[Mission: Agua-Possible] is 15% complete and fighting the falling value of STEEM. You can help!

in #steem5 years ago (edited)

Hi, this is DRutter, and here's week 46 of Mission: Agua-Possible! This post updates our progress toward the goal of 1300 USD (in STEEM), for a well pump to bring water to the family farm of @EdgarGonzalez.

Background

Severe economic and political crisis over the past few years in the South American country of Venezuela have intensified in 2019, as president Maduro doubled down on his currency manipulation, price-fixing, propaganda, and suppressing resistance. You've heard about the country's recent turmoil, but the world's media isn't showing us even half the reality!

I began to see more and more Steem users from Venezuela, and I started to hear their interesting stories - and ask questions. I discovered some dark truths about the economic and political situation there. Most shops are empty, the currency is collapsing, people are hungry - the economy is at a standstill. Theft, corruption, and violence escalate as society breaks down. Those who can are fleeing on foot - 6 million already. The harsh socialist government attempts to control/fix the economy, and blames problems on the people. Most government services (like running water) work only in certain areas - or not at all.

The people are desperate for any change and protests sometimes fill the streets for miles. Maduro announced that Venezuela will no longer accept US Dollars for oil exports, then tried to get his country's gold back from Bank of England, who refused. The Russian military has become involved, supporting Maduro. The Americans back a man called Guaidó, who also has little public support. Electrical blackouts happen regularly. The Americans are blockading the country with their navy from the sea. Stability for the people appears out of reach.

Edgar

About a year ago, I found the blog of Edgar (@edgargonzalez), a Venezuelan man about my age. He's a father of young children, and a professional whose job disappeared because of the crisis. He feeds his family by fishing, foraging for fruits, and growing cassava on his late-father's plantation. He uses Steemit to share his stories and earn Steem to buy food. Shortly after I met Edgar, a power outage caused a failure of the pump used to bring water up to the farm. A repairman confirmed the pump is beyond fixing. Edgar had been using his well to water his crops, and to provide drinking water to his children and other families in the neighborhood. Without a pump to bring water up from the aquifer, his garden output has dropped - and the neighborhood must forage for water elsewhere.

( Edgar reminded readers this week that the crisis also affects non-humans. These homeless dogs were waiting for scraps outside a bakery. )

Without government water services, and now without water from his well, Edgar and a few other families are in a tough situation. I wondered what a poor Canadian man could do to help. After using the Steem blockchain to learn about the problems, I realized that it could also be the SOLUTION!

That's when I first began Mission Agua-possible! (The first post was here. I published a special video edition in week 43 here.) Once we gather 1300 USD worth of Steem, I'll transfer it to Edgar, to be converted to cash to buy the pump.

Water is life! Getting this pump for the farm as soon as possible is vital.

Forward progress was swallowed up by Steem's falling price

In what has begun to sound like a broken record, Steem's value against the USD dropped yet again this week. A few nice upvotes, a 25 Steem donation from @jk6276, and a 5 Steem donation from me were just enough to keep us from backsliding.

Will you make the water flow, with us?

Much appreciation to those who upvoted last week:

Week 46

week 45 funds: 829.087 Steem

new funds:

  • week 45 post payout = 0.271 SBD, 2.156 STEEM and 3.319 STEEM POWER = 6.638 Steem
  • 25.0 Steem direct donation from @jk6276
  • 5.0 Steem donation from me
  • you can send me Steem directly and your donation will be noted here

Total funds: 865.725 Steem

x 0.226 USD/Steem = $195.65 USD (of $1300)

Current progress: 15.0%

It feels like walking "up" the "down" escalator, like swimming upstream, like running into the wind. Imagine how quickly progress would advance if the price of Steem finally recovered? As I calculated yesterday, Steem has lost 99% of its purchasing power since it began less than 4 years ago! Insiders have been dumping massive amounts of it onto the market, selling their original stake. This is likely the main reason the price has been crashing for the past several months. If they ever run out of Steem to dump, maybe the price will recover, and Edgar's family will get their drinking water?

Upvoting this post is appreciated so much! 100% goes to the project.

Mission Agua-Possible will help many people, and inspire other great projects. It's a group success story, playing out on the Steem blockchain. Together, we're going to dramatically improve the lives of a whole neighborhood that really needs it!

DRutter

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Aww, cute skinny, thirsty, hungry pups! :( But imagine how all the people there feel. I wonder how much scraps there are to go around for dogs when the people aren't even getting fed :(

Way to go team! 15% is quite substantial, you can see the one-quarter mark eaily within reach from there, keep up the good work! Positive vibes :)

Happy upvoted AND resteemed again this week!
At least we're not backsliding at the moment!!

Same here, upvoted and resteemed with all my <3!

Same here, we try and resteem it every 2nd week or so.
upvoted too :)

Hola drutter,

Tu post ha sido seleccionado por el bot de @provenezuela, te hemos dado un voto en apoyo a los autores venezolanos!

Gracias por ser parte de nuestra comunidad!

This post is supported by $0.65 @tipU upvote funded by @kunschj :)
@tipU voting service: instant, profitable upvotes + profit sharing tokens | For investors.

Congratulations! Your post has been selected as a daily Steemit truffle! It is listed on rank 14 of all contributions awarded today. You can find the TOP DAILY TRUFFLE PICKS HERE.

I upvoted your contribution because to my mind your post is at least 4 SBD worth and should receive 236 votes. It's now up to the lovely Steemit community to make this come true.

I am TrufflePig, an Artificial Intelligence Bot that helps minnows and content curators using Machine Learning. If you are curious how I select content, you can find an explanation here!

Have a nice day and sincerely yours,
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TrufflePig

Upvoted from both my puny accounts. Week 46! It's certainly a slow process with the ever dwindling steem prices. I wish I could just send the full amount. I'll see what else I can do to raise some more funds.

Thanks so much for pitching in! I had originally hoped it would be completed very quickly (being such a worthwhile project that is easy to contribute to). Now the goal posts seem to be moving further away each week, as our Steem holdings dwindle in value against the USD. This wasn't supposed to be how it went. I knew things would be fine as long as there wasn't a completely collapse of STEEM. Now we are facing that reality and almost wishing this had never been attempted.