top of page

About

annapurna sunrise photo.jpg

Filters For Families is an organization founded to help alleviate the problem of arsenic poisoning in Nepal by working with local villages to build water filters, conduct research, and educate people about the danger. Since being founded 2004, Filters for Families has expanded works to provide healthy living through safe water, nutrition, hygiene, and education across the globe. We've worked in areas with contaminated water around the world, as well as in earthquake affected areas, most recently in Puerto Rico. Through the filter projects, we discovered other needs and extended our work to address them. We recently created a new division for these projects, Beyond Filters

A premiere project for Beyond Filters is The Pad Project. We designed/developed a pad to address the need for menstrual products in disaster response and in communities in need. The hope is to produce our pads ourselves with volunteers. Our initial goal for this project is to stockpile 500 starter packs that would be ready to go when the need arises. 

Meet Us

Dr.Linda Smith

Linda is the co-founder and Executive Director of Filters for Families and is on

the ground working on every project.

She earned a PhD in Geology, conducted research in arsenic, health, filter development and other topics. During her Fulbright program in Nepal, she became aware of the arsenic problem there and developed arsenic awareness workshops, trained teams to test water, and created the Nutrition and Hygiene Programs in the Terai region. Since 2015, she has led disaster relief programs designing a two-bucket system using a hollow fiber unit for safe water in Nepal, Puerto Rico and Peru. Her focus is to work with local NGO's in remote areas and to help the most vulnerable. The need for reusable sanitation pads during a disaster became apparent during the 2020 earthquake in Puerto Rico. Linda is excited to work with Ivy to launch this important program for women.

Water%20for%20PR%20%20last%20days%20imag

"Ivy"

Olivia Buchanan

Ivy is the newest member of the Filters for Families team. She is the project 

manager for the Beyond Filters: The Pad Project. She conducted the material research and led product development for the pads. Before that she ran the Water for Puerto Rico blog and volunteered at events to do outreach and retail merchandising. Ivy has a varied background and is a bit of a "jack of all trades". After getting her bachelor's degree, she continued her creative work including showing paintings in a gallery, along with working in a variety of other fields. 

20210420162705_IMG_0172.JPG

We Need Your Support Today!

bottom of page