By Andrew Edwards
Elmore/Autauga News Staff Writer
Top Photo:
Tommie Geohagan with an elderly woman in Haiti.
Social Good is a nationwide organization that works to create and establish positive influences. Those influences are for individuals, communities and the environment to sponsor and develop projects that will help positively impact and develop communities into healthier and happier places to live, work, and be.
In 2017 Prattville Citizen Tommie Geohagan decided to take a leap of faith and start a fiscal partnership with the organization with one mission in mind – to ease the burden for those who must carry their water for their survival and daily use.
Thus, the “Roll Out the Barrel Project” was created.
The problem in many countries is that women and children typically have to walk more than 30 minutes to arrive at a fresh water supply, Geohagan explained. Then, they must take the trek back home with the weight of the water bearing down on them, which can leave negative lifelong effects when done regularly.
Geohagan, director of the project, has helped to promote the “Rotary Water Barrel,” an inexpensive wheeled device that enables people to collect about twice as much water with little effort. The device originated in the UK and is now being delivered to many countries across the world.
His inspiration to start the project started several years ago on a trip to Haiti, in which he saw first-hand the troubles that a lack of fresh water can bring.
“People were scooping the water out of the dirt. Whenever I first saw this happening, I said to myself, ‘This can’t be.’ People were drinking nasty water just to survive, taking the chance that it might actually kill them and their children,” Geohagan said. “A lot of people have started drilling wells, and that’s an awesome thing – but after you get the clean water, more than likely it’s not right there next to their home. So, they have to get it from the source to where they consume it, and that’s where Roll out the Barrel comes in.”
The primary reason for Roll Out the Barrel is to extend the availability of the device and water filters to those in the Western Hemisphere and the rest of the world. It’s intended that women, children and the elderly who collect water, even from the closest of water sources, will no longer need to carry it, by hand, on their backs and heads, or over their shoulders.
Some of the overall benefits of the device include making it quicker and easier to collect potable water, being much less strenuous and dangerous for children’s health, easier to collect more water than traditional methods, reduced loss through spillage, and less trips per day/week to and from the water source.
“Can you imagine being able to carry almost twice the amount of water in probably less time? Children would have so much more time to do other activities, like attend school, instead of using up all their time and effort collecting water,” Geohagan explained.
So far, Geohagan has helped to deliver 250 barrels between two African countries, Zambia and Kenya, with the help of Choose Water and Kenya Relief in Cullman, AL. He explained the first shipment of 27 barrels to Haiti were just delivered by Children’s Lifeline, an organization stationed in Lancaster, OH.
Geohagan said he has also been in talks with Honduras Water Projects, and he hopes the opportunity to distribute barrels to that country will soon become available as well.
“My primary goal was to get the Rotary barrel into the western hemisphere, but I would like to introduce it to South America, too,” Geohagan said.
One of the major projects that Geohagan is currently undertaking is the “Haiti Project” in partnership with Children’s Lifeline. He expects 400 barrels will eventually be delivered to the country, which will reach approximately 4,000 people at a cost of $20,000.
Geohagan also explained that volunteers are always needed, and that those wanting to know more about donations can do so at https://www.flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/NjgxMzQ=
