Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Latrine Building

Please let me introduce you Bolivar and Arlin, who are building latrines for those who have none. With our latrine building we are working to eliminate lack of sanitation, a principal cause of illness among poor families in the parish of Don Juan.

Filling the support columns of the new cafeteria of the school in Don Juan



Sacred Heart serving a meal and distributing clothes in Los Lanos



Painting the chapel in Los Lanos



Parishioners of Sacred Heart painted the chapel in Los Lanos on February 18th.



Engineers Without Borders Potable Water Project

Below is a recent email from Engineers without Borders of the University of Rochester,NY in regard to our project to have potable water 24/7:

Hi P. Ron,

I hope that you and all of our friends in Don Juan are doing well. I realize that we haven't spoken in a few weeks so I wanted to send out a few updates from our chapter.

We have received approval to proceed with the designs for the water system on the condition that we make contact with a local government representative in Don Juan. For this reason, we will be reaching out to Sr. Anderson de los Santos. EWB-USA is also requiring that we show proof about whether or not design regulations/specifications or permits are required in the area; therefore, we will also try to contact the engineering department at INTEC to determine what resources might be available. We hope to have a draft of our design plans completed by the end of this semester and will be submitting our proposal to EWB-USA for approval this summer.

Recently, the fundraising committee applied for a Rotary Simplified District Grant, through which we aim to receive $10,000. We feel confident in receiving this grant because two Rotary clubs, from within the district, are co-sponsoring our organization. We will also send some members to a "House of Friendship" event, where we will inform other clubs of our program in hopes of receiving additional pledges of monetary support. Moving into next semester, we plan to launch a crowd-funding campaign sponsored by the engineering school at the University of Rochester.

On another note, Sophia and I have spoken regarding the procedure for further water testing (in between chlorine additions) in the cisterns and and boy's restroom (near the 7th and 8th grade classrooms). We look forward to receiving the results of the test and for continuing to welcome and communicate with Sophia as the newest member of our team.

Finally, we will be sending our most recently estimated budget for the program within the next week. We are working on a translated version and are drafting a letter to APMAE to update them as well.

As always, please feel free to email me with any questions/concerns!

Best,
Grace