Twenty-six Rotary Clubs in northern Connecticut and Western Massachusetts (Rotary District 7890) have joined together to fund a project that will bring fresh drinking water, sanitation facilities and hygiene training to a needy Mayan community in Guatemala. Including matching funds from The Rotary Foundation and those contributed to ALDEA, the Cooperating Partner NGO, a total of $176,486 was raised. Adding this amount to the funds raised during the previous sixteen years brings the total to $1,856,900.
These funds will pay for the materials needed to complete a gravity fed water system with gray water filters, vented pit latrines, improved vented stoves for the 115 families (725 people) who live in the rural community of Xecoxol, Guatemala. All labor is provided by the men and women in each village. These projects continue the goal of Rotary International to have every Rotary Club support an international water and sanitation project every year. By working together, pooling their resources, and obtaining Global Grants with matching funds from The Rotary Foundation, the Rotarians have been successful in adding size and strength to their chosen projects.
District 7890 Water Committee Chair and Manchester, Conn. Rotarian Rick Lawrence again spearheaded the drive to raise the necessary funds by making presentations about the project to the Rotary clubs throughout northern Conn., western Mass., and central Rhode Island as well as several clubs in southeastern Florida. In March 2026, he and his wife, Elin, will travel to Guatemala to visit the village funded through this Global Grant. As done for the past 17 years, he will document photographically the improvements and expressions of gratitude displayed by the members of the village, utilizing these during his presentations to show the Rotarians how important their past contributions were to these indigenous Mayans.
The project’s implementation will be coordinated through the host partner, the Rotary Club of La Antigua, Guatemala, and its cooperating partner, ALDEA (formerly Behrhorst Partners for Development), a non-profit organization with ties to over 95 communities in Guatemala. ALDEA helps train community-chosen people as a health promoter, a village dispensary manager and someone to oversee use of medical emergency transportation funds. ALDEA also provides extensive training in sanitation, personal hygiene, maintenance of the water system components, micro loans, nutrition, including help in school and home vegetable gardens, as well as educational talks about family planning and birth spacing. In Guatemala over 50% of children suffer from chronic malnutrition.
This Rotary Global Grant project will help address some of the basic causes of poor health and will help the villagers address basic sanitation – water systems, gray-water filters and latrines – in order to help prevent the constant illnesses that afflict the population, particularly children.
For further information, contact Rick Lawrence at elawrlaw@sbcglobal.net or (860) 558-2793.