IROCOTA, CHUQUISACA

Water for Irocota

Two hours away from Sucre on a winding dirt road is Irocota. It is a community located in the most malnourished municipality of Bolivia. This problem is worsened by infections that cause diarrhea, suffered by the people who drink water from the river.

 

Seeing a child suffering in pain and weakness would break anyone’s heart.

 

“I didn’t like to see my little children suffering hunger. It is too sad,” says Maria, a mother from Irocota.

 

The lack of clean water directly affects Maria’s family. In addition to suffering from illnesses, the family does not have enough food to eat or enough money to cover their material needs.

 

Eleuterio and Maria Gonzales live with their children Edwin,15, and Ines,6. They participated in FH workshops in Irocota and built a greenhouse where they can grow vegetables. However, the Gonzales family is not the only family that has benefited from these projects, as the entire community can access them. Everyone in the community has also benefited from the construction of the sanitary network.

 

The poverty in which these people live is due to wrong beliefs that influence their daily routines and habits. Therefore, FH trains families about biblical principles. For example, Maria now participates in the cascade group in her community — a program that trains women to learn and use what they’ve learned to teach their neighbors. Maria motivates other families to build greenhouses, which has influenced others to diversify their diets.

 

Maria shares about her community, “Now we can see changes in our children. Chronic malnutrition is decreasing from 32 percent to 28 percent, thanks to the training workshops. And thanks to the production of vegetables with the water that we have now. We are preparing our food in different, healthy ways.”

 

Additionally, Maria’s daughter Ines has good scores in school now, thanks to the support of her parents, a healthy diet, and quality time spent with her family.

 

“We are thankful [to FH] for teaching biblical truth in the training workshops. We learn [a lot] from the FH facilitators, who always speak to us about biblical principles and values. We are also thankful for the projects that they have implemented in our community, like the construction and expansion of the sanitation network, and the refurbishment of our school that benefits our children,” says Eleuterio.

There are many external factors for the Gonzales family that are out of their control, but we know that transformation has started in their lives and we are hopeful that they will follow Jesus to have an abundant and hope-filled future.

Cascade group of mothers in Irocota

Project Details

Location: Chuquisaca

Date range:

May 2017 – September 2017

Beneficiaries:

64 families

Donors:

FH and Poroma Municipality

Domains:

Livelihoods, health

Finances:

Project budget: $us 99359