No items found.

Two Hurricanes, a Clean Water Crisis, and One Can-Do Kid

After Eta and Iota, volunteers deploy to Honduras—and drink from puddles—to get sanitation done.

A horse had just peed in the puddle, but Greyshirt Kimberly Carmody was going to drink out of that puddle anyway.

Standing in the mountains of Honduras in November, Carmody was among nine Team Rubicon volunteers helping distribute Sawyer water filtration systems to a community hit hard by back-to-back hurricanes. Part of that work meant not just delivering the emergency filtration systems, but also educating community members on how to use them. Including, demonstrating their efficacy.

Team Rubicon had touched down in November, shortly after Hurricanes Eta and Iota wrought devastation across the country. First, the volunteers had helped train Adventist Disaster Relief Agency volunteers to use, and train others to use, those Sawyer water filtration systems. Then, ADRA had helped Team Rubicon locate a river valley that crossed a mountain and lead to communities untouched by outside aid. Together, over the course of two weeks, ADRA and Team Rubicon volunteers—known as Greyshirts—had traveled into remote villages that had been affected by one or both hurricanes, and where people had lost access to water, or where what water still flowed had been significantly compromised.

“After a hurricane hits, the big cities and big areas get all the love. So, we were in a small area, a smaller town that wasn’t really getting lots of help,” says Carmody. “They had seen nobody. No one had helped them; no disaster aid had come in; nothing.”

Continue reading how Team Rubicon, Sawyer Water Filters, and numerous other volunteers helped provide hurricane disaster relief in Honduras here.

LAST UPDATED

October 22, 2023

Written by
Photo thumbnail Blog Author

Team Rubicon

Media Mentions from Team Rubicon

Team Rubicon unites the skills and experiences of military veterans with first responders to rapidly deploy emergency response teams.

All donations processed through Team Rubicon's Facebook will be unrestricted, unless otherwise requested by the donor.

Disasters are our business. Veterans are our passion.

Explore More Content

Media Mentions

Lucky for us trail-goers, Amazon’s Big Spring Sale has hundreds of hiking products on sale, and here are 15 of the best deals to stock up for this season’s outdoor adventures.

Travel + Leisure
Media Mentions from Travel + Leisure

Media Mentions

Lastly, before receiving Sawyer filters here, Sinchu Al-Haggi, a village of 9 compounds and 121 residents relied exclusively on drinking straight from these 2 open wells.

Water Charity

Media Mentions

In the meantime, bring your baggage, so that when you are ready, you can learn to let go and carry your weight. Trust me, you’ll unpack things in due time when it’s all done.

Ben Kirkland