Aspen Rotary Club celebrates World Water Day with completion of 3-year water project in Guatemala
ASPEN, CO… Inspired by the importance of clean water, Aspen resident Skip Behrhorst took action and initiated a plan to bring clean water to three Guatemalan villages commemorating World Water Day three years ago. As a long-time Aspen Rotarian, he teamed a non-profit foundation called Behrhorst Partners for Development (BPD) with Rotary International (RI), the Aspen Rotary Club, and half a dozen other Rotary Clubs in the U.S. and one in Guatemala to cooperatively bring clean potable water, latrines and fuel efficient stoves to three villages in the Guatemalan Highlands. As we approach World Water Day 2009, he and fellow Rotarians celebrate with the completion of the physical project that helped the villages of Chipila, Chiuleu and Santa Teresa in Chimaltenango, Guatemala.
Guatemala has one of the highest child mortality rates in Latin America. One of the primary causes of children’s death there is constant diarrheas directly tied to poor water quality and sanitation. To address this problem, the BPD/Rotary cooperative project worked to improve basic sanitation in these Villages by providing gravity-fed water systems, gray-water filters, and vented, improved pit latrines to the villages. Another big killer of children in Guatemala is upper respiratory problems. To address this issue, the cooperative project also provided each family with a fuel-efficient stove that uses less than 60% of the firewood of their traditional open air fires and prevents burns. Most importantly, the stoves vent the smoke outside the house, helping to prevent the upper respiratory problems that cause so many premature deaths of Guatemalan children.
Prior to the BPD/Rotary project bringing clean running water to the individual homes in these three communities, children had the task of fetching and carrying clean water. “The children would have to walk for 1.5 hours, and much further during droughts, to bring clean water to their families. Because this was essential to the family’s survival, the children did not have time to attend school,” explains Skip Behrhorst. “Providing clean running water not only prevents close to 1/3 of the total deaths of children in these areas, it also enables the children to attend school for the first time.”
BPD was started in 1962 when Dr. Carroll Behrhorst, a relative of Skip Behrhosrt, started a medical clinic in Guatemala. BPD has worked in Guatemala ever since to improve the overall health of Mayan Guatemalans. The Aspen Rotary Club has had an active World Service program since the inception of the Ducky Derby in the early 1990s. The Ducky Derby provides the money for the Aspen Rotary Club to fund World Service projects, as well as local programs. International water projects have been a high priority of the Aspen Rotary Club’s World Service projects because of the importance of clean water to good health.
Skip Behrhorst recognized the opportunity to partner with the BPD foundation work in Guatemala with the Aspen Rotary Club to cooperatively work together on this project. “One of the neat things about working through Rotary is the opportunity for our Club to receive matching funds through our Rotary District and Rotary International. This program allows our Aspen Club to receive up to 9-to-1 leverage of matching funds for World Service Projects such as this one,” explains Behrhorst. “For example, the Aspen Rotary Club contributed $6,509 to this project. The total cost of the improvements was $62,659.”
Approximately 230 families live in the three villages helped by this project. Together, the combined population is 1380 people. The communities are located on an unpaved road 4 kms from the county seat of San Martin Jilotepeque, and 24 kms. from the State capital of Chimaltenango . Public transportation is available only twice weekly on market days. At other times, people needing to go to and from town must hope that a pick-up truck will pass and let them climb aboard. The people work primarily in agriculture, a few on their own land and many on rented land. Some work as day laborers on other farms, receiving approximately $4.50 per day in wages. The major crops of corn and beans are primarily for the family’s consumption, as almost no one can grow enough extra to sell. The people are mostly Christian but all are respectful of the Mayan practices of their ancestors.
“It has been a long but rewarding project,” says Behrhorst. “We started working on this grant with BPD and Rotary on March 19, 2006, just before World Water Day 2006. Now, three years later we are completing the physical project just in time for World Water Day 2009.”
The Rotary Club of Aspen has been involved in many international projects over the past 15 years. The Club has helped fund and sponsored water projects in Nicaragua, Mexico and South America, along with other projects dealing with health and sanitation issues, literacy, micro-banks, etc., throughout South and Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean.
For additional information about World Water Day, please go on-line to:
HYPERLINK "http://www.worldwaterday.org/" www.worldwaterday.org/
For additional information about Behrhorst Partners for Development, please go on-line to:
HYPERLINK "http://www.behrhorst.org/" www.behrhorst.org/
For additional information about Rotary International, please go on-line to:
HYPERLINK "http://www.rotary.org/" www.rotary.org/