75 Water Filters: Vilma’s Story

Wisconsin Rapids Sunrise Rotary Club

75 Water Filters

Vilma gets up at the crack of dawn to begin her 1.5 hour walk up a rocky hillside in order to help support her family. She leaves her three young children (ages 2, 4, and 6) every day, and does not see them until she returns home at sunset.

Vilma is a domestic worker and her husband is an agricultural worker.  Yet, they are barely able to afford to buy rice and beans on a weekly basis.

Vilma’s three young children frequently suffer from diarrhea due to a lack of access to clean filtered water and that’s why she was thrilled to hear that Shoulder to Shoulder would be donating a water filter to her family. Vilma repeatedly said, “thank you for doing this for my family,” as she headed out the door to start her 1.5 hour walk home.  And, although she was adding a few pounds of weight to her journey back home, she was happy to do it for her kids.

A month later, Vilma shared that her children were no longer getting diarrhea as often and her family loved drinking from the fresh clay filter.

As we share these filters with families we always remind them that we are only able to do so thanks to the generous donations we receive from people such as the folks from the WISCONSIN RADPIDS SUNRISE ROTARY CLUB.  Over the past 2 years, this club has raised enough funds to provide 75 Water Filters to needy families.

THANK YOU!

Laura Failla Manship

Executive Director

paulandlaura@shouldertoshoulder.org