I arrived in the city of Copan Ruinas, Honduras at 6:30 p.m., after two flights and a 4 hour bus ride. I am here with a group of 15 other Rotarians to visit water and sanitation projects funded by Rotary.
Some of the projects have been completed, and some are in the planning stage. On our fist day we road in 4-wheel drive trucks over the worst road I had ever been on. And I have been on some bad ones. It had rained that morning and the road was mud.
It was about 20 miles from Copan Ruins to the isolated village of Santa Cruz. It took us 2 1/2 hours. When we arrived at the small school, we were warmly greeted by the community leaders. The purpose of our visit was the ribbon cutting ceremony for the latrines and water system.
The Rotary clubs of Fort Mill, South Carolina, and Copan Ruins joined to provide the tools and materials to construct latrines and a water system to 26 houses and a school.
The water system consisted of a chlorinated water collection tank and 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) of three inch pipeline feeding 1/2 inch feeder pipes to the houses and school. The latrines are septic vaults with brightly painted cinder block enclosures, with tiled interior walls and porcelain toilets. Prior to this project, the people had no running water and the families would dig holes for human waste.
The average life expectancy in the village has been about 45. Death from dysentery is common. The population of the village is about 140 people and the school has 30 students. The water system and latrines were constructed solely by the labor of the village residents, under the supervision of an engineer hired by Rotary, and members of the Rotary Club of Copan Ruinas. The cost of the project was about $40,000. Rotary requires that any project it funds must be sustainable. A program must be established for maintaining the project before the money is disbursed. The village had formed three committees, consisting of school children, and three consisting of adults. The three committees are: Sanitation, water maintenance, environment. The over-all objective is to not only provide potable water and sanitation, but to maintain a clean environment without trash or debris.
The project was just completed before we arrived the community was extremely proud and grateful to Rotary. The 14 year-old student coordinator of the youth committees was very articulate in expressing his thanks to Rotary, not only for helping the children, but for the helping the entire community in providing an environment with less sickness and better health. One of the adult community leaders said that Rotary was sent by God and has provided the community with a "new life."
The members of our group of Rotarian who had visited the village before the project was started were impressed with the change in the appearance of the people. They were noticeably cleaner, happier, and proud of their accomplishment in completing the project, which included digging the 4.3 mile trench for the pipe line with pick and shovel.
After the speeches and ribbon cutting ceremony, we were served lunch in the classroom.
On the wall was a poster describing the benefits of a latrine and the necessity for sanitation to prevent illness.
I took many photos of the children.
Two young girls were sitting in one plastic chair when I took their photo. I thought they were students. Then a woman handed one of the girls an infant and the young girl opened her blouse and began nursing the baby. It bothered me that the mother appeared to be a child, and then I saw another young girl nursing an infant. I talked one of them later and learned that she is 13, is not a student, and has never attended school. A local doctor told me that most of the girls become pregnant in their early teens, have three or four children, some of whom do not survive. Family planning and life science is not taught in the villages.
Our trip back to Coban Ruinas was on another road, even worse than the one in. We got stuck several times and two horses were used to help haul the truck out of the mud. It took us 3 1/2 hours to travel the 20 miles.
