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Life Straws - Saving Lives |
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Written by Stuart Leyland (Barton)
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Wednesday, 11 October 2006 |
 A SIMPLE tool which enables people to drink water from unclean sources is being distributed to children across East Africa thanks to a local charity bid. It is a straw with filters. It is robust – the only maintenance is to blow rather than suck, and costs just £2.50. It comes attached to a string so can be worn round the neck. Barton-on-Humber Rotary Club, along with other Rotary Clubs and organisations in the area, has adopted the Life Straw cause. The Life Straw is a personal mobile water purification tool. The user sucks water though it and as water is drawn it passes through a number of filters. By this filtration process all particles above 15 microns are removed and water borne diseases including cholera, dysentery, typhoid and guinea worm are eliminated. Typically it provides up to four years drinkable water for a child and half this for an adult.
The man who spearheaded the campaign, Rotarian Stuart Leyland, from Barrow-on-Humber, said: “Initially the fundraising was aimed at getting a number of Life Straws into East Africa, to get some feedback on their usefulness. “It is aimed at the developing world or areas of disasters, where the available water is contaminated. The Life Straw will transform biologically contaminated water into life sustaining water, thus saving many lives.”East Africa was chosen as the place for distribution as Rotary had a team of young people travelling to East Africa (Kenya, Uganda & Ethiopia) on an exchange programme in May. The team included three people from Hull, Barton and Brigg. Mr Leyland and fellow Rotarian Tony Saunders, from Cleethorpes, also travelled to Kenya to attend a major international Rotary conference. Stuart said: “As a result of the trip more than 700 Life Straws were distributed to schools, orphanages, rural areas and local help agencies. The feedback has been very positive and the demand for Life Straws devastating. So we are now pressing on with the next phase, which is to make available up to 15,000 Life Straws, some to smaller projects that have been identified whilst we were in East Africa or those recommended by Rotarians in East Africa. However there also larger projects that offer the ability to get to some very needy people quickly and may give us an opportunity to get the Life Straw in front of aid agencies, then we can marry their money with the potential of the Life Straw.”housands of pounds have been raised locally and work is ongoing to raise more.Stuart said: “Worldwide one billion people currently have no access to clean water and as a consequence over 6,000 people die every day, mainly children.It hurts to think that in the UK alone there are millions of pounds promised on aid projects that may or may not happen. Yet one million given to the Life Straw would sustain 400,000 children in Uganda for up to four years.” Background:Vestergaard Frandsen (VF) specialise in Tropical Disease Control. They were approached by the Carter Foundation (run by the ex President of U.S.A. – Jimmy Carter) when there was a Guinea Worm epidemic in the Sudan. The Life Straw was borne and saved many, many lives. It was 100 per cent effective against the Guinea Worm. VF saw the potential of the Life Straw and developed the current model. Snce its launch in 2005, it has won design/humanitarian awards and is being met with much critical acclaim. Slowly, but too slowly for many innocent victims of dirty water, it is gaining recognition. |
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 29 October 2006 )
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