2018 Clean Water Project in India – Meet the Team!

Tuesday, December 11th, 2018

Later this month, Shana Nunez, Tara Odell, Scarlett James, and Angelica Gonzalez, in partnership with For One Another and Hope Abides, will travel to India to distribute water filters and check on our ongoing projects. We’re so excited to provide this update, written by Shana, on their fundraising efforts over the past few months, and will be posting more updates while they are on their travels!

Meet the team:

Shana Nunez – Shana is a digital nomad and owner of WanderBird Productions, working in video production and motion graphics. She is a proud auntie to four nieces and three nephews and a fur-baby momma to 4 dogs. Shana traveled on behalf of For One Another and with the Hope Abides team to India in 2014 where she worked to distribute water filters ad identify future projects. She’s passionate about helping support For One Another and their clean water project efforts and is looking forward to returning to India and seeing the beautiful faces in the orphanage again.

Tara Odell – Tara works in commercial banking and is a mother of three – from 16 years to 11 months! In addition to her schedule with a full-time job and as a busy mom, she volunteers her time locally and is an active member in her community and church. She’s an eager traveler and chicken caretaker. She and her husband Jeff are excited to support these projects in both the orphanage and the areas in need of clean water.

Scarlett James – Scarlett is thirteen, in 7th grade and is an avid flute player and active in cheer at school. This summer she became a Youth Ambassador for Hope Abides and kicked off her India fundraising with a “Lemonade for India” stand this summer and she continues to help raise funds by selling and making baked good and helping with garage sales. She is looking forward in particular to meeting the children at the orphanage and is excited to share some love. Tara is Scarlett’s momma and they are looking forward to volunteering together in India.

Angelica Gonzalez – Angelica is also in banking and a mother of three. She’s a passionate ultra runner and yearly organizes a fundraising event for type one diabetes – which her son suffers from – and where she runs 100 miles in 24 hours to raise awareness for the disease. She’s passionate about volunteering and it’s a family affair – with her husband and children joining the efforts for the races she runs in support of local causes.

Fundraising Projects:

The team has been hard at work fundraising over the last several months. Through efforts supported by others we’ve run a lemonade stand, a bake sale and a garage sale. We received donations of furniture – and even a vehicle – that we sold, with all proceeds going toward the projects. All told, to date we’ve have raised over $5,300!

Incredibly, thanks to assistance from a friend and through her company, we expect that these funds will be matched, doubling our efforts!

But we aren’t resting yet! With some time left on the clock we are squeezing in a “Holiday Tamales” sale. Angelica and her mother will be leading us through the tamale making process and we hope to work together to sell lots of tamales and raise more money toward the cause!

The Trip:

The day after Christmas we will be departing bright and early with flights taking us to India. We will be focusing our efforts in two areas that Shana visited in 2014 and that Hope Abides and For One Another continue to partner with.

After arriving in New Delhi we will travel to Thrisshur in the state of Kerala. This is an area that was hit by significant flooding during the monsoon season this year. There we will meet with Father Joy, who is part of an organization called KESS  that supports the local area with ongoing projects and relief efforts. They also promotes women’s empowerment and provides women with safe workplaces and ways to support their families.

For One Another is providing 100 water filters for this area, which we will be distributing. With much of the distribution focused on women in their ongoing projects, the filters go to families with children and elderly who are at particular risk of diseases from water born illnesses, especially during this time following the flooding.
In Kerala, we are also working on the installation of a bore well supported by For One Another and are working on receiving quotes for the work needed. More updates to come shortly about this particular part of the project!

Father Joy says the following about the support:

“The requirement for your water filters and water based project are indeed, the need of the hour. The water filters that you distributed last time have been extremely useful. The beneficiaries comprising of HIV affected as well as single mothers in a our stabilizer units, are thankful for the useful gift which saved their families from unhygienic and unhealthy components of water. There are still poor people in our projects who require these filters to avail safe drinking water.
…The flood calamity has indeed created a lot of despair to the people in our state and KESS is deeply involved in flood relief and rehabilitation works presently. Surely, this support comes at the right time. We require all the support possible to help the flood-affected.”

We will be in that area for three days and in addition to distributing new filters, hope to visit those who have received them in the past to ensure they are still enjoying the benefits of them and see if they need any support.

On January 2nd we will travel to our second project location – the town of Vellatur in the state of Andrha Pradesh, where we will stay at the orphanage run by Pastor Ratnam and his organization, Mission for the Rural People. There we will spend time with the children of the orphanage and visit the new site of the water project we are funding in a local village and sister orphanage. A water filtration system and bore well will be installed at Brooke Orphanage for the whole village to use. Brooke is in the village of Thappalakatta and they do not have access to clean drinking water. The bore well and filtration system will be a huge blessing for both Brooke orphanage and the village. This project will be funded through the money we’ve raised over the last few months.

In addition to the orphanage water project, we’ll be supporting the new building for the boys at the Vellatur orphanage. The current building has large cracks in the wall and the roof is starting to cave in, making it no longer safe for the boys to sleep there. Whatever funds we have after the water project will go toward this project. While visiting the orphanage there we will continue to develop the relationship with Pastor Ratnam and look for potential future projects in area rural communities. We are looking forward to our trip and are staying busy with fundraising and preparations. We are excited to continue to share how the support is changing lives in India!