Overview

Kindergarten buildings in Mai Chau are cheery and set against the lush landscape of rice paddies. To look at this scene, one might never imagine that clean water in such a verdant part of Vietnam is a problem. But it is.

In the academic setting, accessing clean water puts a financial strain on families and schools. Either children have to bring their own water, or teachers will boil, or filter tap water for the kids, or parents will contribute to purchasing bottled water. However, both boiling and filtering rely on electric devices – and electricity frequently cuts out here. During a flood in 2018, it cut for ten days straight.

To help these schools access a consistent source of clean water, AKP donated 12 LifeStraw community filters to 14 school sites in Mai Chau. The LifeStraw community filter is a high-volume water purifier designed to deliver safe drinking water. The filter’s hollow fiber purification technology converts contaminated water into safe drinking water by removing a minimum of 99.9999% of bacteria, 99.999% of viruses and 99.99% of protozoan parasites. It prevents waterborne diseases such as diarrhea, typhoid, cholera, worms, and cryptosporidiosis.

As a result of this first investment, 1,010 children and 130 teachers have access to clean water.