Sampritha is a young girl who we new even before she was born!  Her family’s toilet was destroyed by the tsunami and because her mother was pregnant, they were high on our priority list.  Ever since she was born in 2005, she has suffered from physical problems.  She would have bouts of high fever and sweats almost every night and abdominal cramps during the day.  We took her to local doctors as well as Appolo Hospital in Colombo, but always to no avail.  Finally, however, we had a breakthrough.  During our trip in January, 2008, we had the water from the family well tested.  It was a new closed well provided by an NGO and should not have had problems, but it did.  The well was contaminated with e-coli and phosphate.  With a closed well, there should have been no e-coli, but we found that their old, open well was still in use, allowing the e-coli which is often air-borne to infiltrate.  We also learned that behind their home was an old rice patty where fertilizers had been in use for years.  We immediately arranged to have bottled water brought in every month for Sampritha.

A common problem in developing countries are parasites.  Sampritha, like many children got them while playing in the dirt.  She had been treated in the past, but they always returned.  A new doctor asked if the family had been treated and we discovered, they had not.  He told us that they were probably re-infecting her on a regular basis.  Once the whole family was treated, she has had no further problems.