Update to Honduras Area Projects
Posted by Scott Hendricks
on Jan 04, 2016
As of the new year, district 5790 has just completed our sixth Global Grant in the La Moskitia area of Honduras. The last five grants have been primarily
to provide clean water through the use of filters. With the completion of this last grant, we have now installed over 2300 filters in approximately 50 villages and more than 100 schools providing clean safe water to more than 25,000 villagers and students. As with each grant, we worked with local Health Department to determine where to place the filters for homes and with the mayor of Puerta Lempira Municipality to put the filters in all of the schools in the area.
A major change was made on our latest grant in that all the filters were Sawyer brand filters instead of the bio-sand filters we have used in the previous
five grants. The Sawyer filters can be viewed at www.sawyer.com and they are half the cost to buy and install, are much easier to assemble and transport, and are simple to clean. Because we were unable to do a Global Grant for three years because of the Future Vision Pilot and the lower cost of the Sawyer filters, we were able to install more filters in the last grant than we had done in the previous five grants! The grant also included training for the villagers on the importance of good sanitation and hygiene practices.
Even though we have helped over 25,000 villagers in La Moskitia, there are still approximately 6,000 more homes that need filters. We are in the process
of applying for our next grant and already have more than a dozen clubs from our district that have contributed. A team from our district will be traveling
to the area on March 21 to finalize plans for this next grant.
We are also working with our long time partner, The Norma Love Foundation, to solicit funds from clubs in our district to purchase a used truck for use
by the Norma Love Foundation to help us with future grants and to do a variety of humanitarian activities in the area including medical transports. We have collected approximately 1/3 of the $25,000 needed to accomplish this goal. Our thanks to the clubs of District 5790 for helping so many people gain access to clean safe water. Rotary continues to build a legacy and positive reputation in the this area of Honduras.
Please check also Arlington RC Website Link