Can you help us share dignity this Christmas and New Year’s to a refugee mother or an unaccompanied child? Reynosa, Mexico. “Mother of Exiles. From her beacons-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command …Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breath free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Those are some of the beautiful words on the United States of America’s national icon, The Stature Of Liberty. Often, we imagine our Lady Liberty crying with shame. The U.S. has made a liar of her.

Guess what? Today is Global Handwashing Day. Guess what else? Most of you are doing it wrong. Gross. Here at A Ripple, we have a passion for WASH (Water, Sanitation, Hygiene) and try our best to help with safe water, adequate sanitation, and proper hygiene. Did you know that 95% of people only wash their hands for 6 seconds as opposed to the recommended 20? Or that 1/3 of people don’t use soap when washing hands? Remember, soap and water go hand in hand. Today, we feel it’s important to take a moment to remember that 80% of communicable diseases are shared by touch and that proper handwashing can reduce diarrhea rates by 40%.

Yesterday, our Dr. Suzanne walked outside into the chilly 5:00 a.m. morning to start her drive to Shiprock Emergency Room on the Navajo Nation. She immediately appreciated what she saw. “It’s really dark and there’s lots of stars. I saw a shooting star right when I came out!” Of course Suzanne knows it’s not an actual star that’s shooting. She went to science class in grade school. It’s just a small meteor rock that’s burning up in the earth’s atmosphere. Simple, factual, and awesome. As a doctor, Suzanne believes in the pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on EVIDENCE, also known as science. Her grade school teacher was sharing the best information that was known to humankind. If we’re realistic, we would be actually wishing on a piece of dust dying from space.

A few days ago, we had the pleasure of meeting a Navajo woman named Tisa. Tisa lives on her family’s land in a very difficult place to find in Two Gray Hills, Navajo Nation. She was in need of help with some water issues, mainly that there was none. Like most Navajo living on the reservation, she gets water trucked in and stored in a container, as there’s no running water. Pictured here is her main container, which over time becomes full of algae and bacteria. She was thrilled to receive a water filter, and we all drank this old untrusted water with confidence.