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As the Wally radio-a-thon on WAY-FM campaign has drawn to a close, we at Blood:Water Mission have been blown away by the incredible outpouring of generosity from Wally's listeners! We are so excited to see how this generosity and support will bring safe water and HIV/AIDS care to the people of Zambia!

In 2012, Wally Show listeners partnered with Blood:Water Mission to bring health and healing to the war torn regions of Northern Uganda. Affecting the lives of over 2,000 families with access to safe water through wells and well repairs and health care for men, women and children affected by HIV/AIDS at the New Life Medical Center in Kitgum, Uganda.

This year, support from listeners more than doubled and we will be able to provide communities in Zambia with over 5,000 families receiving access to safe water biosand water filters and HIV education, testing and counseling in Zambia because of the generosity of the Wally Show!

What is a Biosand Water Filter?

If you are new to Blood:Water Mission and to our work in Africa, we want to enlighten you on the incredibly simple, but effective technology of the bio-sand water filter. Bio-sand water filters are an in-home water filtration system that utilizes ancient technologies to purify unsafe drinking water.

The filter, which is roughly the size of a 25 gallon trash can, is assembled to mimic the layers of soil. You see, rainwater is filtered as it passes through layers of soil on its way to the water table (deep below the surface). The bio-sand water filter is assembled with layers of sand and rock to duplicate this process on a smaller scale.

"But what is the "bio" in bio-sand water filter?" You may be asking yourself this. Well, for this, image yourself looking at a pond. If it is a pond with some age and without drainage, it most likely has a rather foul smelling, green scum on top of the surface. This is a bio-layer. A layer that consists of many organisms fight and feed off of each other for survival. These organisms like us, need fuel to survive and the pond serves as a feasting ground - good bacteria eating bad bacteria! (And you thought it was just scum).

Each bio-sand water filter has its own bio-layer on the top of each filter. As dirty water is fed into the filter, it first passes through the bio-layer, where 'good' organisms eat 'bad' organisms! Just like the pond scum! The water then continues down through the sand and rock in the filter to remove the rest of the sediment and pathogens in the water - resulting in safe drinking water!

To learn more about bio-sand water filters you can consult this fantastically silly, but informative video on YouTube: