HAVE founder Gerry Feltham reports on Recent India Tour
April 29, 2009

H.A.V.E.'s three-week tour 3 years ago in 2006 involved 6 volunteers: three people from Vancouver; two from Haliburton/Minden, Ont.; and I, from Glovertown, Nfld. It started in Kolkata and finished at Chennai.

HAVE founder Gerry Feltham at the site of a well sponsored by HAVE at Madavaneri

Our second and most recent six-week, 2009 tour consisted, for the first 12 days, of three men (two from B.C. and one from Newfoundland); and for the remaining period with two women for a total group of five volunteers.

In our second tour, we travelled in reverse of the first by starting in Chennai and mostly train travelled up the East Coast (via Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, and West Bengal) to Kolkata; and from there, with three-to-five-day stopovers in Kolkata, Bodha Gaya, Varanasi, Dehra Dun/Mussoorie, westward and north to the Himalayan foothills, and finally Delhi, from where we departed to Canada.

The general purposes of both H.A.V.E. tours was to familarize us, especially those who have not previously visited India, of the rural areas and the need for safe drinking water. We also wanted to see what H.A.V.E. and its indigenous non-governmental partners were doing with safe drinking water systems, such as tube wells, for the particularly needy villagers, and to gain awareness of overall rural development in specific parts of the country.

	" It is also important to have face-to-face communicative experiences with those who are being helped, and visa versa. "

It is also important to have face-to-face communicative experiences with those who are being helped, and visa versa.

The tour in 2009, as with tour in 2006, managed within limited timeframes and circumstances to accomplish (due to the tremendously fine, generous efforts of each of our partners and the terrific unity within our group) most of the tour’s goals. Tour 2009's prime aim was to visit and to photograph the village well sites in H.A.V.E.'s "Sponsorship and In memory of..." wells program and see the pipeline projects (gravity-fed from mountain springs), including the 1986 Patrini/Donk village pipeline under repair in the Musoorie area of the Himalayan foothills.

In my opinion these tours are invaluable, in that they provide everyone – visitors, partners, and villagers – with an opportunity to gain valuable insights, especially regarding rural needs and the importance of national and international development; to identify with, understand and appreciate villagers, nationals, and internationals; and to see H.A.V.E./CIDA/indigenous partners' efforts and their contributions all coming to fruition at the village level.

For me personally, such tours strengthens my conviction that H.A.V.E.'s cause is essential and deserves promotion. Thus, such trips serve as boosters by me and the other participants of H.A.V.E.'s efforts in Canada and abroad.

" For me personally, such tours strengthens my conviction
that H.A.V.E.'s cause is essential and deserves promotion. "

Gerard (Gerry) Feltham,
Tours' Organizer

To view photos of the recent India trip, Click HERE

What adventure will you choose?
April 25, 2009

Water and good hygiene can be the difference between life and death. In India, much of the water is contaminated by sewage and agricultural run-off. The World Bank estimates that 21 per cent of communicable diseases are caused by unsafe water and that 1,600 people die daily from diarrhea.

Help A Village Effort began 27 years ago in Haliburton County to make a difference for some of those communities that don’t have the means to drill their own wells for fresh water and have never been educated in safe water practices.

Every year in June major fundraising events take place across the country for HAVE raising the money needed for wells. In 27 years, that money has been spent on 700 safe drinking water systems all across India.

“I have visited the rural villages of India and have witnessed the incredible difference a well can make to a village,” said chairperson of HAVE, Ron Reid.

In the beginning, funds were raised through annual Walk for Water events. Over the years, it has evolved into Choose Your Own Adventure, where people are free to do whatever they’d like to raise money for wells. Each well costs about $1,500 to install, so every little bit is a huge help.

In the past, people have done triathlons, barbecues, sold gift baskets, swam major bodies of water and walked to raise money – everyone can do what she or he likes.

“Last year we invited visitors to our pottery studio to decorate a clay tile which we then fired for them for a $10 donation to HAVE. We plan to do this again this summer. So your adventure can be anything you would like to do to help raise funds to build wells,” said long-time HAVE board member Debbie Wales.

This year, some of the HAVE board members are going to raise money for their raft in Minden’s Canada Day raft race. Members of the community are invited to raise money for their own rafts to challenge the HAVE crew.

Whether you want to make a raft, run a marathon or sponsor someone who is choosing her own adventure, HAVE and the Indian villagers gaining wells from your donations would be extremely grateful.

Tax receipts are issued for any donation made to HAVE of more than $10.

To choose your own adventure, click HERE
...or pick up a pledge sheet at the Haliburton Echo, Minden Times, Royal Lepage Haliburton or contact HAVE at 489-2431, have@interhop.net.

For media contact:
Ron and Toos Reid
705-489-2431
have@interhop.net

CIDA Press Release - HAVE Grant Approved
April 10th, 2009

Help A Village Effort has learned that the Canadian International Development Agency granted the charity a three-year grant for $406,190.

Click on the above logo to visit the CIDA website

This money will allow HAVE to install 180 wells (60 wells per year), 150 composting toilets and conduct extensive training and education in water safety and hygiene in India. These wells will provide fresh drinking water to more than 75,000 rural villagers.

“We are so excited and grateful that CIDA is partnering with HAVE with matching funding.” said HAVE chairperson Ron Reid.

CIDA stipulates that $50,000 must be raised by HAVE each year for the matching grants program to work.

“We will be raising money through individual donations, Walks for Water and Choose Your Own Adventures,” said Reid.

During its 27-year history, the Haliburton County-based charity has installed more than 700 wells in India, where 1,600 die a day of diarrhea and 21 per cent of communicable diseases come from drinking dirty water.

This summer, HAVE is actively fundraising $36,000 to fulfill this year’s financial commitment to ensure the wells are built and hope for wide community support.

For more information on donating to HAVE go to www.helpavillageeffort.org.

Media contact:
Ron Reid
705-489-2431
have@interhop.net