Chorti Clean Water Project

By Don Warren, Rotary Club of Gastonia, D7680

Three years ago at my church, I heard two missionaries tell of their work with the Chorti Indians in the Copas Ruinas area of western Honduras, where 55,000 Chorti, Mayan descendants, live in 47 villages.  The missionaries stated that 50% of all Chorti Indian children die before age seven primarily due to unclean water, a rate much greater than in the USA.

The night I heard the death rate statistic, I invited the missionaries to my home and learned more details about the Chorti Indians.  I committed to help save the lives of these children, provided my Rotary Club, The Rotary Club of Gastonia (N.C.), would accept the challenge.

I presented to my Club’s World Community Service committee and directors the possibility of saving the Chorti children’s lives and the Club adopted the challenge by asking me to chair the project.  The first thing I did was to get a map to see where Honduras was located!  In a short period of time, we put together a 15-organization network necessary to bring together the influential parties needed to form the whole team. 

Phase I of our work cost about US$30,000 and provided clean water for eight villages and about 1,500 Chorti/Latin Hondurans.  The project consisted of placing a water spigot next to each hut.  With the assistance of SANAA, Honduras’ National Water Agency, each of the approximately 350 home sites now has a private latrine.  Included in SANAA’s services is the establishment in each of the eight villages a team to maintain the villages’ systems, a water board to collect monthly fees (about 56 cents/month), and a sanitation committee to teach villagers how to establish and maintain sanitary conditions now that clean water is available.

Phase II of our work consisted of bringing similar services to the village of Carrizalon at a cost of approximately US$35,000, serving over 1,000 Chorti Indians.  Major Matching Grants from The Rotary Foundation helped fund Phase I and Phase II.

Honduras Rotary Clubs supporting the Clean Water Project include Rotary Clubs in D4250, Santa Rosa de Copan Rotary Club, and The Rotary Club of Copan Ruinas.  Fifty-two Rotary Clubs in D7680, about 5,500 Rotarians in the Charlotte, NC area, are supporting this work.  The anchor club continues to be The Rotary Club of Gastonia.

In July, 2006, I made a trip to Copan Ruinas, Honduras to:

1. Close out Phase I – eight villages now complete and the final report approved by The Rotary Foundation

2. Refine Phase II – the village of Carrizalon

3. Develop plans for Phase III – two villages, Porvenir 1 and Porvenir 2 (2,000 Chorti Indians)

A third Major Matching Grant Application has been submitted to The Rotary Foundation in the amount of US$69,250.  The Rotary Foundation has assigned MMGA file # 64097 to the project designed to serve approximately 2,000 Chorti in Villages Porvenir 1 and 2.  This application will be presented to The Rotary Foundation Directors for approval in October 2007.

Our efforts to assist the Chorti Indian villages has not stopped with clean water.  Because of our awareness of Chorti living conditions (walls of sticks, dirt floors, thatch roofs, etc.), we arranged through Habitat for Humanity International [HFHI] to form in the Copan Ruinas area, an additional Habitat effort under the guidance of the Santa Rosa de Copan Habitat affiliate.  When we presented this additional project to The Rotary Club of Gastonia, our members contributed over US$20,000 at one meeting, an amount that was doubled the next few months.  The Gastonia HFHI affiliate in Gastonia, NC has pledged to the Chorti Habitat project a tithe of the cost of each house they build in Gaston County, NC in the next several years.  A tithe of  approximately US$6,000 per house based on 10 homes built in our county each year will generate about US$60,000 per year to our Club’s efforts in Honduras. 

The cost to renovate a Chorti home is about US$400.  Since Chorti make less than US$300 a year, the homes will be gifted to each family.  This is a first for HFHI.  The cost to build a new, larger home is approximately US$1,800, and these homes will eventually be owned by the family through monthly or quarterly payments.

How has this project changed lives in the villages we have served?  Heretofore, the task of a young female was to carry water in a plastic jug on her head from water sources several miles away and back to her village, ranging from two to eight hours daily, 365 days a year.  Girls had no time for school.  Now that a water spigot can be turned on at each hut, girls in nine villages are going to school for the first time in their lives.  The first grades include girls ages 6 – 13 years old.

A master plan has been developed to install clean water in all remaining Chorti villages, approximately 40 plus an additional 50 Latin villages for a total approximate cost of US$500,000. 

In summary, the full power of Rotary International is being realized in these projects.  Clean water is saving the lives of children and improving the general welfare of adults.  The project is also fulfilling the dream of having a decent home in which to raise a family. 

None of the accomplishments described above could have happened without the significant help of my wife of 53 years, Mary Ann.

The best is yet to come!