Community Engagement

Catching a Drop of Water: Rainwater Collection and Why it Makes Sense

October 30, 2026 by bigshifter

For most of the communities we serve, clean water arrives the way it always has for Project Schoolhouse: through a spring-fed, gravity-flow system that we survey, engineer, and build alongside the families who will use it for generations. It’s the gold standard; and it’s why our water projects last. But these systems take time and money. A full topography study, trenching, and distribution network can take years to reach a community. Years is a long time to keep drinking polluted water from the local river.

That gap is exactly what Rainewable was built to close.

Dennis Passovoy,
Educator, Entrepreneur & Project Schoohouse Board Member

Why Waiting Is the Problem

Roughly 61% of Nicaraguans lack reliable access to potable water, leaving an estimated 1.7 million people relying on unsafe water for drinking, cooking, and bathing.¹ According to UNICEF’s 2020 Nicaragua country profile, waterborne illness accounts for 18% of deaths among children under five. Every rainy season, every dry season, and every meal prepared with contaminated water represents continued exposure.

The burden also falls disproportionately on women and girls. -UNICEF estimates that women and girls worldwide spend roughly 200 million hours every day collecting water; time taken from school, work, and rest. In communities without household water, walking to a river or stream is simply part of daily life.

Project Schoolhouse’s pipeline for a fully distributed, gravity-fed system can take up to ten years from first contact with a community to water flowing into every home. Ten years is a long time for a five-year-old to become a fifteen-year-old drinking contaminated water. We needed a solution that could provide safer water in days rather than years and for a few thousand dollars rather than tens of thousands.

What Is Rainewable?

Rainewable is a low-cost, low-maintenance rainwater catchment and filtration system developed in partnership with the Texas Enactus team at the University of Texas at Austin.

The concept is simple. Rain falling on a tin roof is channeled through gutters into a first barrel, where sediment settles. The water then passes through sand and gravel filtration into a second, sealed barrel of clean water. Rio Blanco receives roughly 140 inches of rainfall annually, making rainwater collection a practical solution.

The system requires no electricity, pump, or fuel. In communities where the nearest hardware store may be hours away by unpaved roads, that simplicity matters.

Built for the Communities We Serve

The design evolved through field testing. UT students first prototyped a remotely monitored version in Austin, then traveled to Nicaragua and rebuilt it alongside our head builder, Manuel. Using locally available PVC, hardware, and hand-sifted sand, the team transformed an academic prototype into a system a rural community could realistically maintain: two large barrels, no electronics, and no moving parts that can easily fail.

The finished system can be built on-site in about four days for under $5,000, a fraction of the time and cost of a fully distributed system.

San Isidro, Nicaragua: The First Installation

The first full Rainewable system was installed at the school in San Isidro, a farming community of roughly 300 residents whose primary water source was a river shared with livestock and consistently contaminated.

Before the system, fetching water was a daily responsibility that fell disproportionately on the school’s youngest girls, contributing to missed classes and illness. With the catchment system feeding the schoolyard, students can wash their hands between lessons and after using the outhouse. In its first year, the system served approximately 300 residents, including 40 students directly, while helping strengthen community hygiene knowledge and practices.

Most importantly, the system became something the community built and maintained rather than simply received.

Weighing the Design

Rainewable is not intended to replace our permanent spring-fed systems. It is a way to provide safer water while a community waits for a fully distributed system.

Rainewable is a bridge, not a destination: a practical way to provide safer water now while a permanent system moves through the pipeline.

It’s a small footprint of concrete, PVC, and rain barrels. But for a classroom that currently has no safe water, it can mean the difference between a school day interrupted by a walk to the river and one that isn’t.

¹WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene

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Ponsoña Phase II: Early Water Access Is Here, and Homes Are Next

October 30, 2026 by Project Schoolhouse

Families in the Ponsoña region of Nicaragua are already drinking clean water from public access points, including at schools, while the team and communities work to bring the network to every home. With 75% of the Phase II network complete and construction months ahead of schedule, that goal is getting closer faster than planned.

Early Water Access Is Already Changing Daily Life

Phase II is already serving families in Cabecera Paiwas, La Libertad, and Puente Paiwas through public water access points:

Cabecera Paiwas: a new public water point is now serving the community.
Puente Paiwas: three public water points have been enabled.
Schools and churches in these communities are part of the project, so students, worshippers, and neighbors have a safe source close by.

These access points are an important first step. Families no longer have to rely on distant and unsafe sources for every drop they use.

The Goal: Clean Water at Home

Public water points are not the finish line. The ultimate goal is water in every home. When water flows at the household level, girls and women no longer have to spend hours carrying it, and families no longer have to store it in open containers where it can become contaminated and lead to water-borne illness. Clean water at home means more time for school, work, and better health for everyone.

Months Ahead of Schedule, Thanks to the Families Themselves

The project team is months ahead of schedule, thanks to the communities’ commitment. Families have gone above and beyond, volunteering their time and labor to dig the trenches that will carry water to their own neighborhoods. Community members have now excavated more than 21 kilometers of trenching. After completing 16.7 kilometers by August, they added another 4.4 kilometers in September.

The work isn’t only underground. Where the network crosses streams, roads, and other natural obstacles, the project needs specially designed overhead pipeline crossings. A second aerial pipeline bridge has been built, with more planned. Each is small next to the kilometers of trenching, but each is essential to carrying water toward homes.

The Road Ahead

The remaining work is clearly defined:

Paiwitas sector: 3.5 kilometers of distribution network still to excavate
Overhead crossings: construction of additional bridges continues
Household water access points and meters: installation to follow

Built by Communities, Backed by Generous Partners

What began as a plan to connect communities to a shared water source is now a physical network across the region. Families who prioritize clean water access are building it, with support from Project Schoolhouse donors and partners.

We remain deeply grateful to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for its financial support of this multi-community project. Its generosity has helped make possible a system that will serve families across the region for years to come.

Step by step, kilometer by kilometer, clean water is moving closer to the families still waiting, and to the day it flows from a tap in their own homes.

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October 2026 – Message from our Executive Director

October 30, 2026 by Project Schoolhouse

Summer in Nicaragua: a new office, water projects ahead of schedule, and what we’re learning

Dear Project Schoolhouse Family,

This summer flew by, and our team in Nicaragua has been busy. Here’s what you’ve made possible.

Thanks to the leadership and problem-solving of our head builder, Manuel S., and the hard work of our field team, Jairo, Luis Enrique, Luis Alberto, Mario and Deybin, the multi-community water and sanitation project in the Ponsoña region is months ahead of schedule. I encourage you to click through to read the full update and see photos below.

We have a new office in Río Blanco! For 20 years, our first employee, bookkeeper, and administrator, Maria Inés, welcomed Project Schoolhouse to office out of her own home. We are grateful for her generosity. We now have a professional space in the heart of Río Blanco. It gives our growing team space to work and host community leaders as we train to strengthen their capacity to maintain the water systems we’ve built over the past 20 years. Special thanks to Erica, who supports our administrative work and made the new office such a welcoming space.

Under Cristian’s leadership, our after-school programs are helping children grow more confident in reading, writing, and creative storytelling, and more than 90% of them attend each session. Moms take turns cooking a hot lunch for the school, so every child is nourished and ready to learn.

Manuel A., our Programs Coordinator, has visited families we’ve partnered with for the past 20 years. He’s asking what has worked, what we can improve, and where communities need support to keep their water systems working and their water safe. We have learned so much. Supporting these prior-year project communities will be a focus for 2027.

Finally, a huge shout-out to Ramiro, our Director of Operations. He’s been with us for a year now and has brought invaluable insight and leadership to our growing team.

Thank you all for standing with us and supporting this work.

With gratitude,

Selina
Executive Director

–

Click here to download and read the full 2025 progress report.

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A Message from our Executive Director

July 6, 2026 by Selina

Dear Project Schoolhouse Family,

Twenty years ago, we drove down a rutted dirt road to a small community in rural Nicaragua, unloaded some tools and materials, and got to work alongside families who had been hauling water for hours each day just to cook, clean, and survive. We built a school together, but heard that water was the more critical need. So, in the next community project, we added a clean water system. We celebrated together. And then, as we always do, we moved on to the next community waiting for help.

But this year, as we mark our 20th anniversary, we’ve been asking ourselves a different question: “How have these communities fared in the years since?”

That question has been leading us back — back up those same roads, back to communities where we broke ground years ago — to see whether the work has lasted. What we’ve found has been both humbling and energizing.

The Systems Are Running. But It Takes Real Work.

The good news: in community after community, the water is flowing. The gravity-flow systems we built together — tapping mountain springs, running lines downhill into homes — are doing exactly what they were designed to do. No pumps, no electricity, no moving parts. Simple by design.

But clean water doesn’t sustain itself. Every system we’ve ever built depends on one thing above all others: a functioning Community Water Board.

These are volunteer committees, elected by their neighbors, who oversee maintenance, collect monthly meter fees, manage a maintenance fund, and ensure the water in their community remains safe to drink. They are the unsung backbone of everything we’ve built.

And here is the truth we want to share: being a Water Board member is genuinely hard.

Farmers First, Board Members Second

The families in the communities where we work are, almost universally, small-scale agricultural farmers. Their lives are full, and often precarious. A bad rainy season can mean a very difficult year.

Asking these same neighbors to also serve as community water administrators is a significant ask. A board treasurer must track every córdoba collected from meter fees, keep records of maintenance expenses, and steward a fund the whole community depends on. A board president must call meetings, navigate disputes about unpaid fees, and decide when to repair and when to wait.

None of this comes naturally. It requires organization, consistency, and administrative skill that most board members are learning on the job, while also harvesting their crops.

Where Project Schoolhouse Comes In

This is where our return visits have become so meaningful. Going back to communities isn’t just about checking on the pipes. It’s about checking on the people responsible for the pipes.

When we return, we sit down with the Water Board. We review records together, help strengthen simple accounting systems for the maintenance fund, and work through the math of what meter fees need to cover — not just today’s small repairs, but larger needs that could arise years down the road. We help boards think through how to handle a household that has fallen behind on payments, or how to respond when a neighbor questions how the fund is being used.

When technical expertise is needed — a cracked pipe, a filtration issue, a water quality question — we bring or connect that expertise. But we are always clear: the technical support is ours to offer. The governance, the organization, the community trust? That belongs to the water board. Ultimately, communities are the first line of defense for the water their children drink. And that is as it should be.

Tab Barker and Community Members Reviewing Progress of Water Project -2019

A 20th Year Worthy of the Journey

Returning to our earliest communities has reminded us why community ownership was never just an aspirational value — it is the mechanism by which a water system built in 2009 is still running in 2026.

We still have a long waitlist of communities ready to break ground on new projects. We will keep building. But this year, we are weaving in the work of return — revisiting, reinforcing, and recommitting to the communities that trusted us first.

You made this work possible then, and you make it possible now. Thank you for being with us through all twenty years of it.

With deep gratitude,

Selina
Executive Director

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Click here to download and read the full 2025 progress report.

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The Power of Trust: How We’re Funded Shapes the Work We Can Accomplish

July 6, 2026 by Project Schoolhouse

Written by Dennis Passovoy, Board Member

When Victorina finally had safe water flowing into her home after 75 years of life without it, no one asked her to document the milestone in triplicate. The water was simply there — clean, gravity-fed, dependable — because the people who believed in this work trusted the people doing it.

That trust is not a small thing. In the world of nonprofit funding, it is actually quite rare. And it makes an enormous difference — not just to us as an organization, but to the communities in Nicaragua whose lives we are here to help transform.

We want to take a moment to talk about something that doesn’t often appear in these pages: how we are funded, and why it matters so much to the work.

What Is Trust-Based Philanthropy?

Trust-based philanthropy is built on a simple but powerful idea: funders who trust the organizations they support and give them flexibility produce better outcomes than those who do not. In practice, this means unrestricted, multi-year grants with streamlined reporting — funders doing their due diligence upfront, then stepping back to let the experts do what they do best.

The alternative is common and costly. Many grant relationships require exhaustive applications, rigid reporting timelines, and restrictions that prohibit funding from covering salaries or overhead — precisely the things that allow good work to get done. And when circumstances on the ground change, as they inevitably do in remote communities, the flexibility to adapt is often missing.

The Hidden Cost of Distrust

We have worked in some of the most remote communities in Nicaragua for two decades. Our team is lean and deeply expert. What we cannot afford is time and focus diverted away from that mission.

When applications require months of compliance documentation, that is time not spent on project planning or community relationships. When restrictions prohibit covering operational costs, we are left stitching together funding sources just to keep the lights on. The administrative overhead that highly controlled philanthropy demands has a real human cost — borne by the communities furthest from the decision-making table.

We clearly understand the need for oversight. “Trust” doesn’t mean “hand over the check and step away.” It means trust but verify.

What Trust Looks Like in Practice

We have been fortunate to be supported by donors and foundations who have chosen to trust us — reviewed our financials and track record, visited communities where we’ve worked, and then given us the flexibility to put their investment to work the way we know best. That trust is something we earn and are accountable for every single day.

The most powerful recent example is a catalyzing grant from the LDS Foundation, which funded the Ponsoña multi-community water, school, and sanitation project — the largest undertaking in Project Schoolhouse’s history. Rather than prescribing narrow deliverables, the LDS Foundation invested in our mission and proven approach, trusting us to apply it across seven communities at once. Critically, it allowed us to invest in in-country leadership and community organizing capacity — something a more restrictive grant may not have permitted — making us a stronger partner for every community in our pipeline.

This is also a natural expression of our community-centered model. We only go where we are invited. We only build what communities have asked for. When our funders extend that same philosophy to us — trusting the experts closest to the work — it creates a virtuous cycle all the way from donor to schoolhouse to student.

Project Schoolhouse and LDS Teams Visiting Communities in 2023

An Invitation

If you are a donor to Project Schoolhouse, thank you. Your trust is the foundation on which everything we do is built. If you are considering a larger gift or partnership, we welcome that conversation.

Victorina’s water is still running. The children of La Ponsoñita are learning in a new school. Seven communities above Rio Blanco are closer to safe water than they have ever been.

That is what trust makes possible.

To learn more about partnering with Project Schoolhouse, visit projectschoolhouse.org/partner or reach out to us at info@projectschoolhouse.org.

Watch our short film “Victorina”

Ponsoña Water and Sanitation Project Phase 2 Underway

July 6, 2026 by Renata

After the major success of completing Phase 1 of the Ponsoña Multi-Community Water Project in 2025, our team is returning with momentum as we move into Phase 2.

Community Volunteers and Team Carrying Supplies to La Libertad Community

Alongside volunteer community members, the team is racing against the approaching rainy season to deliver materials to the community of La Libertad, one of 3 communities in Phase 2 waiting for water. In addition to the water project, there will be repairs to the school’s decaying roof and dangerously damaged sidewalk, installation of a fence to keep cattle and critters out of the school area, and installation of a handwashing station and latrines.

After this work is complete, the team will move on to the other 2 communities in the region where repairs will be more extensive, including two additional new classrooms, new handwashing stations, latrines, and safe, potable water.

Community Volunteers and Team Trenching in La Libertad Community

We particularly want to express our appreciation for the partnership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Latter-day Saint Charities Australia for trusting Project Schoolhouse to deliver progress towards our shared mission of supporting our neighbors in need.

Stay tuned for more updates as we move into the second half of 2026!

View the Ponsoña Phase 1 Photo Gallery

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A New Chapter for Our After-School Clubs

July 6, 2026 by Renata

El Aulo Trains Kiwaska Community to Launch a Second After-School Club
Early this year, our team met with the local school board in the community of Kiwaska to explore expanding programming and assess interest in launching a new After-School Club.

During the visit, our After-School Club Coordinator, Cristian, hosted a well-attended parents’ meeting and was encouraged by the strong volunteer interest from community members eager to help lead the program.

By March, we’d begun a new chapter in the Kiwaska: Volunteers from our still-thriving El Aulo After-School Club, now in its 6th year of operation, trained and mentored a new group of volunteers as they prepared to launch their own program.

Kiwaska After-School Club Volunteers During Training

Just a few days ago, our team on the ground delivered a much-needed resource: children’s books for their new mini library. Pictured here is our after-school program coordinator, Cristian, crossing the river by canoe (then continuing on by horseback) to deliver the books.

Kiwaska holds a special place in our hearts — it was the very first school built by Project Schoolhouse 20 years ago (the original 2007 school structure pictured on the right), and we’re proud to see how far it has come. Since its founding, the school has added an additional teacher and now offers Saturday high school classes so students can continue their high school education close to home, along with weekday adult literacy programs. It’s a powerful reminder of what these projects can accomplish in the long run and a testament to the care and dedication of the school board and the entire community’s lasting commitment to education.

Returning to launch a new program here feels especially meaningful to our team, and we were thrilled by the warm welcome and the excited volunteers from the community.

However, significant challenges remain. This community has never had direct access to safe water, and the nearest water source is a 20-minute walk from the school, a daily challenge for families and one we hope to change, step by step.

Stay tuned for more Club updates as we move into the second half of 2026!

Ponsoña Water & Sanitation Project: Phase 1 is Complete!

April 15, 2026 by Project Schoolhouse

In 2025, Project Schoolhouse launched the most ambitious infrastructure effort in our 20-year history: a unified water and sanitation project serving seven communities in the La Ponsoña region of Matagalpa, Nicaragua. At the heart of this effort is a single mountain spring with enough flow and pressure to supply clean, potable water to more than 2,000 people — leveraging one water source to multiply impact across an entire region.

Volunteer community members building the primary water capture dam

For an entire year, 25 to 30 community volunteers showed up each day, rain or shine, working toward the dream of clean water in their homes. Construction began with transporting materials up the mountain by truck and on foot, and in the steepest stretches, mules carried what trucks could not. Community members cleared the work site by hand and carried thousands of pounds of sand and cement up the mountain. Boulders dug out of the river were used to form the foundation of the filtration system

2025 Water Project Accomplishments

Mountaintop spring capture completed
Slow-sand filtration system built at summit
Three pressurization tanks installed along the distribution route
Chlorination units added to ensure water safety
Primary conduction lines trenched from the summit to the pressurization tanks
Distribution lines trenched (by hand!) to reach 74 family homes
74 families in 4 communities now have clean water in their homes and at their schools!

This completed mountain-top water infrastructure forms the backbone of the entire regional water system — serving the four Phase 1 communities now and laying the foundation for Phase 2 expansion in 2026.

Sanitation: A Foundation for Health & Dignity

Clean water alone is not enough. Project Schoolhouse’s comprehensive approach to building life-saving infrastructure ensures that every community we serve also receives the sanitation systems needed to protect the watershed and the health of the families in the community.

Community members, including children, took an active role in building their own latrines. This hands-on participation is central to Project Schoolhouse’s model: when families help build a project, they take ownership and maintain it well into the future.

2025 Sanitation Accomplishments

74 sanitary latrines constructed for homes in four communities
2 handwashing stations installed at community schools
Every family served trained in proper latrine use and maintenance
Every family served trained in proper latrine use and maintenance
Community hygiene education classes provided to families and school children

We particularly want to appreciate the partnership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Latter-day Saint Charities Australia for trusting in Project Schoolhouse to deliver progress towards our shared mission, supporting our neighbors in need.