NUS sharing

On the 21st of July, a team from NUS who are intending to go down to the same village in Quang Nam province, Vietnam came down to RI for a sharing session between the recce group and them.

When they arrived, the recce group shared with them on what they did during the recce trip, shared further intentions on the actual trip March next year, and showed them photos from the trip.

This was followed by a short sharing of the NUS team’s plans and intention for their trip to Vietnam. They intend to bring the Lilypad water filtration system to the village to provide them with clean drinking water, much like our initial plan. The water filtration system treats water through the UFRO system and produces water that is ready for drinking. They plan to put the machine somewhere on site and get the local community to contribute by doing the groundwork such as piping and deal with the distribution of the water.

What we realised from the sharing however was that their intention is practically identical to ours- to purchase a system to provide the village with clean drinking water. However, our target was still not as clear as we are not sure if it would be viable for us through fundraising to buy the system. The NUS team however did mention that there was a limitation to their system, that being that they are only dealing with the village’s drinking needs. They then suggested to us that maybe we could focus our project on something they would supplement theirs. For example, some of their other problems include waste management or water to wash clothes etc. They would solve the problem of our group’s project conflicting with theirs.

I think the suggestion made by the NUS group was a good one which we definitely should consider. Not only would we avoid a clash of two projects doing the same thing in the same location but it might also make it more viable for our group as to buy the water filtration system would require quite a big amount of funds and our fundraising is not raising as much money as we would like. Also, the recce group did mention that the villagers sometimes face problems of rashes as they wash their clothes in the river. A project to solve that problem would supplement NUS’ project and might be the goal we can be working for.