Sonte School Project - Guatemala
LocationSonte, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, Central America
Community Description
The community of Sonte is located next to the major road running north through Alta Verapaz. It is easily accessible, and close to a major city. It is very poor and consists mostly of peasant farmers.
Project Description
A handwashing station will be built at the elementary school of the community.
This project will be carried out by the teachers of the school and PCV Dave Bowker, working together with community and local government.
The school has recently received electricity, which will be used to power the pump.
This project is similar to the Corozal School Project that was recently successfully completed.
Project Impact
300 students and 11 teachers at the school will be directly affected by this project. 200 families in the community will indirectly benefit.
The handwashing station will allow the students to practice healthy habits in school. They will be able to wash their hands after they use the bathroom and before they eat, and brush their teeth after snack.
Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Dave Bowker
Comments
This project follows on the heels of another handwashing project that was successfully completed. It conforms to our concepts that when something works well it should be replicated, and that good solutions do not need to be complicated.
Projects such as these serve the additional purpose of motivating the community to be continually involved in the improvement of the village and the school.
Dollar Amount of Project
$500.00
Donations Collected to Date
$500.00
Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has been fully funded, through the generosity of Six Senses Resorts & Spas as a part of their Clean Water Projects initiative.
We encourage others to continue to donate using the Donate button below, and we will notify Peace Corps Volunteer Dave Bowker of your donation. Additional funds will be used to fund the next project by Dave and/or those of his counterpart PCVs in Guatemala.
This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.
Conclusion of Sonte School Project - Guatemala
This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteer Dave Bowker. To read about the beginning of this project, CLICK HERE.
Dave reports:
The school in the rural village of Sonte Alta Verapaz, Guatemala now has a functioning system that allows children to wash their hands and brush their teeth within school hours. This is a very important improvement on the 24,000 liter rain catchment tank that was not being utilized effectively until after the completion of this pump system and 15 faucet hand washing station.
The project’s main focus was to make the existing rain catchment tank’s water more readily available to the children of the school. To do this, some improvements to the old system were needed.
First, the gutter system used to collect water off the roof of the school had to be replaced because it was rusted and broken. The new gutter system is plastic that will not rust and can be easily cleaned.
Second, the infrastructure for the hand washing station was nonexistent and needed to be built.
Third, on the top of the existing rain catchment tank minor adjustments were put in place to ensure the success of the project.
It took four days for the mason and fathers of the community to complete the 8 and 7 faucet hand washing stations. The community participated in the design and implementation of the project which helped make the project a sustainable success.
Luckily the school in Sonte has electricity. It was because of this that we were able to install the pump system that would feed the hand washing stations. The pump was set up on the top of the catchment tank to pull water from the cement tank into a 750 liter plastic tank that also sits on top of the cement catchment tank. From the plastic tank water feeds the hand washing stations via gravity.
In sustainable development community ownership for a project is a necessary component for continuing success and maintenance of a project. I believe that we achieved this ownership in building these hand washing stations.
Dave expressed his personal thanks, and the gratitude of the community, for the support of Water Charity, and, in particular the funding of Six Senses Resorts & Spas, which enabled the project.