Our guest speaker today was Rick Lawrence, member of the Rotary Club of Manchester, CT and founder of the Guatemala Water, Sanitation andHygiene (WASH) Project, in partnership with the Rotary Club of la Antigua.
The organization, managed by Aldea, a local NGO that has been helping to improve the health and well-being of indigenous Mayan rural villagers. Rick described the 32nd project implemented by Aldea and supported by a $196,000 Rotary Global Grant of which our club contributed towards. The project will support 120 families/1449 individuals and has 4 components:
1). A running water system with a pump, water tower and distribution system
2). A 3-compartment sink which captures “gray water” that can be re-purposed for growing vegetables
3). Latrines, and
4). Cook stoves with an outdoor venting system.
More recently, solar panels have been introduced to help power the water pump along with a diesel generator.
These services combined have led to a 60% reduction in childhood diarrheal illnesses along with a 10% reduction in malnutrition, a 60% reduction in eye infections and respiratory illnesses (cook stoves eliminate indoor smoke) resulting in a marked improvement in school attendance and empowerment of women.
The projects are self-sustaining because households make a small annual financial contribution to support a designated individual within the community to maintain and repair components. There is also support from wealthy in-country donors to purchase the land that must be secured for the water source which can cost $30-40,000.
Over the past 18 years, Rick has secured 14 Global Grants which have brought improved water, sanitation and hygiene, for 32 villages and 3639 indigenous Mayan families along with saving countless lives. Rotary Club of Wakefield is proud to have participated in many of these and will continue to support one of the most successful Rotary International projects!
