Our Projects

The Leave A Trace Foundation is excited to announce that we are expanding the scope of how we serve those in need around the world!

Just hours after completing this semester’s final exams, our Director of Marketing and New Technologies, Matthew Lee, made a road trip out of state to visit with and be trained by Surgeons for Sight. This group of doctors teaches others how to hold vision screening clinics to improve vision for individuals who have little or no access to eye care or corrective lenses. Imagine a student diligently working to gain the skills necessary to qualify for a decent paying job but unable to see the teacher’s chalkboard and learn the required lessons. Or imagine the grandmother who has never been able to focus on the twinkling eyes and smile of her precious grandchild.

Now in addition to clean water, Leave A Trace will provide Clear Vision. Click here to learn more.

In June 2014, Leave A Trace hosted our second Water Conference.  Our partners at Delta Airlines gifted their New York Skyline Conference Room in the Delta World Headquarters in Atlanta for the morning.  The conference featured speakers from the Waterborne Disease Prevention Branch of the CDC, Emory University’s Center for Global Safe Water, Grupo EOZ, and Leave A Trace.  Attendees included Delta employees, teachers from the Atlanta area, and Outreach Directors from local churches.  Speakers explained the crisis that is created by unsafe drinking water and what you and I can do to fix it.  The solutions are SIMPLE! Visit the “how can I help?’ page or contact us for how you can get involved.

In June 2014, Leave A Trace traveled to Santo Domingo to test and analyze water at various locations throughout the city including an orphanage for babies and infants and a correctional facility for young girls.  Every location we tested had highly contaminated water that requires immediate attention. Our partners at Buckner International introduced us to some resourceful and influential individuals in the Dominican government that are working very hard with the First Lady to solve many of the country’s problems, including unsafe water.  Leave A Trace team members are working to develop solutions that Buckner can easily install at locations throughout the city.

In May 2014, Leave A Trace traveled to Peru for multiple purifier installations at several locations all around the country.  We partnered with Delta Airlines to install 15 bucket filtration systems in an orphanage in Lima that houses over 800 children.  Next, we installed an electrolysis purification system at a soup kitchen in the Pamplona District outside of Lima.  This soup kitchen services hundreds of people each day.  Leave A Trace team members then traveled to Cusco where we installed 10 bucket filtration systems in a Quechuan community located high in the Andes Mountains.  Finally, we provided our partners at Buckner International with 50 micron filters to install in a Peruvian community located deep in the Amazon Rainforest.

In May 2013, Leave A Trace traveled to Chimbote, Peru to install an electrolysis water filtration system at a rural school located approximately 1 hour outside of Chimbote. We experienced many interesting challenges along the way from TSA “inspecting” (more like breaking) some of our crucial components to having to use a donkey drawn cart to clean out the water tank. Our local Peruvian ingenuity ultimately made the installation possible. After the system was correctly operating, we trained the school principal and local community leader on the maintenance of the system. For more information on this project, check us out on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LeaveATraceFoundation.

Leave A Trace trained a local mission team on pathogen water testing for their upcoming travel to the Dominican Republic at the end of May. Additional training on the asembly, instalation, and operation of a water filtration system is planned for the summer of 2013. If you or someone you know would like to be trained in clean water solutions, visit the “how can I help page” or contact us.

A never ending goal for us at Leave A Trace is to find low-cost, yet highly-effective solutions for providing clean water to individual homes or families. During our trip to Guatemala, we learned more about candle filtration systems, and with that in mind, we have been working on new filtration systems currently being used in Mexico that promise even greater flow-rates and water purity. We have also adopted a new water testing  method that allow us to better isolate the levels of specific pathogens, such as E-Coli, in water around the world.

Leave A Trace rang in the new year by traveling to Guatemala to scope out new projects. We also provided candle filtration systems for one school and four families in working in the Guatemala.

In June 2012, Leave A Trace returned to Chimbote, Peru and installed an electrolysis water purification system in the Monte Chimbote Community Center. This purifier will service the approximately 700 people that live in the Mount Chimbote community. The purifier was installed on a new water tank supplied by the Chimbote Rotary Club. The Chimbote Rotary Club has become increasingly involved in our clean water projects, and we are excited about the prospects of such a partnership.  After a simple installation, Leave A Trace team members trained community leaders on the proper operation and maintenance of the purifier.

In June 2012, Leave A Trace members surveyed 8 sites around Chimbote, Peru for clean water projects. Each site was extensively cataloged, and the water tested for pathogens. The sites included several schools, one of which is located in a remote area of Peru. At this school, the principal explained that the children must walk as much as two hours to school, and when they arrive, they have no clean water to drink. After evaluating the water samples, we know there is an immediate need for the installation of purification equipment.

In November 2010, Leave A Trace returned to Chimbote, Peru to install an electrolysis water purification system. The system was installed at a soup kitchen in the Veinticinco de Mayo District. The soup kitchen services approximately 1,000 people everyday.  The location had previosly been identified as a source of contaminated water on a trip in the summer of 2010. Leave A Trace team members installed the purifier to work in tandem with the soup kitchen’s existing well and storage tank system. After a successful installation, the locals who operate the facility were trained in the daily management of the purifier.

In June 2011, Leave A Trace coordinated with Georgia Tech, Waterstep, and Engineers Without Borders to bring a clean water training conference to Atlanta, Georgia. Conference attendees were taught how to bring clean water and hygiene solutions into developing countries. Attendees received hands-on training for installing Waterstep’s New Life International Water Purification Systems and were introduced to several systems engineers at Georgia Tech have been developing. Conference guests are already installing systems in the Dominican Republic, parts of South America, and Nigeria.