Let's give WATER this Christmas! [Mission: Agua-Possible] and a thirsty Venezuelan family need your help.

Welcome back to Mission Agua-possible! We're gathering Steem equal to 1300 USD, to buy a pump for a neighborhood well. This will instantly provide years of clean drinking water for several families and a small farm in crisis-stricken Venezuela! This is week 11.

Background

Severe economic and political crisis over the past few years in the South American country of Venezuela intensified recently, as president Maduro doubled down on his currency manipulation, price-fixing, propagandizing citizens, and suppressing resistance. You may recall an attempted "exploding drone attack" there earlier this year. But the world's media isn't showing us even half the reality.

I met a few people from Venezuela, and I started to hear their interesting stories - and ask questions. I discovered the dark truth about the economic and political situation there. Shops are empty, people are hungry - the economy is at a standstill. Theft, corruption, and violence escalate as society breaks down. Millions are fleeing on foot - if they can escape. The harsh socialist government attempts to control almost every aspect of life, and blames problems on the people. Most government services (like running water) work only in certain areas - or not at all. A few weeks ago, Maduro announced that Venezuela will no longer accept US Dollars for oil exports, then tried to get his country's gold back from Bank of England, who refused, claiming he would steal it.

In the midst of all this, I met Edgar (@edgargonzalez), a Venezuelan man about my age. He's a father of young children, and a professional whose job disappeared because of the crisis. He feeds his family by fishing, foraging for fruits, and growing cassava on his late-father's plantation. He uses Steemit to share his stories and make Steem to buy food. Shortly after I met Edgar, a power outage caused a failure of the pump used to bring water up to the farm. A repairman confirmed the pump is beyond fixing. Edgar had been using his well to water his crops, and to provide drinking water to his children and other families in the neighborhood. Without a pump to bring water up from the aquifer, his gardens have withered - and the neighborhood must forage for water elsewhere.

( photo from Edgar's birthday last week )

Without government water services, and now without water from his well, Edgar and a few other families are in a harsh situation. When I heard about this, through Steemit, I realized that Steemit could also be the SOLUTION!

That's when I stepped forward with Mission Agua-possible! Once we gather 1300 USD worth of Steem, I'll transfer it to Edgar, to be converted to cash to buy the pump.

Getting water flowing on the farm as soon as possible is vital. Water is life!

Steady progress!

After a great week last week, things slowed down for upvotes this week. Thankfully there were some other sources of income like @jk6276's previous contest and his latest raffle.

Resteems help get new eyes (and upvotes) into the project, so thank you if you're able to resteem.

And a big thank you to everybody who upvoted last week's post!

Week 11

week 10 funds: 59.732 Steem

new funds:

• week 10 payout = 0.004 SBD, 1.13 SP, and 1.118 Steem = 2.26 Steem
• 1.25 Steem from @jk6276's previous contest
• 0.5 Steem tip from @jk6276
• 0.101 Steem direct donation from @vantocan
• 0.082 Steem direct donation from @zcopley
• 1.5 Steem from @jk6276's new raffle
• you can send me Steem directly and your donation will be added here

Total funds: 65.425 Steem

Current USD value: $24.6 (of $1300)

Current progress: 1.9%

We did alright for Steem income this week, and the USD price of Steem has finally stopped crashing, putting our progress up some, to 1.9% this week. We're headed in the right direction! And when the price of Steem recovers, our holdings will drastically rise in value. We're accumulating Steem now while it's cheap, and before long we'll ride the next price move to victory. It will be a sweet day seeing the shiny new Italian steel pump delivered and installed, and the fresh drinking water pouring out of the taps and irrigation hoses!

If Steem goes back up to 8 USD tomorrow, we'll be half way to completion!

Upvoting this post helps - thank you so much! 100% goes toward the pump.

Mission Agua-possible will help many people, and inspire other great projects. It's like an open-source success story, playing out on the Steem blockchain. Together, we're going to dramatically improve the lives of a whole neighborhood that really needs it!

DRutter