Scout helps send water filters to Puerto Rico

Last September, Shawn Goyal, then a sophomore at The Altamont School, was learning about Puerto Rico in his Spanish class. It just so happened he and his classmates were learning about the country as it was being ravaged by Hurricane Maria.

Goyal, a Boy Scout with Troop 76 in Vestavia Hills, learned the Community Foundation of Birmingham had sent aid to Puerto Rico. As he was trying to find a project to attain the rank of Eagle Scout, he decided he wanted to get involved in relief efforts as well.

“I was looking for an Eagle Scout project, but there are Puerto Ricans in my troop,” Goyal said. “... They’re a part of the United States. It just was not as widely publicized.”

Goyal contacted Uzima, a nonprofit that sends water filters around the world, and with their help and the help of a contact in Puerto Rico, he set about fundraising to purchase the filters, assemble them and send them to those in need in Puerto Rico.

When he asked his Puerto Rican contact, Ricardo Ufret, how many water filters were needed, he was told, “as many as you can send,” Goyal said.

“Even before the hurricane, Mr. Ufret told me the water in Puerto Rico, it might have gone to a lot of places, but it wasn’t always [safe to drink],” Goyal said.

Goyal began the process of obtaining and assembling the filters, designed to last 10 years. Home Depot, he said, was kind enough to donate buckets to use for the filters, which he held fundraisers to pay for.

Guidelines for an Eagle Scout project stipulate it must involve fundraising, work days that involve overseeing other Scouts, and working with a nonprofit in the community.

While Puerto Rico is more than a few miles away from the greater Birmingham area, Goyal noted it is still a U.S. territory and is part of the larger, global community.

Goyal raised almost all of the $5,000 to purchase the filters, finishing just $12 short. Since his parents had not yet donated, they gave the $12 to reach his goal. After Goyal purchased the filters, he held work days in his driveway in June, overseeing younger Scouts who helped him drill holes in the buckets.

“We just spent [the days] drilling holes in buckets, which was harder than I expected, and then assembling the filter,” he said.

The filter was placed between the two buckets, with the top bucket sending dirty water through the filter, which sends clean water to the bottom bucket. The water is then retrieved by a spigot installed by the Scouts.

So far, teams in Puerto Rico have distributed 160 of the 175 filters Goyal sent to them in July, and they’ve gone all over the country, he said. Churches have taken the filters and distributed them to various community centers, too, he said.

“It felt amazing to be able to send filters to Puerto Rico,” Goyal said. “I feel like I made an impact.”

Goyal said he knows he wants to continue having an impact — not just in the United States, but around the world.