Interview with Lamothe Lormier
The following is an article taken from the website of St. John the Baptist Church in Silver Springs, MD and was authored by Tony Maurelli.
Clean water is a basic human right. In addition to being the single biggest cause of intestinal infection and disease in developing countries, poor quality drinking water is the single biggest source of chronic infection, leading to malabsorption, which in turn leads to malnutrition. Nutrition correlates to cognitive abilities, including the ability to read. Good nutrition therefore heavily contributes to literacy. The lack of available clean drinking water can undermine even the strongest literacy and educational programs. Our program to bring clean water into the homes of Baradères is a natural complement to our on-going support of the schools and the people of the community.
I’m a rising senior at Cornell University, studying Molecular and Cell Biology, with minors in Global Health and Africana Studies. One requirement for the Global Health minor is to spend 8 weeks in a foreign country doing work or study related to public health. I was interested in doing a project involved with water purification. After looking at the programs that many organizations offered for volunteers, and the various fees these organizations charged, I wanted to find a program that I didn’t feel was looking to exploit students in their desire to go abroad. I contacted the Gift of Water because they did not have a volunteer program set up. I immediately noticed how this organization was full of honest, hard working people who have been so generous in setting up a volunteer program for me. Over the course of this summer, I will be coordinating with the water technicians of Gift of Water to collect demographic data on the homes that the program currently serves. I will also be doing a pilot study on health impact of the water purifiers.
Karen and I took a break from the technician training and went to a small mountain village – Oriani – to meet with Sr. Mary Ann Cruz, a Philippine physician/nun who runs a small medical clinic. She is the doctor, nurse, pharmacists – all wrapped into one.