Part of the mission of CWR is working alongside the poor, the powerless, and the marginalized to build a more sustaining community. With our partners in Honduras, Water First and local organization Cocepradil, CWR is helping to provide running water for numerous rural communities for the first time. Most recently the water project in San Bartolo has made great strides and is near completion. This has only been possible through the commitment of the community as a whole to come together and work on the project together.
The success of projects like the San Bartolo water project is due to the heavy involvement of the local community. CWR and Water First see community involvement from the very beginning as key to the success and sustainability of their projects. When communities are invested in a project from its inception until its completion, chances are they will be good stewardships of it well into the future. This is the goal of all of CWR’s projects; not only that they be established and benefit the community but that the community would take ownership of them and that they be sustained for generations to come by the local community. So far in San Bartolo, 80% of the toilets and the housing basins (pilas) in 54 homes have been completed. This has been primarily through the efforts of the community coming together and helping each other to construct these toilets and basins. Cocepradil, the local organization has required 100% of the construction in households to be completed before running water is distributed. This motivates families in the community to help each other build the system before the whole community can reap the benefits of running water.
Projects like this show the power of partnership. Partnering with Water First and with Cocepradil has allowed far more work and progress to be done than any one organization acting alone.
