"It was clear that they were extremely grateful for what was happening in their area and embraced the Water Mission team for what they were doing in their village.”
EL PASO, Texas (PRWEB) January 08, 2018
Employees of DATAMARK, a global provider of Business Process Services (BPS) and Contact Center Services, recently teamed up with Water Mission, a Christian engineering nonprofit ministry that builds sustainable safe water solutions in developing countries and disaster areas, to build latrines for a community in Xanil, Chiapas Mexico. For this particular effort, Employees of multiple DATAMARK operational facilities competed to raise money to facilitate the construction of a water pump and pipeline to reach a supplementary water source to sustain year-round safe water for drinking and household use to about 2,200 inhabitants of this region.
In July, the fundraising efforts began and generated an overwhelming amount of funds, exceeding the target dollar amount for the event. The money collected was directly used to support the clean water system and community latrines for life. Additionally, four top-fundraising employees from DATAMARK received the opportunity to travel to Xanil to personally observe the latrine projects alongside a team from Water Mission that is currently stationed in Chiapas.
Last month, DATAMARK’s winning team traveled from El Paso, Texas to Palenque, Mexico where they journeyed by bus for 1.5 hours into the indigenous village of Xanil. “We took some time to understand how the members of the community worked to maintain the water filtration system and how they worked to develop a safe drinking water education and delivery system,” said Executive Services Administrator, Michelle Hayes. The team saw the various phases of the latrines, as there were several in the neighborhood either already built or in the process of being built. They also took part in a community education event that involved instruction on sanitary practices, with respect to hand-washing and understanding the importance of safe drinking habits. They did this through a fun clown show for the children and played games that incorporated drinking water and hand washing techniques. Additionally, the event allowed the team to witness and share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
One of the interesting revelations of this trip was the communities unease about accepting the safe drinking water; many families did not take to it immediately. Because the water goes through various processes of filtration to eliminate bacteria and other harmful elements, the taste was hard for them to accept. They preferred the river or rain water because it was what they have been accustomed to and it took Water Mission many months of reaching out and educating the community on the importance of drinking clean water. However, this educational component continues to be something the Water Mission team strives to work toward with the community and in spite of their initial hesitation, the people of Xanil are very welcoming and embrace the support of Water Mission and their efforts.
“Personally, the opportunity to visit the community of Xanil was life changing,” stated Michelle Hayes. “The families were so warm and welcoming and despite not being able to speak the language of Tzeltal, it was clear that they were extremely grateful for what was happening in their area and embraced the Water Mission team for what they were doing in their village.”
To learn more about the water crisis and Water Mission’s solutions and efforts, visit watermission.org.
About DATAMARK
DATAMARK, Inc. is a leading business process outsourcing company specializing in high-volume digital mailroom management, document processing/document management, contact center services, and process improvement consulting for Fortune 500 companies and other large enterprises.
Headquartered in El Paso, Texas, DATAMARK employs nearly 2,500 people in its U.S., Mexico, and India facilities. For more information, visit http://www.datamark.net or contact Marketing Manager Martin Rocha at info.datamark.net.