Lack of clean water, sanitation, and hygiene contributes significantly to the global burden of disease. To combat unsafe water, there are two broad categories of water systems, centralized and decentralized. Centralized Centralized systems provide water delivery and sanitation infrastructure and include a central water treatment facility with safe, piped water […]
Mom Sows Seeds of Change in Bolivian Community
Felisa was fed up with the status quo. For as long as the 36-year-old could remember, her community in Bolivia had suffered from a seasonal lack of water. That meant she and her neighbors mainly grew staple crops, like corn, instead of more nutritious vegetables. That was fine for livestock, […]
Health is Being Solar-Powered in the Peruvian Andes
Martin Quispe Paucar and his wife Felipa have four beautiful children: Joel, Yefre, Yanit, and Herlinda. The family belongs to the Q’eros Nation of Peru, an indigenous Quechua group known as the last living descendants of the Incas. They live a humble life, one of hard work dedicated to breeding […]
The Dreams (Turned Reality) of Moisés Barrientos
Irrigation Equals Opportunity in This Small Peruvian Village Moisés Barrientos is one of the long-lived directors of Pantipata Incahuasi, a community in the Abancay region of Peru. He has served as president of Pantipata several times and is now an active participant on the Community Engagement Committee. “Community participation is […]
Impact of Clean Water on Education
Submitted by Anna Carolina Ortiz, MPH, Global Health & Development Director Clean water means more children in school. Period. The statistics are staggering. 31% of schools worldwide lack safe water and adequate sanitation Water-related illnesses lead to 443 million missed school days each year Women and girls spend 200 million […]
Simón’s Story | Clean Water & Sanitation in Nicaragua
Simón was doing his best. Since his wife died 10 years ago, he’s been a single dad. Living in poverty — in the remote Nicaraguan town of Piedra Colorado, or “Red Stone” — Simón was determined to be self-sufficient, to provide for himself and his children. He started a small […]
New Homes & Clean Water in the Q’eros Nation
When the weather is cold outside, the last thing you want is to jump into a freezing bath. For Julián, Evarista and their family of five, there’s never been another option.In the mountainous region of Cusco, Peru, where the Q’ero people live more than 14,000 feet above sea level, summer […]
Life-Giving Water Flows in Sayhua, Peru
Our world is heating up, droughts are taking a toll on farmers and the people you serve with Esperança are among the hardest hit. The farming community of Sayhua, Peru was in dire straits. With rain becoming more and more unreliable, irrigation is a must to keep crops growing and […]
The Search for Water is Over
Thirsty? You go to the tap. Or to the fridge for water you’ve filtered. There’s bottled water as well. Plenty of options.What if you had no options?The remote, mountainous community of Las Mesitas in northwest Nicaragua never had options. In this place of poverty, suffocated by an extremely dry climate, […]
Water System Leads to Blooming Micro-business in Nicaragua
It’s amazing how little value we place on water in the U.S. We couldn’t live without it, yet it’s rarely a concern in our day-to-day lives. But what if water were scarce? How far would we go to secure this vital resource for ourselves and our family – to survive? […]