[Mission: Agua-Possible] wants to bring running water back to a Steemian in need, and you can help!

It's DRutter with the 62^nd weekly post for Mission: Agua-Possible! It updates our progress toward the goal of 1300 USD (in STEEM) for a well pump to bring water to the family farm of @EdgarGonzalez.

Background

Severe economic and political crisis over the past few years in the South American country of Venezuela have intensified in 2019, as president Maduro doubled down on his currency manipulation, price-fixing, propaganda, and suppressing resistance. You've heard about the country's recent turmoil, but the world's media isn't showing us even half the reality!

I began to see more and more Steem users from Venezuela, I started to hear their interesting stories - and ask questions. I discovered some dark truths about the economic and political situation there. Most shops are empty, the currency is collapsing, people are hungry - the economy is at a standstill. Theft, corruption, and violence escalate as society breaks down. Those who can are fleeing on foot - 8 million already. The harsh socialist government attempts to control/fix the economy, and blames problems on the people. Most government services (like running water) work only in certain areas - or not at all.

The people are desperate for any change and protests sometimes fill the streets for miles. 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. The Russian military has become involved, supporting Maduro. The Americans back a man called Guaidó, who also has little public support. Electrical blackouts happen regularly. The US is blockading the country with their navy from the sea. Stability for the people appears out of reach.

Edgar

In mid-2018 I found @edgargonzalez, the blog of Edgar, 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, harvesting fruits, and growing cassava on his late-father's plantation. He uses the Steem blockchain to share his stories and earn cryptocurrency 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 garden output has dropped - and the neighborhood must forage for water elsewhere.

( Edgar's single post this week shocked me. Here's a man literally struggling to grow/catch food to keep his family alive, and he's still doing what it takes to keep his Steem account active, despite "dismal" internet access in rural Venezuela. He apologized for his absence, blaming a broken phone and the internet outages, and uploaded a few photos of the sunset from his fishing spot. His struggle for life in this paradise sits strangely with me. Here in 2019 we still can't get fresh water to everyone on the planet, despite all our advances in war. The beauty of the photo belies Edgar's situation, nearly unable to access the internet, barely hanging on, with young children and elderly family members counting on him. I hope it wasn't his final post, and he's merely busy or unable to get online since. )

Without government water services, and now without water from his well, Edgar and a few other families are in a tough situation. I wondered what a poor Canadian man could do to help. After using the Steem blockchain to learn about the problems, I realized that it could also be the SOLUTION!

That's when I first began Mission Agua-possible! (The first post was here. I published a special video edition in week 43 here.) Once we gather 1300 USD worth of Steem, I'll transfer it to Edgar, to be converted to cash to buy the pump.

Water is life! Getting this pump for the farm as soon as possible is vital.

A busy week

Last week I wrote a separate post about [MAP] here, which helped bring in attention from members like @streetstyle, who wrote a great support post of his own called Condensing STEEM Into Life Giving Water, and pledged the payout to the project! Please make sure you go and vote/comment there, if you're able. Thank you!

This increased visibility resulted in several new people commenting, upvoting, and pledging support in upcoming weeks! That's awesome, thank you everybody! What an awesome group effort.

As you'll read below, direct donations from regulars and newcomers alike were received. Our progress had been just under 22%, the highest yet, and we were hoping to break through toward 25%. Meanwhile, the value of our STEEM holdings took another dip this week, putting us in strong headwinds. Read on to see how the numbers ended up!

Will you make the water flow, with us?

Much appreciation to those who upvoted last week:

Week 62

week 61 funds: 1900.038 Steem

new funds:

• week 61 post payout = 9.524 STEEM and 9.525 STEEM POWER = 19.049 Steem
• 10.0 STEEM direct donation from @kunschj
• 50.0 STEEM direct donation from @xpilar
• 45.0 STEEM direct donation from @sultan-aceh
• 30.0 STEEM direct donation from @streetstyle
• 1.0 STEEM tip from @davedickeyyall
• 1.0 STEEM tip from @melinda010100
• you can send me Steem directly and your donation will be noted here

Total funds: 2056.087 Steem

x 0.121 USD/Steem = $248.79 USD (of $1300)

Current progress: 19.1%

As you can see, not only did we not break out to 25% this week, we backslid from 22 to 19% :(

STEEM just hit its lowest price March 2017. This is great for investors wanting to buy cheap, but terrible for those of us holding STEEM. It's extra sad because we had hoped cryptos would be able to help save people, but now it appears Steem is holding our project back. If we had only decided to convert all funds instantly into US Dollars, or Canadian Dollars, or even Bitcoin, everything would be fine. The only currencies we could have chosen to save in that would have been bad ideas were Bolivars and STEEM.

In the 'good news department', we're over 2000 STEEM now! Wow, when we started this, STEEM was about $2 each. We thought we only needed about 650 of them to reach the 1300 USD goal. Now we're over 2000 and still nowhere close to the finish line!

It's actually really demoralizing. I completely understand if people want to hold back donations and just sit tight and wait for the price to recover. I don't mind running the numbers and posting the updates in the meantime. We'll get there, as long as STEEM survives this bear market. After putting in another 100 of my own STEEM last week, I find myself pretty sad, so I can understand how everyone else feels. This project probably would have been completed in a few weeks, if done within a bull market. It's sad that people are going thirsty because of the STEEM price falling, especially when you realize that certain groups are responsible for the price drop.

I calculated last week that even if the bear market continues, if we push hard like we have been, we'll finish in another year or so. And if that seems like too long to me, I can only imagine how long it must feel to someone without running water.

A token of my appreciation

Okay, that joke has surely already been done, but there it is again. And yes, I would like to show my appreciation to anyone sending in a direct donation of at least 10 STEEM this week toward Edgar's water pump, by transferring them a Peace Token. In fact, I'm going to send 1 token for every 10 STEEM donated. They're mostly just to say thank you, and encourage peaceful acts on the blockchain (like donating to water projects!)

Another way to earn a Peace Token is to spread this project to others! Resteem this post, and comment below to inform me, and I'll send your token (viewed/traded at Steem-Engine.com). For each resteem, I'll also send Edgar a Peace Token on your behalf.

Upvoting this post is appreciated so much! 100% goes to the project.

Mission Agua-Possible will help many people, and inspire other great projects. It's a group 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