Turnaround as water aid charity finds itself asking for public's generosity

"CLEAN water runs out," heralded the newspaper headline, summing up the true extent of the situation faced by the people of Zimbabwe's New Hope Village.

Living in destitute holding camps around the outskirts of the city after being pushed out of their homes by Robert Mugabe's government, they sheltered under plastic sheets and drank from the only source of water – holes dug along the bank of a stream.

Disease and starvation were commonplace among the villagers after the government threw them on to the streets and destroyed their homes in a campaign to clean-up cities and towns.

The little water that was available was rife with parasitic worms. E.coli was then discovered and the terrible situation got even worse.

But there was some relief for the villagers thanks to a team of dedicated volunteers from Derbyshire.

They sent "Aquaboxes" containing water purification kits and essential aid items, including tools and cooking pots, to the Northside Destitute Care organisation, who described them as a "gift from God".

The group's chairwoman, Bryony Pichanick, said: "The Aquaboxes have been one of the best gifts we have ever received.

"Every item inside is valuable to our people. What amazed us was the excellent quality of the goods inside, as well as the usefulness of each item selected.

"Our people are the poorest in our society, so to receive something brand new is unforgettable in itself."

But the people of New Hope Village are only a small portion of the thousands helped by Aquabox.

Since the first lot of boxes dispatched to Sierra Leone in 1991, the charity has gone on to send more than 80,000 boxes to people in need in 55 countries.

The group's biggest challenge was following the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.

In the following months, the team packed and dispatched more than 6,000 boxes to people affected by the disaster – which killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries.

Boxes went to Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and Indonesia, where those who survived the devastation had no clean water to drink.

Aquabox trustee David Haspel said: "In the months that followed this event, Aquabox was called on in a way that was unimaginable just a few weeks earlier.

"We dispatched more boxes in a short space of time than ever before, it was a massive operation."

Lives have also been saved in Tanzania thanks to the work of the Aquabox volunteers.

In June 2006, 520 Aquaboxes were sent to the Masai district following the worst droughts in 20 years.

When the rains eventually came in September, it was feared that there would be a major outbreak of cholera but the Aquaboxes meant there was enough clean drinking water for the children for a year, getting many of them through the outbreak.

Earlier in 2006, prisoners and patients at a child Aids clinic in Honduras benefited.

Through another local charity, the Children Of Honduras Trust based in Spondon, 20 boxes were sent to the country, where clean drinking water is still a luxury many people cannot afford.

The water purification kits were also distributed to several schools and children's feeding centres in Honduras.

David said: "The last location may come as a surprise. The prison in the capital has the worst quality water in the city. Since very little is provided by the state, prisoners rely on their wives and partners who visit them in prison.

"They usually have to travel some distance in the heat, often on foot. They need a drink at the prison. One of the Aquaboxes has been allocated to the visitor's area so that, at least for a while, the children do not have to suffer by having to drink contaminated water during their visit."

Refugees in Sierra Leone were one of the next groups to benefit from the water purification kits. Seven hundred were sent out in January 2007 to help those affected by bloody civil war, which resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and the displacement of more than two million people.

This year, Aquaboxes have been sent to victims of a tornado in the Philippines, those struggling with poverty in the Gambia, and victims of the earthquake in Sumatra in October.

In all cases, the Aquaboxes filter water, removing deadly water-bourne which meant typhoid, dysentery and cholera were avoided and meaning that the kits, packed and dispatched in Derbyshire, saved thousands of lives.

In one case, potentially deadly diseases at an orphanage in Nigeria were reduced to a manageable level thanks to the Aquaboxes.

In the poverty-stricken village of Ikot Owuk, the main sources of drinking water are streams and ponds, which are contaminated causing Guinea worm infection, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis and typhoid fever.

Boxes were delivered to the home through the Christian African Relief Trust which sent the Aquabox volunteers a letter of thanks.

It read: "We, the staff and children of this home, seize this opportunity to salute and thank your organisation for the wonderful humanitarian gesture of providing Aquaboxes.

"Since we started to distribute your organisation's Aquaboxes, the diseases have reduced to a manageable point."

In tomorrow's Derby Telegraph, find out about the two Derbyshire men who invented the life-saving Aquaboxes.

Click here to read more about the Aquabox campaign