“I went to the village of La Pita, in San Lorenzo, Nicaragua last October with an Elderhostel group, to work on a service project with El Porvenir. Their motto is Agua Limpia para Nicaragua (Clean Water for Nicaragua). Carole Harper, an attorney and judge in California, founded EP in 1990 after volunteering with Habitat for Humanity in Nicaragua for four years. She started EP to address the lack of clean drinking water in rural communities.
“We've all heard horror stories of well-meaning Americans who go to other countries with the best intentions and build projects that fall into disuse and disrepair. Being the cynic that I am I had a lot of questions when I set out on this adventure. The more I learned about EP and the work they do, the more I believed they were on the right track. They work only in communities that invite them, and their projects are well thought out and sustainable. They use simple technologies, and have gradually branched out beyond latrines and wells into areas such as reforestation and hygiene education that attack the root causes of Nicaragua's lack of clean water and sanitation.”
Read more from Andrea's Travel Blog.
Photo Credit: Andrea Dobson
