“Four alumni of Wageningen University are involved in Rotary Club Estoi Palace International’s water filters for Ukraine project: Lieselotte Heederik and Guido van Hofwegen developed the Nazava Water Filters; and we (Emmeke Vierhout and Kees Huizinga) use the extensive network we have built up in Ukraine with our De Leeuw Kyiv Foundation for the assembly and distribution of the filters.

I (Emmeke) was asked by Wageningen University to come and talk about the project on the alumni day on 8th October 2022, which was broadcast online. And I was of course extremely pleased to hear that the University decided to support the project by organising a crowdfunding campaign and promote this campaign among its alumni network. At the time of writing almost €35,000 has been donated through the WUR website. And hopefully it will not stop here. Recent developments in Kherson, where the drinking water system has been completely destroyed, shows that the need for the water filters is more urgent than ever.

Emmeke and Kees”

https://crowdfunding.wur.nl/project/waterfilters-oekraine

Some of the people who stayed in Kherson despite the occupation gather at a water filters distribution site in mid-October 2022. The volunteer provides some instructions:

“We will need your last name, father’s name, address and signature. Then we can start distributing [the water filters]. It will take quite a while.”

Water filters are delivered to a family of 11 children living in Izyum, Kharkiv region in eastern Ukraine. The city was liberated from Russian occupation in September 2022.

Sacha from Izyum, liberated from Russian occupation in September 2022, receives a water filter.

Water filters are assembled by Internally Displaced Persons in the storage facility in Uman, Ukraine, after which these can be transported to the families in need.