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Global Water Brigades (GWB) at Santa Cruz is a movement of passionate students and professional volunteers from around the world dedicated to improving access to clean water and sanitation. GWB designs and implements water systems to increase access and quantity of water and to prevent communicable illnesses in communities with limited access to clean water. Our current focus is in Central America where hundreds of student volunteers travel annually to implement our community-based water projects with our local partners. Our in-country team members work with water experts and community leaders to design large-scale water systems for the entire community. Once the water system is blueprinted, volunteers work side-by-side with community members to implement and provide the education for maintenance through the creation of community water counsels.
We currently focus our work in 5 rural Honduran communities in which we have long-term commitments to sustainable development. Between brigades our in-country team insures that the water counsels and basic sanitation committees are functioning and have the necessary funding to perpetuate the longevity of the systems created.
Global Water Brigades works alongside Medical, Dental, Public Health and Microfinance Brigades to holistically prevent the spread of disease and illness in under-resourced communities and improve the overall quality of life.
To be updated.
I'm a college student and I am very interested in working in the areas of ending poverty as well as providing access to water to communities around the world. How does the Global Water Brigade serve that objective?
Global Water Brigade offers students to make a hands-on tangible difference in the lives of impoverished communities that have limited to no access to water. We operate our we have our current focus on Central America, in the country of Honduras, but where we work with dozens of villages in developing their water system and working in conjunction with the Honduran government to implement them.
Before we offer Global Water Brigade one week trip to Honduras involves students mobilizing from university campuses or professional organizations to mobilize together where we identify a water project already being undertaken and we break that larger project into pieces for students to fundraise and help develop and actually go in the communities and work hand in hand with the community members to implement the project.
The villages that we work in typically have less than three gallons of water a day, access to water. Everyone as you know is interested in water, what that means to overall health and sanitation for that family. Thats not just water is not just used for cleaning and drinking, three gallons alone is minimal for drinking for an entire family, but what that means to the overall public health infrastructure for them to be able to clean themselves, clean their houses and the communicable diseases that spread because of the lack of sanitation and water. Water Brigade offers and apply very sophisticated yet simple method to enhance the communitys access to water by developing a system and full scale water project in the community in conjunction with local experts to [inaudible].
If youre interested in providing a tangible difference in a tangible water system and staying in a remote village without access to water, with limited water access, Global Water Brigade offers you that hands-on experience working with community members and building water projects and improving water projects.
Can you tell me more about what you mean by hands-on experience? I really want to get in there and I want to help build a system.
If you want to get in if you want real world experience understanding water systems in remote villages and you want to get in there and get dirty and work with community members on building the infrastructure, this is your opportunity. On the Water Brigade, youll spend at least four to five of the seven-day trip in the village working with community leaders laying pipes, helping build dams, putting, installing filters and teaching the people and community leaders on how to maintain and facilitate that, working with our local experts and our local directors to holding workshops and community advocating.
The largest difference that the Water Brigade makes is the infusion of energy. It acts as a catalyst within the community that already has a certain level of infrastructure but it helps them mobilize together and formalize existing water council that they have. It empowers them to be able to perpetuate the projects after we leave. The students a part of the program is to fundraise where we make sure that there is money for materials and other supplies to purchase to build out the water projects and to make sure that chlorine is added to the communitys water and to also perpetuate any water council in the community to maintain the structures after weve built them.
A week does not seem like very much time, how much of a difference can I possibly make in only seven days?
Because Global Brigade is in so many campuses, Global Water Brigade is not just a one week program. We are made of an entire network of like-minded students and professionals who care about clean water. Currently our network is made up of more than forty universities and campus clubs and other professional organizations. We travel down to Honduras to work on our clean water project.
The one week brigade is the catalyst that mobilizes the community to take that next step. The one week brigade is one of many water brigades that goes into that community or into that water project. So from the start, we build an entire water project with the Honduran government and the community experts water experts and community leaders in the community that approach us that would like a water system. Then we break up that entire water system into one week intervals. So you as water brigade participant are only there for one week, but our critical link in that chain to be able to perpetuate a larger system.
Thats the big difference between Global Water Brigade and some random one off project is that we have people on the ground full time. Hired local experts on the ground full time who are maintaining water projects that are currently undergoing and are perpetuating and identifying new water projects for us to mobilize volunteers towards completion. And the responsibility of our on-the-ground staff to coordinate between brigades to make sure that the projects are undergoing and are finalized to completion.
How does the water project contribute to sustainable development in Central America?
Clean water is the lifeblood of sustainable development in any developing country. In particular in Honduras, where people have less than in rural villages, have less than two to three gallons of water a day. Without clean water you dont have the ability to not only keep yourself healthy in all the health issues, but also from the development standpoint, you dont have access to irrigate your crops, you dont have access to perpetuate any micro-enterprise that youre developing. Its the lifeblood of development.
What Water Brigade does is it builds water systems for the entire community to have improved their not only to clean water but improved access to water, to go from only having three gallons of water a day to hundreds of gallons, to be able to irrigate and to be able to use in the home as well.
Upcoming Trip for 2011 TBA
2010 - 2011 Presidents
Interested in leading this brigade? Please contact Michelle_globalbrigades.org
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