Rotaries donating money to help Hondurans

NASHUA – Rotary clubs across New Hampshire and Vermont are raising funds to help families in Honduras meet one of life’s most basic necessities: the access to clean drinking water.

Partnering with Pure Water for the World Inc., (initially a Rotary project in the early 1990s and now a nonprofit), Rotary District 7870 is working to raise $26,000 for Las Trojes, Honduras.

Las Trojes is a mountainous region of the country with over 62,000 people in hundreds of rural, dispersed communities, according to Pure Water.

These families collect water in small streams of runoff from the mountains. This water is also used for cooking, bathing, laundry and livestock, and is contaminated with pathogens such as E. coli and giardia, according to Rotary 7870 Past District Governor Tony Gilmore.

The majority of families in the area only have access to the contaminated water, which increases risk of disease and results in “a persistent cycle of poor health, reduced time in school and at work, and contributes to the cycle of perpetual poverty,” Rotary information states.

Pure Water for the World seeks to break that cycle by installing biosand water filters in homes and building bathrooms with hand washing stations.

While $26,000 may seem like a relatively small feat for 59 different clubs to raise, that money translates to 40 homes with 40 biosand water filters and 38 latrines, a boys and girls latrine and wash station and filter for their school and teacher hygiene training.

The money will also help provide filter testing in the months after installation as well as another trip to help the community remove parasites, Gilmore said.

The Hollis Brookline Rotary club has already donated $5,000, he said, while another New Hampshire club also generated $10,000.

While officials are on their way to meeting the goal, they are still seeking donations.
“The sooner we raise (the money), the sooner we can get to work,” Gilmore said.

For more information on Las Trojes, or to donate, visit https://purewaterfortheworld.org/where-we-work/honduras/trojes/.