Welcome! It's DRutter with the 70th 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 and internet blackouts happen regularly. 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 harvests are reduced - and the neighborhood must forage for water elsewhere.
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.
Sudden price jump!
The price of STEEM took off over the past couple days, from about 14 cents to about 18 cents! Our holdings of almost 3000 STEEM just increased in value quite suddenly, giving us the largest progress increase EVER! (As a reminder, our holdings have been LOSING value steadily for over a year, making it quite hard for us to make much progress, no matter how generous we are with upvotes and donations!)
On top of that, we also got another boost via generous upvotes (@reflektor, @xpilar, @hingsten, @bippe, @streetstyle, @davedickeyyall, etc) - see below for details!
Will you make the water flow, with us?
Much appreciation to those who upvoted last week:
Week 70
week 69 funds: 2917.830 Steem
new funds:
- week 69 post payout = 9.422 STEEM and 9.422 STEEM POWER = 18.844 Steem
- 30.0 STEEM direct donation from @streetstyle
- 50.0 STEEM direct donation from me
- you can send me Steem directly and your donation will be noted here
Total funds: 3016.674 Steem
x 0.184 USD/Steem = $555.07 USD (of $1300)
Current progress: 42.7%
Wow, we're over 42%! That was the second largest weekly move in MAP history (after only the very first week)! We had only just hit 29% last week for the first time, now we've skipped right past the 30s!
A big thanks goes out to @Streetstyle, who put up another post here to support [MAP] last week, and sent in 30 STEEM this week! Much appreciated - we are making progress because of you!
I also chipped in an additional 50 STEEM of my own to ensure it was a week for the record books. :)
Along with all the upvotes (which totalled almost 19 STEEM), we surged above 3000! That's quite a large stack. I remember 70 weeks ago when I started this, STEEM was almost $1 each, meaning we only needed 1500 to complete the project! Now we have double that amount, and still aren't even half way.
But we should remain positive. It has been a long and hard road, but things are picking up now, and if the STEEM price continues to recover, we'll be compete within weeks! Wouldn't that be incredible? The whole blockchain will gather around and cheer for us - we're going to be heroes for a day :) Of course, that's not why we're doing it, but it'll be nice nonetheless.
NOTE: The 'Project troll' mentioned last week has said he acted in error, and won't do it again. Thanks everybody for being ready to protect the project.
Concluded: holiday water gift
During the holidays, we sent 107.5 STEEM to Edgar to buy water and necessary supplies to help make life a bit happier, while we continue to work on the main pump project.
Edgar commented this to me a few days ago:
"once again thankful for what you are doing in my help to buy the pump and with the gift of the 107 steem, if I could change them through a exchange house called: @capybaraexchange thank you I could achieve get my currency in bolivares, with that money its total amount was 800,000 bs I invested in some food and drinking water for children, in my purse you can see the day of the change, unfortunately I could not buy the same day of the change, but the day after, I am grateful to everyone for the next time I will be waiting to take pictures of the invoices and purchases, although almost never deliver invoices because the living are a little cheaper in quincallas and these almost never deliver invoices .. we Venezuelans must walk a lot to find good prices in the market of the groceries"
Essentially, he converted the STEEM through an exchange into 800,000 Bolivars (local currency), which he spent on water and food for the family. Thank you to everybody who helped make the holiday water gift happen!
Our momentum is carrying us forward, but please don't stop trying now, this is an important part of the project! Let's push through and work toward 50%, and after that, it's all flowing downhill - just like water :)
Upvoting this post is MUCH appreciated! 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
Congratulations everybody.... 43% is amazing :))
Upvoted and resteemed!
Hang in there, Edgar.
Good luck!
An early thank-you to big upvoters this week already:
The post is nearing $10 already, which means our votes are maximized and doing the most possible good! We won't get pillaged to empower already high-paying posts under HF21 rules. :)
Hope the steem value keeps going up some more so we can get this water sorted sooner.
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