Project Status at Visit: Complete – Successful | Project Implementer: El Porvenir
Date of Visit: Friday, 20 August, 2010 | Report by: Jon Polka
After touring some nearby projects, my guide (Angel from El Provenir) stopped to have lunch in Boaco Viejo at Elba’s restaurant. After eating she began to tell us her story and experience with the projects.
Elba was born in Boaco Viejo and has lived there her entire life. She says the community has a population of about 4500 people (with 35% of the population having immigrated into the community at some point).
She said the community had little luck before 2006 in getting someone (government institution) to help with the water situation. In 2005, they started developing the project with El Porvenir. They felt that water and latrines are what they needed most as a community. El Porvenir helped with developed the plans for the execution of the project. In 2006, they started to build latrines and then moved onto wells. The project was developed in 2004-2005 (planning stages). In 2006, the execution phase began and in 2007, the project was completed.
Elba says there are ten wells in the community. She is very grateful for El Porvenir for helping with wells, latrines, educational workshops, reforestation, and eco-friendly stoves. She says that the community has benefited greatly form all these contributions and improvements.
Before the construction of the projects, Elba and the rest of her community to walk really far to get water, which made life much more difficult. Now, she can bring water into her home and she says most people only have to walk ten or twenty meters. It has helped a lot of families and has really had a dramatic effect on the health of the community. It is a benefit for both adults and children, she pointed out.
El Porvenir also provides educational classes about the wells and latrines. They offer these classes in school as well. Elba said that the educational workshops have been very important to Boaco Viejo because not everyone is accustomed to the new norms that are associated with having accessible latrines and a reliable supply of clean water. The classes have been great for implementing new habits into the community. She also stressed the importance of remembering how to properly care and maintain the latrines… which was also covered in the educational workshops.