Exit
filters and delivers them to impoverished areas and at disaster
relief efforts. Luckey learned of
the organization when a peer was
reading a surfing magazine and
pointed out the ad. Soon after she
contacted them, the duo traveled
to Afghanistan with suitcases full
of water filters.
Lt. Luckey made a point to only
teach the women how to use the
filters, emboldening wives and
mothers to take back some control
of their households with the task
of providing safe drinking water
for their families.
Mindful of the wary looks and
the thinning crowd of women at
the meeting she organized, she
attempted to get the remaining
women to trust her judgment.
“I said I’m going to drink this
because I’m going to show you this
filter works. I went to the river with
one of them, and it just blew [her]
mind,” she says. “I went to take that
sip and in my head I was like ‘Oh
God. If this thing doesn’t work, I’m
going to feel pretty sick.’”
Not only did Luckey survive the
sip of filtered river water, she was
able to gain the trust of the village
women, which helped secure their
cooperation during future endeavors she planned. The women who
GREATEST PERSON
OF THE WEEK
HUFFINGTON
12.09.12
stayed behind to learn about the
filters in turn spread the word to
their friends and neighbors, and
the water filter plan grew throughout the community.
After getting in the good graces
of the town’s governor, Luckey
orchestrated a small female governmental committee to address
the grievances of the women, such
as the length of work days in the
I said I’m going to drink
this because I’m going to show
you this filter works. I went to
the river with one of them, and
it just blew [her] mind.”
field or the ostracization of widows. It was the first movement
of its kind in the rural, far flung
Northern Kunar Province and the
first time any women had even
been admitted in the governor’s
compound, let alone for the purpose of representing themselves.
“It was this crazy thing that
happened. The governor was even
shocked. He was like, ‘women
don’t come here,’” Luckey says.
“‘No? Well they’re going to come
here today.’”