School works for safe water in Myanmar

LENDING A HAND- Calabasas Mayor Mary Sue Maurer, center, joins Viewpoint School students Szimonetta Mulati, left, and Francesca de Fusco in assembling water pasteurization indicators for use in providing clean water for infant formula in Myanmar. Viewpoint School and the Rotary Club of Calabasas recently conducted a workshop to assemble hundreds of water pasteurization indicators for delivery to relief workers in Myanmar.

WAPIs are 4-inch plastic tubes containing wax particles that melt when submerged into water that has reached 149 degrees Farenheit (65 degrees Celsius), a temperature that eliminates microbes carrying E. Coli, rotaviruses, giardia and Hepatitis C virus.

Limited access to safe water in Myanmar has inhibited the production of formula for infants orphaned by the recent cyclone.

Viewpoint and Calabasas High School students spent two hours assembling 250 WAPIs, which the Calabasas Rotary sent to Krit GarnjanaGoonchorn, the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the kingdom of Thailand to the United States. He will deliver the WAPIs to Princess Maha ChakriSirindhorn, executive vice president of the Thai Red Cross Society, who will take them to Myanmar.

Eighty percent of illness in the developing world is due to contaminated water. Several years ago, Walt and Diane Parrish of the Fresno Rotary Club initiated a campaign to produce WAPIs through community workshops throughout the county.

In the past two years, high school volunteers and Rotarians have made 19,000 WAPIs that have been distributed to communities in rural areas of Africa, Iraq and the Americas, primarily for use with solar cookers.

"Viewpoint was thrilled to have our students in the upper school join with our neighbors from Calabasas High School in an effort that will have a significant impact on villages halfway around the world," said Viewpoint School headmaster Robert J. Dworkoski. "This project of the International Rotary is such a simple yet effective way to provide safe water and help the victims of the recent cyclone in Myanmar."

Mary Sue Maurer, mayor of Calabasas, joined Viewpoint's students and faculty, members of the Calabasas Rotary and student members of the Interact Club from Calabasas High School in the assembly line set up in the Gates Academic Center on View-point's upper school campus.