly help the boys smoke the girls.  What's a dollar - but when 297 or 500 or even 1,000 people give a dollar - now that's making a difference.  Help me to show these kiddos how two or more influences have a greater impact.

Leon McLaughlin is a businessman of many talents. He has sold coffee machines in Canada, earned a real-estate license in California, and now owns and runs a shoe-shine stand in central Seattle. He recently had an experience that changed his life and unexpectedly led him to start another business.

How it began

While traveling on a vacation to Mexico, a local woman told Leon a story that changed his life. She had a get-together at her home earlier that week. A well-meaning American visitor asked to use her bathroom. When he came out, he explained that he helped her out by draining the extra water that was stored in her bathtub. The woman broke down into tears. "You see, that was my water for the entire month," she explained to her American guest. Not only did it bring Leon's Mexican friend to tears, but it also brought him to action. He immediately knew what had to be done: find a way to bring clean water to the world's poor, especially children.

Where to start

But where to begin? His experience was in local business and sales, not international relief work. After some investigation and enrollment in water systems repair and maintenance classes, Leon decided to establish another business. This time he would start a non-profit, to bring his clean water equipment to the developing world. LAM, LLC — or Leon A. McLaughlin — was founded with one mission: to address the critical need of the world's clean water shortage by buying and sending purification equipment to where it is most needed. With the need for clean water in so many countries around the world, Leon sought the advice of an organization with some experience: World Vision. "When I initially called World Vision to share my clean water vision with them, to my surprise, they listened with open minds and open hearts," he explains.

The solution

As a World Vision donor, Leon now ensures that his equipment will reach its destination safely. World Vision has the staff and humanitarian development infrastructure to work alongside the communities where his water filtration equipment is located. The first water filtration machine was donated to World Vision and sent to Bolivia shortly after floods ravaged the country in February 2008. As his non-profit gained momentum, so did his publicity. After a series of articles were written about him in Seattle newspapers and NBC Nightly News noticed the story, they interviewed Leon for a feature in their "Making a Difference" segment, which aired on Jan. 9.

'A desperate need for clean water'

During his December trip to Bolivia with World Vision to see his filtration systems at work in several communities, and meet with local officials, Leon was touched even more deeply. "It's almost like seeing another Hurricane Katrina in the U.S., when you see how the children and their families are displaced," he said. "You could see that there was a desperate need for clean water. "The children had hope in their eyes, and need help. I'm glad that I'm part of this mission with World Vision, to be able to bring these children and their families clean drinking water." World Vision

New research strengthens the link between water pollution and rising male fertility problems. The study, by Brunel University, the Universities of Exeter and Reading and the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, shows for the first time how a group of testosterone-blocking chemicals is finding its way into UK rivers, affecting wildlife and potentially humans.   The study identified a new group of chemicals that act as ‘anti-androgens’. This means that they inhibit the function of the male hormone, testosterone, reducing male fertility. Some of these are contained in medicines, including cancer treatments, pharmaceutical treatments, and pesticides used in agriculture. The research suggests that when they get into the water system, these chemicals may play a pivotal role in causing feminising effects in male fish. Earlier research by Brunel University and the University of Exeter has shown how female sex hormones (estrogens), and chemicals that mimic estrogens, are leading to ‘feminisation’ of male fish. Found in some industrial chemicals and the contraceptive pill, they enter rivers via sewage treatment works. This causes reproductive problems by reducing fish breeding capability and in some cases can lead to male fish changing sex. Other studies have also suggested that there may be a link between this phenomenon and the increase in human male fertility problems caused by testicular dysgenesis syndrome. Until now, this link lacked credence because the list of suspects causing effects in fish was limited to estrogenic chemicals whilst testicular dysgenesis is known to be caused by exposure to a range of anti-androgens. Lead author on the research paper, Dr Susan Jobling at Brunel University’s Institute for the Environment, said: “We have been working intensively in this field for over ten years. The new research findings illustrate the complexities in unravelling chemical causation of adverse health effects in wildlife populations and re-open the possibility of a human – wildlife connection in which effects seen in wild fish and in humans are caused by similar combinations of chemicals. We have identified a new group of chemicals in our study on fish, but do not know where they are coming from. A principal aim of our work is now to identify the source of these pollutants and work with regulators and relevant industry to test the effects of a mixture of these chemicals and the already known environmental estrogens and help protect environmental health.” Senior author Professor Charles Tyler of the University of Exeter said: ”Our research shows that a much wider range of chemicals than we previously thought is leading to hormone disruption in fish. This means that the pollutants causing these problems are likely to be coming from a wide variety of sources. Our findings also strengthen the argument for the cocktail of chemicals in our water leading to hormone disruption in fish, and contributing to the rise in male reproductive problems. There are likely to be many reasons behind the rise in male fertility problems in humans, but these findings could reveal one, previously unknown, factor.” Bob Burn, Principal Statistician in the Statistical Services Centre at the University of Reading, said: ”State-of- the- art statistical hierarchical modelling has allowed us to explore the complex associations between the exposure and potential effects seen in over 1000 fish sampled from 30 rivers in various parts of England.” The research took more than three years to complete and was conducted by the University of Exeter, Brunel University, University of Reading and the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. Statistical modelling was supported by Beyond the Basics Ltd. The research team is now focusing on identifying the source of anti-androgenic chemicals, as well as continuing to study their impact on reproductive health in wildlife and humans. Science Daily

It's hard to believe that Christmas is over and a new year is around the corner. I was just thinking about how blessed my company has been this year and myself. That made me think about how blessed Americans are in that we have safe drinking water at the turn of the tap. Think about it, a homeless person has access to safe, clean drinking water. Doesn't every public building have a water fountain or some type of drinking water supply for public use? This is not so for the rest of the World. Publisher Tom Bell has a wonderful editorial, Water professionals are obligated to support charitable water causes, on page 9 of the December 2008 issue of U.S. Water News. It’s about non-profit water organizations that make it possible for people in developing countries to have safe drinking water. Bell states that the World spends $300 billion a year on agricultural subsidies, $50 billion a year on bottled water, and only $3 billion a year in foreign aid for water supply and sanitation projects. Yet $10 billion to $20 billion a year would be enough to provide a basic human needs for water for all. Bell provides some non-profit water charities in which you may give to: Lifewater International Waterlines Water For People Water For Life WaterPartners International The H2O Project Here is a complete contact list: List of Water Charities. Our company, H2OKits.com has partnered with Blood Water Mission which exists to promote clean blood and clean water efforts in Africa, tangibly reducing the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic while addressing the underlying issues of poverty, injustice and oppression. Blood:Water Mission is building clean water wells, supporting medical facilities, and focusing on community and worldview transformation, both here in America and in Africa. We give 10% of our sales to Blood Water Mission through the sales of our water test kits, bath filter, and shower filter. What is your favorite water charity? Tell us about it by commenting. “Our failure to help those in the developing world gain access to clean water must surely rank as one of the greatest development failures of the last century.” – Dr. Peter Gleick