SAN JUAN AND GRACIAS AREAS
IN HONDURAS
FUNDED DECEMBER 2, 2022
In these areas, families lacking access to safe water consume water from rivers or open wells—the same places where people bathe and wash clothes, and animals defecate—leading to diseases. Additionally, access to hygiene is very low due to lack of clean water and soap, resulting in poor hygiene practices in households and schools. Culturally, women, and children are the most affected in communities when there is no safe water system, because they are responsible for collecting and transporting water from wells and rivers to homes. This exposes them to many dangers and makes it impossible to engage in recreational, educational, and spiritual activities, since they spend many hours each day collecting water.
To address these concerns in Gracias and San Juan Area Programs, World Vision is working in partnership with the local and national government in Honduras as well as local and international nongovernmental organizations to achieve universal service coverage through quality and sustainable programming.
Because of growth, this community needs a clean water source capable of much higher capacity than a hand pump can provide. Living Water International will install submersible electric pump and a storage tank. The pump will be powered by a solar array. In addition, 5 water kiosks will be installed to distribute clean water more efficiently. Through the completion of 39 piped-water systems, over 34,000 people will gain access to clean water, and 63 schools and 16 healthcare facilities will also gain access to clean water.
As a Christian, faith-based organization, World Vision is uniquely positioned to engage and mobilize local religious leaders from across faiths as agents of change and advocates for WASH programs and behaviors. Faith communities play a key role in promoting sanitation and hygiene behavior change due to the established trust that communities already hold in their faith leaders. In Honduras, we train faith leaders to become WASH champions in their communities by teaching the “Jesus, the Source of Living Water” handbook, which demonstrates healthy WASH behaviors through biblical stories. We provide access to clean water to people regardless of their faith, or if they have a faith at all.
We (World Vision) partner with 1000 churches in Honduras. It’s the bedrock of how we do our work. It’s the faith leaders who interface with people in the area. Faith leaders are often food insecure. We come alongside churches to do our work. People know who we are, for sure. We work in urban and rural context in Honduras. We work with gang members. We’re only NGO allowed in urban
areas because of our faith. Often gang members send kids to our programs so they don’t turn out like they did. Most people in Central America are Christians. We have a program called “Biblically empowered worldview program.” It’s all about how to strengthen identity in Christ. It’s all integrated in the work. Faith is carried out in any intervention we do.
All projects are made possible by World Changers.