JOINT BASE CHARLESTON, S.C. – As families across the nation prepares for Thanksgiving, the 16th Airlift Squadron is offering Hondurans a reason to be thankful.
Following the devastation caused by Hurricanes Eta and Iota, Joint Base Charleston delivered water purification systems donated by Water Missions, a local Charleston charity.
The donated cargo totaled nearly 22,000 pounds and is valued at $81,140. According to donating organizations, the aid supplies are estimated to touch the lives of 35,000 people in living in Honduras.
“Right now, the quickest way to get supplies into Honduras is with the Air Force because some places are inundated with as much as eight to nine feet of water,” said Mark Baker, director of disaster response for Water Missions. “Safe water is the most critical thing a person can have in the aftermath of a disaster.”
The cargo was donated in conjunction with the Denton Amendment, a State Department and USAID program that allows humanitarian aid to be flown on existing U.S. Air Force missions, on a space-available basis. These missions are flown at no additional cost to the U.S. taxpayers.
“Thousands of Hondurans miss work and school daily because of water-borne illness,” according to Water Mission’s Denton application, “The ability to have safe water available and local allows families to spend the hours they normal spend collecting water or sick from drinking contaminated water to have much fuller, more successful lives and break cyclical poverty.”