Since 1990 El Porvenir has partnered with over 375 poor communities in Nicaragua to improve their lives and health through self-help sustainable community development. We have completed over 650 small-scale water and sanitation projects to date. Infrastructure projects are accompanied by community-based reforestation and community health education. El Porvenir does not initiate projects. A community must identify their need, come to El Porvenir to ask for help, elect a committee, provide all labor on a volunteer basis, and contribute any locally available materials. El Porvenir field staff provide materials which must be purchased, and give technical assistance and training to enable the community to construct the project and then undertake its long-term maintenance.

All wells use the rope pump, invented and manufactured here in Nicaragua. The rope pump can pull up water from a depth of 100 feet. Lasting for many years, it costs $180 and can be repaired for a few dollars when it breaks. Some information is available on www.ropepump.com

These latrines are part of a pilot double-pit VIP latrine program (standard for Nicaragua at this time are single pit VIP latrines, although this may change in the near future as we are investigating other options). The shells are made of zinc and metal, so as to be easily reused (and moved) when the first pit fills.

Usually the communities are organized even before applying to El Porvenir for a project. (El Porvenir does not undertake any project unless we receive a handwritten request from the community). If the community does not have Potable Water Committee (CAP) then other existing structures (if any) in the community are viewed to see they want to become the CAP for their community, otherwise a new committee is created. The community is trained in community organizing technique and committee functioning.

Community ownership is felt by the community through its identification of its problem, and their involvement in the sweat equity of the project.

All water project areas are legalized before beginning any construction.

After project construction, water project communities are invited to participate in reforestation. Those who want to do so will develop seedling nurseries in Jan-March, transplant in the rainy season May-June, and maintain the plantations under barbed wire fence and "no burn" protection for three years minimum. Reforestation project includes construction of fuel-saving, smoke-free stoves in the homes of the best reforestation participants (and eventually others).

Community health educators will visit all projects after construction to teach hygiene (handwashing e.g.) and encourage ongoing maintenance and repair of all projects, strengthen local committees, etc. Also, Community Agents will be trained to directly and more frequently reinforce the hygiene messages. The Community Agents are trained using a train-the-trainer methodology.

In order to measure the impact of our projects, we collect data several times a year from clinics serving rural districts where we have a high concentration of projects: number of visits due to diarrhea, etc. As the number decreases we feel that hygiene education has been effective.

We are reviewing our monitoring and evaluation system at this time and hope to come up with more comprehensive indicators over time.

Currently we collect health data from the nearby health posts and monitor the incidences of diarrhea and other watsan related illnesses.