Beckham
and Karla Allen Collect Shoes, Turn Them into Pure Water for Haiti, Kenya
In July
2011, Beckham Allen led three other members of his
Ozark Water Projects team to
earthquake-ravaged
Haiti. Their mission: to help local Port-Au-Prince citizens
survive by setting up pure-water stations in a starving community.
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| Karla and Beckham Allen...and shoes |
While Allen
and his cohorts worked with residents, digging wells and setting up water-purification
systems to provide clear, running water, his wife Karla was back in their Arkansas
hometown of
Little Rock, continuing to organize shoe-collection drives--their
source for raising monies to purchase water-station equipment to help more struggling
people survive.
In January
2012, Beckham Allen and another group of dedicated volunteers will travel to
Kenya, then to
Honduras in early spring, then back to Haiti in July. They’ll
spend a month in each country repeating their life-nurturing service. The
Allens themselves--Beckham’s a computer project manager by profession, Karla’s
a teacher--find this growing service to be life-nourishing.
“Twenty
years ago when we lived in
Saudi Arabia we went on vacation to Kenya and
Zimbabwe,” Beckham recalls. “I fell in love with Africa and was so touched by
the people there that I told Karla I didn’t know how, or when, or what, but
some day I was going back to Africa and help these wonderful people. For the
next 20 years, from time to time, I would tell her, ‘You know I’m going back to
Africa, don’t you?’ ”
They
stumbled into the shoes-for-water profession through fate and a failing economy
rather than planning, eventually leading to Beckham’s return to Africa.
“In August
2010 I got laid off from my job for the third time in four years. I was
watching a Cardinals baseball game one night and they interviewed a guy known
as George “The Shoeman.” George explained how he collects used shoes and
turns them into clean water in Kenya. I looked up George and gave him a
call to get more information. The more we talked, the more I realized
what a great project this was, and one that I could do. I had several
thousands of frequent flyer miles saved up for the travel during my previous
employment, so I went to Kenya in January 2011 with George. Needless to
say that trip changed my life. It confirmed
that this wasn’t just something I wanted to do, it was something I had to do.”
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| Beckham in Uganda |
Karla also
plunged into the clear-water project, and while she holds down the new
operation in the U.S., she’s aware and sensitive to the needs overseas. And you
can tell from her language, especially the term “we,” her spirit is there with
her husband and the Ozark team.
“In Kenya, access to water is
scarce,” explains Karla. “There is water but it is 125 feet down.
In that case we drill a well. If there is ground water, but its safety is
not reliable, we put in a water purification system. Last January, in
Kenya, we dug four water wells and put in place five water purification
systems. The needs are different in Haiti. There the water is
unsafe, so we mainly install water purification systems there.”
Once the
Allens decided to dedicate themselves to the shoes-for-water effort, the next
step involved getting financially and legally organized.
“We raised approximately $3,000 from a few very
special friends,” explains Beckham, “and shortly after that we created a
non-profit charity called Ozark Water Projects. Since our first shoe
drive in January 2011, we have collected more than 85,000 pairs of used
shoes. Our goal for 2012 is to raise 200,000 pairs.”
The
Shoe Collecting Process
Ozark Water Projects collects donated used and new shoes year
round from businesses, churches, schools, special events and shoe drives.
Then the shoes receive a second life when The Shoeman exports them to retailers
in the developing world. The shoes’ resale “provides jobs and affordable
footwear. Affordable shoes are a life-saving tool as they protect the new
owner’s feet and overall health from foot abrasions, parasites and mites,”
according to the Ozark website. “Funds generated from the export of shoes
provide well drilling rigs, water purification systems, and hand pump repair
micro businesses to bring clean, fresh water.”
“We have raised about
$30,000 this year” from collecting those 85,000 pairs, Karla notes. She adds that the 200,000 pairs they
hope to amass in 2012 should bring about $70,000. Those monies will go
primarily for equipment and travel expenses. Since they’re new in the work of
forming and activating Ozark, Karla’s still seeing specific numbers unfold.
“The first expense is the
purchase and shipment of the well-digging rig,” she states. “That totals
about $35,000, and numerous wells can be drilled with that one rig.
I haven’t seen any cost accounting to allocate that amount out per well
yet. Once the rig is purchased and shipped we estimate that each well is
about $6,000. Workers lodge at wherever is available. On the last trip
[Haiti] they stayed at the Lawala community center. It was basically
cinder block rooms with no electricity or water or windows. This trip [Kenya]
they will stay at a local bed and breakfast. Lodging for this trip will
be a lot higher.”
The Shoeman
is George P. Hutchings, 62, of Ballwin, Missouri, a former Marine. In
1994 he founded Eagle Wings Ministries, a 501(c)3 charity dedicated to
humanitarian and educational opportunities. His Shoeman Water Projects is a
part of that operation. Since 1998, he has visited Kenya repeatedly, shipping
supplies including 21,000 meals for orphans, $2 million in medical supplies,
dental labs, and neurosurgeons for pediatric facial reconstructions. In 2008,
he began to focus on providing clean drinking water.
The
Water Providing Process
Last July,
Allen went to Haiti with three associates: Chris Allen, Thomas Hankins, and Clay Baker. They teamed with The Shoeman’s Haiti
Water Projects mission team in installing the water purification systems and
repairing hand pumps. Each system purifies 55 gallons of water per minute--about
10,000 gallons a day. The systems are located to serve the most people: usually
at schools, churches or other public centers open to an entire community. All that’s
needed to generate a system’s power: a car battery.
After establishing a
purification system, the team trains two people to be responsible for the
system and all components at each site, then returns to retrain them on another
day. This training includes basic sanitation and hygiene activities. If the new
operators have any problems at a later date, they contact the local water
minister or the interpreters who are also trained to set up the system.
In 2012, Beckham plans to
dig four wells and install several water purification systems in Kenya,
followed by more in Honduras and Haiti.
Growing Water Crisis
Morgan Stanley, the
investment giant, recently released a report, “Peak Water: ThePreeminent 21st Century Commodity Story”, stressing that the world’s declining
water supply and rising demand will prove this century’s major challenge to
global civilization. The report also notes that one of the hopeful solutions
involves advancements in water treatment and reuse.
The Allens
and The Shoeman, in a small but very active and effective way, are responding
to that challenge, one community at a time.
(This column originally ran in 2011 on Yahoo! then in 2015 on reality: a world of views.)
