This past May, nine members of a team from Sustainability Without Borders (SWB) spent 14 days in Chakipampa, one of the villages and schools we serve in the Paccha Valley in Peru.  (This was the second trip for the group.  The first being in November of 2014 when Comunidad Board members introduced SWB to our school villages to evaluate and assist with water quality, health concerns and other potential collaborative projects.)  The SWB team was divided into a “water team” which located 8 springs, measured flow, and tested quality from the present reservoir; and a “survey team” which met with 32 households to ascertain and measure overall health of family members, especially children 5 years and under.

Each night, both SWB teams met with community leaders and committees to provide critical information from the day’s events.   The community leaders then met separately to discuss and self-determine their priorities and projects.  As Comunidad had hoped, the first project will be to construct a larger water reservoir that will attempt to provide a constant, sufficient and quality water supply to the school and to each household throughout the year (the current reservoir runs dry each morning during the dry season and many households do not have running water!).  In addition, four households volunteered to host an aquaponics project to determine if this type of system might work as a way to increase their food production and to supplement their income.  The SWB team will return in November 2015 to work with the community of Chakipampa to begin implementing these two projects.

We are excited to be collaborating with SWB for the benefit of our schools, the community and most importantly, the well being and future of our students.  

To read more about the SWB project, please click here.