The vision for Filter of Hope was actually conceived years ago when Bart Smelley and a group were surveying families living in abject poverty in third-world countries to determine their greatest needs. The goal was to determine ways to transform their communities and break the cycle of poverty they lived in.

It was quickly realized that there could be no hope for the future when families lacked access to life’s most basic need — safe clean drinking water. He witnessed first hand the heartbreaking effects of the sickness and disease caused from families forced to drink and use contaminated water. The sight of this wrecked Bart and the team and set them in search of facts and answers.

He became obsessed with finding economical solutions to provide families with the clean water they so desperately needed to stay alive, be healthy, and have any hope for a future. They were shocked to realize the magnitude of this global crisis that claims millions of lives each year with 90% of the deaths being children under the age of 5! This was unacceptable! There had to be a solution!!

Bart tried and researched almost every type of filtration method available. The team met with many water and well drilling organizations that work among the abject poor in search of the best solutions. They found that point of use water filtration was critical to family health in developing countries regardless of their access to various water sources.

They even helped build a ceramic filter factory and distributed thousands of filters in an effort to stop the cholera outbreak in Haiti and the Dominican Republic after the devastating earthquake of 2010. After being disappointed in the different types of filtration methods available, a breakthrough occurred when they discovered a unique filtration technology using hollow fiber filter membranes.

This technology has been used in kidney dialysis and wastewater treatment for years and can also be used to make an inexpensive gravity fed point-of-use water filter that will remove the harmful bacteria and protozoa from water. Now there are thousands of Filter of Hope water filters in use around the world, saving lives, creating healthy families and giving them a hope for the future.