[Mission: Agua-Possible] is 77% complete! We are going to prove blockchain and crypto can improve lives!

It's DRutter with the exciting 74^th weekly post for Mission: Agua-Possible! It 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 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, 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 - 8 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 and internet blackouts happen regularly. Stability for the people appears out of reach.

Edgar

In mid-2018 I found @edgargonzalez, the blog of Edgar, 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, harvesting fruits, and growing cassava on his late-father's plantation. He uses the Steem blockchain to share his stories and earn cryptocurrency 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 nearby families. Without a pump to bring water up from the aquifer, his harvests are reduced - and the neighborhood must forage for water elsewhere.

( Edgar showed off a crop of bananas this week, explaining these are what was left after the drought and thieves took the rest. This fruit will feed his family, and be traded for supplies and drinking water. )

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! It is vital we get this pump for the farm as soon as possible.

STEEM jumped up again, direct donations were good, and upvotes were great!

The STEEM price moved up from 0.2 to 0.3 this week, and currently sits somewhere in the middle. This was a 25% boost to our holdings, sending our progress meter jumping toward completion!

This strength was met with another strong week for upvotes AND donations! Thank you to @Xpilar, @Fundition, @Streetstyle, @Bippe, @Reflektor, @Canadian-coconut, @Wesphilbin, @Hingsten, and more - see below for details.

Will you make the water flow, with us?

Much appreciation to those who upvoted last week:

Week 74

week 73 funds: 3857.186 Steem

new funds:

• week 73 post payout = 5.314 SBD and 21.174 STEEM POWER = 42.348 Steem
• 11.727 STEEM direct donation from @wesphilbin
• 112.0 STEEM support post and direct donation from @Xpilar
• 1.0 STEEM direct donation from @GirlsofGreen
• you can send me Steem directly and your donation will be noted here

Total funds: 4024.261 Steem

x 0.249 USD/Steem = $1002.04 USD (of $1300)

Current progress: 77.1%

This week, Steemit Inc was bought by a Chinese company, causing a shock through the market. It's unclear what will come next, but at the moment, our currency is worth a lot more than it was last week. For [MAP], this has caused a welcome boost to our progress!

We're now over $1000 USD in value (although that changes every few minutes as the price fluctuates wildly)! Congratulations and thank you to all involved! Perhaps more importantly, we're over 4000 STEEM now. Awesome.

What happens next is almost entirely up to the price of STEEM. It could soar, and we could be over 100% by next Saturday. Or it could sink again, and even with all the community help we're getting, we might start backsliding again. Not to diminish the contributions we're all making, but the fact is it's the price of STEEM that decides when this project can finish up.

Preparing to gather funds for the pump purchase

Even though we're not sure what next week will bring, it's time for me to begin powering down the STEEM I'm holding for the project.

A bit of history: When this started 74 weeks ago, I thought it would only take a few weeks. I was being overly optimistic, perhaps. Even though I was voting the weekly post 100% myself (usually I don't vote my own posts), progress was verrrrrry slow. After a while, I realized it was going to take significantly longer. I powered up the holdings, still keeping track of every microSTEEM, still publishing numbers transparently. The extra Steem Power allowed my votes to increase in value, which benefited the weekly posts, and supporters who commented there. It has also beefed up my account to protect me and my posts (to some degree) from trolls and haters. As the weeks and months have ticked by, the percentage of my SP that belongs to [MAP] has increased, now to where it's about half. This boost has accelerated the project progress directly and indirectly.

But it's now the right time to power it down, as we anticipate the end of the project by July 1st or sooner. When all is said and done, I will have financially profited in no way. In fact, my contributions come close to about 1/3 of the total. I'm not saying that to be thanked, just to be clear. I didn't want to profit by doing this, and I haven't, so everything is as I intended, and as it should be.

One 'tangible' thing I will receive from this experience is reputation. The upvotes on these weekly posts have increased my reputation score (now to 68). This isn't a financial gain, at least not directly or significantly. But I want to mention it for the sake of openness. That said, I don't believe it's wrong to gain some reputation as a result of doing good charity work in the community. That's actually kind of what the reputation score is supposed to be about. Besides, I've passed on the benefits of that increased reputation, by upvoting supporters' comments every week, boosting them up along with me.

I'll begin a power-down this week, and mention the details in next Saturday's post. I'm excited to gather up all the funds in preparation for sending them through the blockchain to Edgar, once we have enough for him to convert to 1300 USD for the pump!

¡Hola Edgar!

(What many people may not know, is that 100% of this project has occurred on-chain, which means Edgar and I found each other here, made friends here, this is where I decided to help him with his sudden pump failure, and this is where all communication has taken place. When the funds are ready, this is also how they'll be transferred. It's a 100% Steem blockchain operation, from start to finish. I tried this last week in English but I didn't hear back from him about it, so I'm trying again this week en Espanol.)

Edgar, por favor empieza a trabajar en algunas cosas:

• confirme que puede localizar una bomba de acero adecuada de calidad suficiente
• ¿Será 1300 USD suficiente para la bomba Y la instalación, o necesitará un poco más de 1300?
• ¿Está listo el sitio del acuífero para la instalación de una nueva bomba?
• ¿Qué pasa con la seguridad? (sería terrible instalar la bomba y hacer que los ladrones o vándalos la arruinen)

No hay mucha prisa, pero por favor piensa en estos temas, Edgar. Pronto tendremos que ultimar algunos números y planes. ¡Gracias!

As always, thank you so much to everybody who has supported and continues to support this project. We're almost there!!

Upvoting this post is MUCH appreciated! 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