[Mission: Agua-Possible] will bring water to thirsty Venezuelans once the STEEM price recovers!

This is DRutter, and you're reading the 57^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 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, 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 US is blockading the country with their navy from the sea, "eager to help" (hungry to invade). 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, 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 harvested some payayas this week, despite the drought and lack of appropriate pest control. )

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.

Minimal progress this week

Thanks to a handful of upvotes, mostly from our regular supporters, we added a few STEEM to our stack this week. Since the value of those STEEM didn't plunge this week. we managed to eek out a tiny increase in overall progress, now just above 19%.

But wouldn't it be great to have this funded and installed by Christmas? Then Edgar's family (and neighbors) who rely on the well water won't have to go another holiday season without it. It's bad enough they've been struggling for more than a year, no help from the government in sight. They're doing the best they can, essentially camping in their old neighborhoods, but the situation gets worse every month. People are suffering needlessly.

Will you make the water flow, with us?

Much appreciation to those who upvoted last week:

Week 57

week 56 funds: 1759.163 Steem

new funds:

• week 56 post payout = 2.083 STEEM and 2.084 SP = 4.167 Steem
• 1.0 STEEM direct donation from @DRutter
• you can send me Steem directly and your donation will be noted here

Total funds: 1764.33 Steem

x 0.142 USD/Steem = $250.53 USD (of $1300)

Current progress: 19.3%

Our progress appears more related to the price of STEEM than any other factor, including the donations and hard work of supporters here on the blockchain. Even when we get influxes of hundreds of STEEM, the crashing value of the currency manages to wipe out all our gains. We've only managed to claw our way to 19.3% after well over a year, and there's no sign support is snowballing. Maybe if the blockchain was healthy and busy, we could gain significant momentum, but as things are, that's not happening.

So we can't outpace the falling price of STEEM, and we're not likely to gain momentum out of nowhere. How then are we going to complete this project?

It truly appears that we're at the whims of the market, and as STEEM has been consistently falling for more than 2 years now, with no end in sight, this project has no end in sight either. In trying to save up 1300 USD, we've brought in far more than that amount already, yet sit below 20% complete! Our funds are continually robbed from us.

And of course, half all donations are returned to the donors, thanks to HF21. Not to mention, another half of our donations are pillaged to boost high-paying posts by whales and insiders. Thus, it has become incredibly hard to accumulate funds, and exponentially hard to outpace the falling value of those funds.

That's why it appears, through no fault of ours (or of any one person/group), our only viable option is to hope STEEM does recover someday. Until that happens, Mission Agua-Possible doesn't seem possible. :(

Nevertheless, I will continue to write these posts, promote the project, ask others to get involved, donate my money and time, and put everything received (payouts and donations) toward the total. Thank you to everybody who has become involved over the year+.

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