Monday, October 14th, the Non-Profit Wine to Water came to our school and spoke to Bellarmine’s student population about the global water crisis. They also gave the Bellarmine Community a chance to help this issue, which came in the form of building reusable filters, that is to be used by these communities that do not have access to freshwater.
Clean drinking water is often taken for granted in the silicon valley because it is so readily available. We are able to purchase gallons of freshwater at our local grocery store, but also we have water readily available in our own households. For many people around the world, this is not the case, nearly 40% of the world’s population does not have access to clean water. Instead, they are left with no other options but to use/drink water that looks like coffee. The non-profit organization, Wine to Water, looks to change this issue and provide clean drinking water to those who do not have access to any. They contribute to this cause, by building water filters that will be distributed to the impacted areas to provide the most help to the people that need it.
In a couple of days, CEO David Cuthbert & Founder & President Doc Henley, plan to go to Nepal and distribute clean water filters that our own Bellarmine Student Body assembled. Every student who was selected for this volunteer work was tasked with creating one of the water filters that will be effectively used in Nepal. The Bell Online’s own Theo Tcharos ’23 and Alex Clark ’20 participated in this event. We recount the experience in case you missed the event, “We received the main water filter first, and then we screwed on a nozzle with which we attached a tube so that the water could be filtered through. After that, we put plastic rings and a screw at the end of the tube, to allow the water to go through and be filtered.”
These are the same filters that we saw in the video presented during the assembly. These are water filters that are able to screw onto plastic bottles or onto tubes and take the contaminated water and produce clean drinking water for all those who need it. This type of item is extremely important because you cannot take heavy filters during a flight to another country, and these filters are relatively weightless. They are also extremely easy to distribute and use by the people who need them.
This event was an enriching experience for the Bellarmine, we interviewed senior and one of the leaders of We club, Ethan Fein, he commented on the whole event saying, “I think it was a really positive experience because of how relatable Doc’s message and the story was. Since Bellarmine is a competitive place where it seems everyone can do anything. His story helped show that there are always positive things that we can enter into the world.”
Go Bells!