The HydroPack™ story has inspired so many people that we’re celebrating the 2011 holiday season with a special director’s cut of Bringing Water Back to Life, the video that kicked off the compelling series.
The 15-minute director’s cut delves a little deeper into the HydroPack™ demonstration project conducted January 2011 in the flood-prone Budalangi area of Western Kenya.
Charles Andiega Odhiambo has lived in the area his entire life. “Living in this place, it needs perseverance,” he says. “It is very vulnerable for kids. The moment it starts flooding, the kids normally are infected with the diseases that come along with these waters.”
“The key to good design research is to have a lot of empathy for the community you”re with, to really listen and be affected,” said Charles Austen Angell of Modern Edge, Inc. “This community has a lot of heart, but… there’s been a lot of pain.”
“One of the main causes of flooding in Budalangi is due to dykes that were made a long time ago and their life spans have elapsed,” explains Thomas Mango, of the Busia Community Development Organization. “This leads to a lot of spill over to the homesteads. And when it spills over, a lot of devastating effects is done, particularly to the crops, the houses and even to the human life.”