Guatemala

Community Description
Patzicia, Chimaltenango, is located about 70 kilometers west of Guatemala City.

San Lorenzo is a small community roughly a 45 minute walk from the Urban Center of Patzicia. The members of the community primarily earn their living through agriculture, as much of Patzicia and its surrounding countryside are used as farmland. Community members cultivate a variety of crops, including beans, corn, and a variety of vegetables both for weekly sale in the town market and for exportation.

Escuela Oficial Rural Mixta San Lorenzo is a school in San Lorenzo that serves the 30 families living in the community and their children. There are roughly 70 students, although the number has increased dramatically in the past 2 years and promises to do so further in the future.

The school has been involved in the Healthy Schools program with Peace Corps for two years now, and has made drastic improvements in the health of the children. All children now are practicing healthy habits such as brushing their teeth and washing their hands on a daily basis, and many have taken this practice to their homes, further impacting the community through influencing their families. They've seen drastic changes in the cleanliness and health of the students, even to the extent that children practice these habits second nature and no longer need to be reminded to do so. Teachers also began giving 2 health lessons a week to their classes.

The biggest difficulty the school currently faces is lack of water in the school. During the dry season (October - April) water is very scarce. The community has a water source, but as water is scarce it only arrives in the community for roughly 15 minutes a day during the dry season.

As the school has no manner for storing the water, they have taken to asking the mothers of the community to transport water from their houses in large buckets to use for cooking and hand washing. It makes the practice of healthy habits very difficult in the school as they cannot transport enough water for all the students.

Project Description
The project that the school of San Lorenzo will complete is a holding tank with faucets. The tank will be ample enough to hold 2000 L of water, ensuring sufficient clean water for practicing healthy habits in the school and for cooking the school snack, so that the mothers do not have to use their precious supply of water in the school. This will further ensure that children will be able to practice healthy habits in the home as the families will be able to save the water they have.

The structure will be constructed with cement using a design previously used in several schools throughout Patzicia and using a skilled mason who already has much experience building the design. The cement water deposit will be surrounded by 8 metal faucets to be used by the children for the daily practice of healthy habits.

It will be located at the top of the stairs leading to the bathrooms, ensuring that students have a constant reminder to wash their hands upon returning to their classrooms. The 8 faucets will also aid in ensuring that students have as much time in the classroom as possible, as practicing healthy habits will be much more efficient with more faucets and ample space.

The structure will take up a space of roughly 3 meters x 3 meters, and have a height of roughly 2 meters, with an opening for periodic cleaning.

Project funds will be used to buy materials such as cement, tubing, metal, sand, wood for the foundation, and various accessories for the faucets.

The Mayor’s Office will pay for the work of the skilled mason and also the cost of the gravel.

The community will contribute unskilled manual labor to the mason and will also contribute with small amounts of materials that can be found within the community, specifically rocks for building the foundation and small amounts of sand that can be found in the river running through town. The remainder of the materials will be purchased from a local hardware store in the urban center of Patzicia.

Project Impact
This project will benefit the 70+ students and 4 teachers that use the school, as well as the 30 families in the community that often use the space for events and community meetings.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Abigail Harper

Comments
This project uses the appropriate technology to make water available for cooking, sanitation, and hygiene during the dry season.

Abigail previously completed the Escuela Oficial Rural Mixta La Muchacha Handwashing Station Project - Guatemala.

Dollar Amount of Project
$555.00

Donations Collected to Date
$0.00

ADOPT THIS PROJECT BY CONTRIBUTING THE DOLLAR AMOUNT NEEDED BELOW

Donations of any amount will be appreciated. The full amount will give you "naming rights", if that is something you would like.

Any contributions in excess of the Dollar Amount of Project will be allocated to other projects directed by this PCV and/or projects of other PCVs in this country.

Dollar Amount Needed
$555.00

Community Description
Momostenango is a medium-size town in the middle of the mountains Sierra Madre, in the municipality of Momostenango, department Totonicapan.

Momostenango is full of mountains and forest. The population is about 129,878 inhabitants, and 95% are indigenous. The main language that people speak is K'iche' but many people, especially those who live close to the center, speak Spanish.

There are two seasons, the dry season, running from November to April and the rainy season, running from May to October.

EORM Choyer-Cabal is one of the ten public schools that work with the program Escuelas Saludables (Healthy Schools), a collaboration between Peace Corps and government. All of the teachers in the school are female and have a strong relationship with the community. The school lacks a consistent water supply during the six months of the dry season.

Project Description
This project is to build three tanks for storage of water at the school.

The water comes from a natural spring 13 km away. The tanks will be located on the school property, and filled by gravity through a buried pipeline, consisting of ½ inch PVC pipe.

The tanks will be built with cement, iron, sand, rocks and manual labor.

Water will be available from 5 faucets for the use of students and staff.

Skilled labor will be provided by Timoteo Avak Cuyuch, a local mason, Felipe Cuyuch Itzep, his assistant, and volunteer labor from the parents association.

The community has provided the funds for the passage over private property from the water source to the school. They have also provided the piping from the natural spring to the school.

Project Impact
Approximately 80 families, or 400 people, will benefit from the project.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Monica Echavarria

Comments
This project makes use of an existing infrastructure and a large amount of community support to provide a reliable water supply at the school for drinking, personal and dental hygiene, cooking, and cleaning.

Dollar Amount of Project
$555.00

Donations Collected to Date
$0.00

ADOPT THIS PROJECT BY CONTRIBUTING THE DOLLAR AMOUNT NEEDED BELOW

Donations of any amount will be appreciated. The full amount will give you "naming rights", if that is something you would like.

Any contributions in excess of the Dollar Amount of Project will be allocated to other projects directed by this PCV and/or projects of other PCVs in this country.

Dollar Amount Needed
$555.00

Community Description
Canton Xetacabaj is a small rural community of approximately 500 inhabitants of Mayan descent, located outside the municipality of San Cristobal Totonicapan, 185 kilometers from Guatemala City by way of the Inter-American Highway. Most community members are either farmers or business owners. All of the members speak K’iche, the Mayan language of the region, and/or Spanish.

The school Escuela Oficial Rural Mixta “Lazaro Chiguil Elias”, Canton Xetacabaj, serves 178 children, from Kindergarten to 6th grade. The school’s extremely dedicated principal of 27 years has been involved in the Healthy Schools program since 1999 and quickly led the school to healthy certification by 2001.

All 7 teachers give at least one health lesson a week. Each class has a health corner equipped with the utensils needed to practice healthy habits, a daily review of personal hygiene, and a system in place for the students to wash their hands before eating the school snack and brush their teeth after.

The school has encountered a number of problems with the existing handwashing station. Only 5 out of 7 faucets currently function. The base and drainage were not well-constructed, so water backs up from the one small drainage pipe and leaks below the base, causing the deterioration of the surrounding cement.

Ideally, there should be one functioning faucet for every class, but due to the increase in the number of students over the years, they are in need of at least 2 more faucets for the effective practice of healthy habits. The number of children served has grown from 31 in 1974 to 178 in 2011, and this number is sure to continue increasing.

The school has access to water most of the time due to their use of a natural spring and mechanical pump. However, they have had some problems in the past due to a supply shortage from the spring.

The school is equipped with flush toilets that drain into a septic tank, and the handwashing station water drains into a seepage pit. All the main tubes are located on school property.

Project Description
This project is to construct a handwashing station with 5 faucets, and to fully reconstruct the base and drainage of the existing handwashing station.

There is enough space in the area to the right of the existing handwashing station to construct an additional wall-style section with 5 more faucets. The new base will be one large cement structure, reinforced with iron rods, and placed against the wall connecting the kitchen to the bathroom area. The drainage will be connected to the existing tubes already in place.

The needed materials include cement and iron bars for the main structure, as well as a variety of PVC pipes, faucets, wire, gravel, tiles, nails, glue, paint, and other accessories. All of the materials will be purchased from a large hardware store outside the community.

A knowledgeable, experienced mason will be hired as the skilled labor and paid by the parent committee. Parents of the students will provide the unskilled labor free of charge in order to help construct the handwashing station.

Project funds will be used to purchase and transport the construction materials.

Project Impact
178 students and 7 teachers will benefit from the project.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Lauren Browne

Comments
This project will add capacity to serve a growth in the student population and ensure that all the students are practicing the habits needed to maintain a high level of personal hygiene and reduce the incidence of illness.

Lauren previously successfully completed the Escuela Oficial Urban Mixta La Cienaga Handwashing Station – Guatelmala.

Dollar Amount of Project
$555.00

Donations Collected to Date
$230.00

ADOPT THIS PROJECT BY CONTRIBUTING THE DOLLAR AMOUNT NEEDED BELOW

Donations of any amount will be appreciated. The full amount will give you "naming rights", if that is something you would like.

Any contributions in excess of the Dollar Amount of Project will be allocated to other projects directed by this PCV and/or projects of other PCVs in this country.

Dollar Amount Needed
$325.00

Community Description
The high rural Guatemalan community of Los Perez only recently acquired the formal status of caserio (village). The community is located at 2,500 meters of elevation (approx. 8,100 feet), and is home to 20 families, who are all mostly interrelated.

Most adults have a respectable command of basic conversational Spanish, but all speak Kaq'chi'quel as their daily language. A typical recent social pattern here has been that young people looking for their own farmland have moved uphill out of the more easily farmed but thoroughly occupied valleys.

This means that they farm on VERY steep fields, which is arduous, less productive (yield-per-acre,) and more than a little dangerous in rainy season, due to the prevalent geological tendency for landslides that take away recently cleared farmland.

About three years ago, Los Perez achieved recognition as a formal political presence when it received approval to create its own school. The new school saves community children from a daily round trip hike to their previous school of about 8 hilly kilometers, but it also provides this young town with a community center, a place for a new community to focus its pride.

Most school children complete at least fourth grade, with many graduating from primary school in the sixth grade, and some few continuing on to middle school in the municipio.

Last year, the mayor and municipality provided for construction of a new block classroom with lamina roof and concrete floor, a development project that was sought and supported by community leaders, with labor provided willingly by the whole community.

The school is located on a steep hillside, and the latrine pit is excavated into an area of landfill. This is commonly understood here to be a dangerous method for waste disposal, because liquid waste is continually added to an area of less stable terrain.

Already there exists the hazard of landslides during the rainy season. In 2010 a family of 9 in an adjacent community was killed in such a natural disaster. A different school in this municipality built such a latrine in similar terrain 4 years ago, and the pit collapsed after 2 rainy seasons.

Project Description
This project is to replace an inadequate and unsafe 3-seat pit latrine with 3 flush toilets.

The project will be implemented the direction of the Junto Escolar of Los Perez (equivalent of an American PTA) and the Los Perez COCODE (community development officials ).

The septic system to receive the waste from these toilets is already half built, consisting of a 5-meter deep drainage pit built to handle the greywater runoff from the handwashing station. Another pit will be dug beside it and connected with two concrete tubes at the bottom and an egress near the surface.

Demonstrating their foresight, the community has already acquired and installed 3" drainage tubing to handle fecal waste (instead of the cheaper 2" tubing sufficient for greywater) in anticipation of this upgrade.

There is an adequate water supply for flush toilets, even during the dry season. A small rooftop water storage tank will be installed to feed the toilets during the day and to fill up during the off-peak hours of water usage in the community.

Project funds will pay for all required materials and appliances, including concrete and rebar to build a safety cover, a concrete collar for the new septic pit, and all the necessary connecting tubing. Also included will be a small shipping charge to have cement and toilets delivered to the community.

All labor will be provided by members of the community, who will also provide needed sand and gravel.

Project Impact
100 residents of Los Perez will benefit from the project, including the 33 students and 2 teachers at the school.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Dercum Over

Comments
The flush toilet system will serve to remove the dangerous condition of the improperly built latrines. Drainage tubes will carry away all of the watery waste to a septic pit 20 meters downhill, thereby eliminating the landslide potential.

Dollar Amount of Project
$448.80

Donations Collected to Date
$0.00

ADOPT THIS PROJECT BY CONTRIBUTING THE DOLLAR AMOUNT NEEDED BELOW

Donations of any amount will be appreciated. The full amount will give you "naming rights", if that is something you would like.

Any contributions in excess of the Dollar Amount of Project will be allocated to other projects directed by this PCV and/or projects of other PCVs in this country.

Dollar Amount Needed
$448.80

Community Description
Paraje Xoljoc is located off of the Inter-American Highway on Km 210 heading towards Huehuetenango. It consists of approximately 1,000 inhabitants.

The native language is known as K'iche' (Quiche), but Spanish is spoken by over 99% of the men and understood by most women. The men dedicate themselves to either farming or commerce, or they emigrate to the United States to look for work.

Mothers are expected to stay at home and attend to the children. Like in many other parts of Guatemala, corn is grown by all families, although the increased population and lack of harvest leads the great majority of the families to purchase this staple from importers.

171 children attend EORM Xoljoc. Of these students, 87 are female and 84 male.

The school consists of a “Consejo Educativo” or educative committee that oversees maintenance and assists teachers with coordinating general festivities throughout the year.

The arrival of the Healthy Schools program to EORM Xoljoc was well received by students and parents. The parents did not hesitate to provide their children with basic hygiene utensils when they were asked to, because they understand that healthy habits will be carried for life.

The school has a kitchen and an additional solid block classroom. There are 3 cinder-block latrines.

However, the school has only one water source, known as a “pila”. It is insufficient for the needs of the children for drinking water, teeth brushing, and handwashing.

Project Description
This project is to build a handwashing station with 8 to 10 faucets. This will alleviate clustering of children and facilitate the implementation of a washing schedule among classrooms.

Water Charity funds will be used to purchase the materials.

The labor will be provided by the community, with skilled masonry services directed by the educative committee.

The school water supply comes from an underground spring up in the mountain. It is abundant during most of the year, except during February and part of March, when less water flows.

In the future, the parents also plan to build a new concrete water storage tank to replace the one that was structurally damaged during the 2010 storms. Such a tank will be used year round, but especially during the dry season to make up for lost pressure due to a decrease in water flow from the ground water source.

Project Impact
This project will benefit 171 children and 6 teachers, as well as the 1,000 community inhabitants who come to the school for community events.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Daniel Landeros

Comments
The handwashing station is required for Healthy Schools certification. It will allow the children to wash their hands after leaving the bathroom and before eating. As such, it will have a direct impact in reducing gastrointestinal illness.

Dollar Amount of Project
$555.00

Donations Collected to Date
$555.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 - This project has been fully funded, through the generosity of Michael and Carla Boyle, of Huntingdon, PA, USA.

We encourage others to continue to donate using the Donate button below, and we will notify Peace Corps Volunteer Daniel Landeros of your donation. Additional funds will be used to fund the next project by Daniel and/or those other PCVs in the country of service.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.