Bringing clean water to Guatemala project by APU students

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By BoRo Dolgorjav (The Fountain staff)
January 25, 2018

“Lots of students in APU afraid of the failure,” Kenta Minagi said. “But there are lots of chances to support your idea in APU”
In Apr 2018 APU students have started Minagi project which aims to provide the Eco Filter which can reduce the water pollution of Guatemala, a country located in Central America.

 The project has launched by Kenta Minagi who is mixed with Japanese and Guatemalan, consists of 4 members of different countries Japan, Malaysia, Bulgaria, Nepal, who want to reach out to people with problems.

 When Kenta was a child, his mother used to take him to a rural area where there was a serious problem of water, how he knows the difficulties of water pollution. In Guatemala, one of the big problems is poor water quality that causes many serious diseases and food shortages.

 The main purpose of this project is learning how to make Eco filter as the members of the Minagi project and to educate the community about making and using a filter by themselves. 

 “Just giving filter cannot solve the serious problem, we need to educate them to make their own filter,” Kenta said. “We still need more solution in our project”

 One of the difficult things on this project was language to communicate with local residents in Guatemala. Kenta was the only person who can communicate in Spanish. Other members need to improve their Spanish as much as they can.

 Even though they are facing lots of obstacles, they are working hard for their project by organizing events for their funds, visiting Chiquimula for their researches and visiting Asami water treatment plant to educate themselves more.

 “If you have an idea to try to help someone, go ahead just do it.” Kenta Minagi said. “But once you start you shouldn’t stop, you have responsibilities”.

 For their next steps, they are holding several fundraising events to solve the problem of the money, opening food stall in Oita station and APU to sell goods from Guatemala and holding AP conference in APU.

 They are planning to go to Chiquimula, Guatemala in spring 2019 to provide sustainable clean water supplies to the communities and setting up the Eco Filter devices in selected locations.

 One of the Mongolian students who is supporting them Ulziibuyan Enkhtur said “I really proud of their initiative and willingness to run this project. I feel the project is worth to support as they have a clear plan and motivated members”.

 “I still worry about on my project,” Kenta said. “But I need to do this even if I fail, at least it will be a great experience”.

 Feel free to support them and get more information https://camp-fire.jp/projects/view/104831

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