After seeing several effective projects organized by my Peace Corps friends Esayas, Kara and Lindsay through Water Charity, I thought I'd give it a shot too. The Dariganga Village Water Filter Project's aim is to provide clean drinking water for hundreds of children at the provincial summer camp where I have worked for two years. I'm very excited to be taking part in this project and it's really been a pleasure working with Water Charity. It took less than a week from submitting the application to receive the money here in Mongolia, which is absolutely astounding. I highly recommend working with them if you are a Peace Corps Volunteer anywhere in the world. You can read more about the project at AdvanceHumanity.com, but I've also included some details below...

Community Description
Dariganga Village is a small community of 2,800 people and is home to one of the most sacred mountains in Mongolia (Altan Ovoo) as well as the only summer camp in the province. This summer there will be over 500 children attending summer camp over a period of two months. There is not a safe water supply at the camp. Currently, children and counselors are forced to purchase bottled water, which must be brought in during camp sessions. This is costly, not environmentally friendly, and not an effective use of resources.


Project Description
Project funds will be used to purchase a water filtration system to make current well water safe and drinkable for the children at the summer camp. This filtration system will use the newly acquired electricity which arrived at the summer camp this year and allow children, counselors and camp staff to drink water at the camp at any time. The community decided to use individual filters, which are available in the provincial capital city, and are well known and widely used throughout the country. These use electricity to boil the water, which is then filtered and rendered safe to drink. Filters, pitchers and 5-gallon water containers will be purchased for each room in two large dormitories.

Project Impact
The water filtration system will supply these 500 children, and over the years thousands more, with safe drinking water.