Clean Water

Staff Spotlight: Renata Aleman on working for her Home Country

September 30, 2022 By Renata

Each time I visit Nicaragua, it is very special in its own way. Whether it’s because I’m seeing family members, or because I am reconnected with my roots, the food, the beautiful and kind people of Nicaragua. Traveling there this Spring as part of my work was a different experience, it gave me a better understanding of the importance of clean water and the commitment community members have to their children’s education and futures.

I was aware of how remote the communities where work were located on a map. I was aware of how hard life is in Nicaragua. Until I traveled to the very remote communities where Project Schoolhouse works, I couldn’t fully appreciate how remote, and the lack of any clean water anywhere. We traveled for hours by truck to one community; the roads stretched for miles in uneven ground to reach communities. Most community members travel by horse or walk. I saw how far away and how hard the people travel to go to their jobs, go to school. I spoke to community members and learned from them directly about their lives, how hard they worked on projects, what a difference having access to water in their homes makes, and their wish for their children to get an education.

It solidified how important it is for me, as a Nicaraguan-American, to be part of the Project Schoolhouse team and its work. Clean water and education are just the start for children in the communities where Project Schoolhouse works. It’s a starting chance to focus on their education. Being someone who is from Nicaragua who gets to work from the US to help those still in Nicaragua is a huge privilege, even more so now that life has gotten much harder in Nicaragua.

The days were long, the meals were delicious, but most importantly, I witnessed the commitment of the Nicaraguan people to better themselves and their futures. That’s what makes me proud to be a Nicaraguan.

Greetings from the Executive Director

September 30, 2022 By Project Schoolhouse

It was so energizing to be able to travel back to Nicaragua for the first time since 2020, and we covered a lot of ground this summer! Our in-country team was proud to show all of the project’s progress since we were last there.

Thanks to financial support from the West Austin Rotary Club and Rotary International, we have finished a water and latrine project in the community of Bilampi. The little boy in this photo lives in that community and he no longer has to carry water from the local river in that container on his horse – he has clean running water at his school. This community is so spread out that most children get to school by horseback. The teacher meets those who travel longer distances each morning and rides with them to school. The far distances between homes meant that the community hand-dug 22 kilometers of trench to lay the distribution system – they worked for almost a year, and now all have water in their homes. We always say that, through their volunteer labor, the families are the biggest donors to these projects, and this project was the perfect example.

This community of Bilampi is featured in 2 new short films we produced over the summer, with some amazing Nicaraguan filmmakers with whom we are fortunate to collaborate. We’re excited to premiere these short films at Cien Amigos 2022 on October 27th, in person in Austin, Tx and live streaming everywhere! Cien Amigos (‘100 Friends’) is a chance for those who care about this work, like you, to invite others who might be interested in learning more. Free to attend, enjoy a delicious Nicaraguan dinner and watch short films that beautifully demonstrate the importance of these projects. This is our only fundraiser of the year, and the success determines the scope of work in 2023. We hope you can join us and bring new amigos!

Gratefully,
Selina Serna

Texas Enactus & Project Schoolhouse Build A New Rainwater System

July 10, 2022 By Renata

It was a pleasure to travel to Nicaragua in June 2022 with a multi-disciplinary student group from the UT- Austin Texas Enactus team. In partnership with Localized Water Solutions and Project Schoolhouse, the students worked for months to build a prototype of a remotely-monitored rainwater catch system on the UT-Austin campus. On this June trip, they collaborated with the Project Schoolhouse head builder in Nicaragua to modify the design for locally available materials and installed a similar system at the school in the community of San Isidro, Nicaragua. This rainwater system will give Project Schoolhouse a tool to bring clean water to schools and homes faster and more economically as we raise the funds needed for full topography studies and the fully distributed water systems that are the longer-term solution we have historically installed.

I had the opportunity to chat with two senior Texas Enactus students about the trip that both agreed was the experience of a lifetime.

Matt Zhang, the lead engineer for the UT Texas Enactus team, described his experience as amazing. Though the Texas Enactus students worked for months prior to the trip to build a prototype on the UT-Austin Campus, building it in Nicaragua was much different. For the in-country prototype, the students had to work alongside the Project Schoolhouse head builder, Manuel, to adapt the system to work in Nicaragua. They measured and studied the components that would need to be adapted in an area where there’s very limited electricity and resources.

Matt describes working with Manuel as a great experience, constantly amazed at his ingenuity. He wishes he spoke the language so he could talk to Manuel on a deeper level, but the language barrier prevented it. Matt recalls that if they had a problem Manuel could work it through and adapt it and he was so impressed by Manuel’s ingenuity.

It was nice to have someone with so much knowledge if I had a problem. He could make it happen and make it work.”

Matt and Board Member and UT Professor Dennis Passovoy

I asked Matt about living in a community with no access to clean water even for a short few days. Matt says that it was like nothing that he had ever experienced. “It’s very in your face. There was no access to clean water. It breaks my heart that the world keeps moving on and communities keep trying to catch up. I think that’s why the projects are so important. They go fetch water before the projects come in and don’t get a lot of education. Life is the same from generation to generation.”

When I asked Matt to describe the community, he responded with admiration. The community came together and helped with meals and to take care of the UT students. “There were rotations for some of the women in the community. They would come in early in the morning to start cooking for us; the men hauled clean water from a nearby community so we wouldn’t get sick, and helped with pouring concrete and other parts of the rainwater installation. The amount of work they do, everyone is working all day. They pushed us to keep going.”

Later, I spoke to Abigail Mihalic, Project Manager for the UT Austin Texas Enactus team. She also described the experience as amazing. Abigail noted that while the UT students spent time building a prototype on campus in Austin, nothing could have prepared them for what it would be like to build it on site.

“We didn’t know a ton going in. We built a prototype on campus and thought it would work perfectly and that was not how it went in Nicaragua. It did turn out for the better. We changed the design from 4 small to 2 large barrels. We redesigned on the fly and spent three hours at the hardware store to substitute for locally available parts. We went back to the hardware store to figure out more parts. There were lots of bumps but the building process was great. It was very rewarding. We would wake up with the sunrise and get right to work. Manuel and the community members were amazing. They were welding and gluing PVC. We were in charge of sifting the sand used for filtration – it was hard work but it was so rewarding. We owe a ton to Manuel and Jairo (Project Schoolhouse team). They were really amazing and helpful and it was just great.”

For Abigail, it was really eye-opening to experience living with limited access to water. She described that even though they were only there for ten days and they had help fetching water, the families that live there go every day to drink from the watering hole. It solidified how important Project Schoolhouse’s mission is and how the rainwater system can be a fast solution to implement.

Her favorite moments were: the first day when they had some down time because we got to talk and play every day with the students and the community members, and the food, “The soups were heavenly.”

When I asked if there was something to tell our supporters:

“It was a great, crazy experience – sleeping with the bats that were flying over us at night; meeting everyone in the community, and joking around with everyone. Work over the year in preparation was abstract, but being in the community and seeing what the situation was, the lack of access to water, and how the rainwater system could be a sustainable solution that could be spread to multiple communities quickly, was so rewarding. Hopefully, we can keep working on this project. I am grateful to Selina, Tab, and the Project Schoolhouse team; and the UT Austin Enactus team was there for us and made it happen; So grateful we made it happen and so blessed for the help.”

Both Matt and Abigail have graduated from UT Austin but when I asked what was next, both shared their enthusiasm to keep refining the rainwater system as a priority. Matt mentioned that probably all of his friends and family were sick of him retelling his stories from his time in Nicaragua. They recalled how special the last day in the community was. They were finishing the water system. The children and the teacher of the community of San Isidro made posters showing their gratitude. “The work came to fruition, it started raining.”

Greetings from the Executive Director

July 10, 2022 By Selina

Just this week we are wrapping up the water and latrine project in the community of Bilampi, Bocana de Paiwas which started in 2021. This is the most spread out community water project in our history and the families worked so hard to get water to every home, in total hand-digging 22 kilometers of trench to lay the water distribution lines to reach every home, plus 2 churches and 3 schools. We hope to return to this community in late 2022 to build new schools for the children, replacing the dilapidated wooden huts in which they currently study, one of which is dangerously close to collapsing. I fear for the safety of the children but the only option is to study outdoors..

In April we broke ground on a fully-distributed water system, latrines, and a new school in the community of Rosario Las Vegas, Matagalpa. This community is all the way around Mount Musún, the mountain around which we’ve been working for the past 15 years. It’s emotional, actually, to have made it all the way around this beautiful mountain (photo above) and continue the circle back to our home office in Rio Blanco, passing all of the projects we’ve built in past years. There are many more communities off the main road waiting to partner with us, but this feels like such good progress.

Finally, in the first 2 weeks of June, I traveled with a group of UT Austin students and their faculty lead to install our first rainwater catchment system at the school in the community of San Isidro. The students first built a prototype on the UT Austin campus, then worked with our head builder in Nicaragua to modify the design for locally available parts. We envision this low-cost, quick-to-install solution as a way to get clean water to schools first, while we complete full topography studies and raise the funds needed for the fully-distributed water systems we traditionally build in the hundreds of communities still needing clean water. It was great to see the success of this project and so inspiring to witness the generosity and ingenuity of the student group.

Gratefully,
Selina Serna

Project Update – December 2021

December 17, 2021 By Project Schoolhouse

In 2021, for the first year ever, we worked in three communities, two water projects, in the communities of Mancera Central and Bilampi, and one School project in the community of Malakawas. We also initiated a pilot After-School Club in the community of El Aulo! The projects will bring clean water and education to over 650 people!

Mancera Central Water Project: Benefiting 50 families
Currently completing the final suspension bridge, which will complete the water distribution system. The next item would be to build the latrines in each household!

Malakawas – School: Benefiting 60 families
School is complete except for hanging the classroom divider which is already constructed. We will be handing the keys to this new school in the next few days!

Bilampi – Water Project: Benefiting a community with 43 families, 2 schools, and a church

Spring Capture & Tank 100% are complete! The distribution system is 70% complete. There is 6.5 km more pipe to get into the ground. This will take two months to complete at this pace (100-150 meters per day). We estimate the water portion can be completed by early February and the latrines finished by March 2022.

Impact Report

July 12, 2021 By Project Schoolhouse

Despite persistently challenging conditions in Nicaragua, Project Schoolhouse has managed to keep moving forward with all of our planned projects for 2021.

For the first time ever, we are working in three communities simultaneously to bring water to over 90 families and a school to the community of Malakawas.

In the community of Mancera Central, the community has completed the spring capture and the main water line down to the water storage tank. This was a difficult capture process because the spring is located far up a steep mountain and the materials were difficult to transport by hand and horse. There are also a large number of suspension bridges needed to traverse complex geography down from the spring.

Using funds from a Global Grant from Rotary International, we are building a community water system in a community called Bilampi in the municipality of Bocana de Paiwas. Anchored by the West Austin Rotary Club in Austin Tx and the Matagalpa Rotary Club in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, this is a $90,000 grant that will cover 100% of the expenses for the project. This water system actually pulls water from three different springs, requiring three separate spring captures. As with Mancera Central, this community has finished trenching the main water line and is working on construction of the water storage tank.

Both Mancera Central and Bilampi should have water running to every home, school, and church in the communities by the end of 2021.

Last year we completed a water system in the community of Malakwas and this year we are working with the community to build a new elementary school. The project is going quickly and the metal superstructure, the floor, and the roof are now complete. The students in Malakawas will be able to finish this school year in a brand new school!

All in all, these three projects will touch the lives of over 150 families.

We are also thrilled to report that our first After-School Club is up and running and doing a great job of increasing the access for students in El Aulo to additional instruction and instructor attention. Twice a week the students get to stay an extra two hours to continue studying core subjects with local volunteers and Project Schoolhouse team members. We hope to implement this program in more schools as resources become available.

While continuing our work through the covid epidemic has been challenging, we’ve managed to continue to increase our impact and reach across all our projects and programs. Our teams have grown over the past two years both in Nicaragua and in the USA and this success is undoubtedly due to the hard work of these skillful team members as well as the donors who support this work.

Thank you to everyone.

-Tab
Director of Operations

The new elementary school under construction in Malakawas.

This is one of three separate spring captures in the community of Bilampi, Nicaragua. Water is flowing downhill to the water storage tank.

Greetings from our Executive Director – Energized for the year ahead

April 12, 2021 By Project Schoolhouse

Dear Friends,

We are excited to have broken ground on a water and latrine project in the community of Mancera Central, returning to that community after collaborating to build a new school building in 2019. As its name suggests, it is the center of a group of smaller villages, with a high school and a health clinic that serves all of those surrounding villages. In these rural communities, high school occurs every Saturday and students take their homework for the rest of the week, to complete after they finish their chores. Going to high school is quite a commitment, walking or riding a horse for hours from the smaller villages to get to school. It was eye-opening and heart-warming to see the influx of teens that Saturday of our visit. Many of the girls were accompanied by moms or older brothers, for safety. It takes at least 5 years for them to graduate from high school, going only once a week as they do.

In 2019 the community mobilized to build a new school to serve as the primary school during the week, and the high school on Saturdays, just as they are now mobilizing to build a water system to provide safe drinking water for their families. It was the fastest school we’ve seen come together and that energy is continuing on the water project.

We are so very grateful for the support of The Burdine Johnson Foundation for financially supporting the Mancera Central water project. Their sustaining support over the years has brought safe water to hundreds of families.

We are also grateful and thrilled to report winning our second Rotary International Global Grant! This grant will pay for the water and latrine project in the community of Bilampi, which we will break ground on in early summer 2021. We’re excited to share an interview, below, of KC Cerny, the driving force behind these complex grant applications. In designing this system, our water engineer reported this community having the worst water quality he had ever seen. The families in Bilampi cannot wait to get started. They should have clean water in their homes by the end of the year!

And, in between these 2 water projects, we will collaborate in the community of Malakawas to build a new school, after finishing a water project there last year. In our survey work leading up to commencing this project, we’ve seen the highest level of adult continuing education of all of the communities we’ve worked in previously. It is great to see parents just as eager to continue their education as the children, and they cannot wait to have a new school building in which to study.

Your support makes all these projects possible. We invite you to one of our upcoming ‘Crash Courses’ to learn more about 2021 projects and the communities where we’ve put your investment to work. I hope to see you there and bring a friend or two to help us spread the word. It would be a huge gift.

Gratefully,
Selina Serna
Executive Director