2008 Honduras Field Visit

Water 1st traveled to Honduras March 23–30 to attend the two inaugurations of the newly completed water, sanitation, and hygiene education projects in San Gabriel and Agua Caliente (funded by the Laird Norton Family Foundation). We also visited communities in the municipality of Erandique that are in need of funds for a water project.

San Gabriel, home to 310 people, and Agua Caliente, population 270, both completed their water, sanitation, and hygiene education projects this year. Prior to the projects, women and girls from both communities spent much of their days walking to the water holes and carrying heavy containers of water on their heads back to their homes. In the mountainous Lempira region of Honduras, this is excruciating work, and many women suffer from neck and back problems after a lifetime of carrying this load.

When we visited Agua Caliente last year, before the project had begun, we met a 73 year-old woman who told us that she makes nine trips each day to the water hole, that it’s hard work, and sometimes she drops her container. She will never have to make that walk again. She now has a water tap at her house. She also has a new latrine. Everyone in the community has received training in community organization, water system operations and maintenance, hygiene education, and watershed protection.

Everyone in the two communities gathered for the inauguration ceremonies, held on March 26 in San Gabriel and March 27 in Agua Caliente. In Agua Caliente, the town prepared for three days for the celebration by building a stage for event, decorated with local materials like pine needles and painted corn cobs strung together in a garland. Special guests included Alvarado Diaz, the mayor of the municipality; Wilfredo Ramos, the President of our local partner organization, COCEPRADIL; Leonel Vasquez, the director of water projects for our local partner organization; Michael & Wendy Mickle and Margie & Greg Berger, family members of the Global Fundamentals Fund Advisory Committee of the Laird Norton Family Foundation; and the Water 1st team. Special guests were presented with gourds painted with a picture of the spring that serves as the water source for the new project in Agua Caliente. Water 1st brought gifts, too – schools supplies given to Water 1st by Meridian School in Seattle – because now the children of San Gabriel and Agua Caliente will have more time to go to school.

Margie Berger represented her family’s involvement in the project by cutting the ribbon to the ceremonial water tap which was turned for the first time by Michael Mickle.

“This is the last time I will carry water home from the river.”

The inauguration ceremonies in San Gabriel and Agua Caliente involved speeches, songs, dancing, beer, a soccer game, and lots of cooked chicken and tortillas. However, two events stood out for our team. First, a woman with a traditional clay water pot walked up on stage and said, “This is the last time I will carry water home from the river,” and threw her pot down to the ground where it shattered.

The second event was the swearing in of the water committee. This group of nine elected members, men and women, raised their hands in front of the whole community and swore to uphold the water committee’s constitution and to operate and maintain the water system. The seriousness of the occasion was reflected in their demeanor, and our team was moved to tears with the significance of the moment. Because everyone is happy on the day that water starts flowing. The real beauty in these projects is the sustainability – the commitment made by the community to keep the water flowing and truly bring an end to the indignity and poor health that the daily walk for water represents.

Watch a short film of a portion of the inauguration ceremony in Agua Caliente here.

We also visited a new community, Plan de Gallinero, that is in need of water and we hope will benefit from our support in 2008. Plan de Gallinero is located in the mountains of the municipality of Erandique, a region known for its coffee because of the high elevations of the coffee farms.

Community members expressed to us their great need for a water project because they do not have a close water source. The water they have is unfit for drinking, and caused the death of three children in this small community last year. Local agricultural practices add to their water problems. Pesticides and herbicides are commonly used, and runoff from farms contaminates local drinking water supplies. One gentleman said, “We feel abandoned because we lack everything – there is no water here, no road, no electricity, no school. But first we need water. Without water, we cannot do anything else to develop our community.”

When we asked Maria Martinez, a 34 year-old mother of 5, how often she walks for water, she said, “I go all the time, maybe 10 times each day. It’s very difficult to walk on the muddy trails during the rainy season, and I have a 2 year-old that I have to carry with me every time I get water. I try to make one trip early in the morning, before my older children go to school, so I can leave the baby with them. Diarrhea is a real problem here. When my kids are sick, I go to the health center. It’s 8 kilometers (5 miles) on foot, and they don’t always have the medicine there. We really need this project. We are really grateful that you came, and we hope you come back.”

We left the community reminded by the fact that there are, unfortunately, no shortage of people in need of clean water. Hopefully, by the end of the year, Plan de Gallinero will begin its water project, too.

It was an inspirational trip, to say the least. We always tell the people we visit that our team represents thousands of people who care and want to help, and we’re so proud and grateful to represent our generous and compassionate donors. We'll have film of this visit at our Give Water Give Life fundraiser on October 18, and we hope it inspires people as much as it did our team.

Thank you for your help in making a dream come true in these communities.

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