Your Friday Awesome: Be Awesome

That beautiful and awesome woman on the right, Kara, is a dear friend who is among the first group of Peace Corps volunteers to return to Rwanda after the genocide. She is a braver woman than I will ever be.

2010 has already seen enormous devastation and the resulting amazing philanthropic response to the earthquake in Haiti. Unfortunately, the needs of Haitians (before and after the earthquake) are similar to the needs of people all over the world year in and year out.

It wasn't until Kara had been in Rwanda for six months that she mentioned off-handly on IM that she didn't have plumbing. It took a minute for that fact to register. She had been in country for six months, but there was so much to do and learn that not having an indoor toilet or shower didn't seem worth mentioning.

But, private residences aren't the only places without indoor plumbing. Heath centers do not have it either.

The Musha Health Center Water Project is working to bring reliable indoor plumbing to a health center that serves over 15,000 people outside of Rwamagana:

Musha Health Center is a small health center that provides many services to the people of Musha and surrounding areas. These include maternity and delivery services, surgical and wound care, consultations, hygiene practices, and laboratory capabilities.

There is no running water in the consultation, pharmacy, surgery and pediatrics rooms. The lack of water is a hindrance to the quality of services that the health center can provide to its patients. Currently water must be brought in buckets by health care staff from the water pump in town for use in the clinic.

Take a moment to think about that. Surgeries in rooms without a reliable water source. The only thing standing between the faucets and running water? $500.