Global Partners: Running Waters builds safe water systems for villages in Guatemala. (Submitted photo)

JAY SORGI

SPECIAL TO THE CATHOLIC HERALD

Forty-four percent of the nation of Guatemala does not have safely managed drinking water, according to the most recent data from the World Health Organization and UNICEF.

A Milwaukee-based Catholic nonprofit affiliated with the School Sisters of Notre Dame is doing its part to shrink that percentage.

“It’s life-changing,” said Global Partners: Running Waters board member Perry Nigh.

The group is funding and helping manage the construction of numerous safe water systems for villages in the Central American country, partnering to build the systems with the residents of each town. It’s part of the more than 150 projects the group says it has funded to make changes in the lives of nearly 2,800 people — many in remote areas of the country — over more than 20 years.

“Sr. Jan (Gregorcich, S.S.N.D.), she was in Guatemala at a very dangerous time to be down there,” said Nigh about the genesis of the project in 2003.

“There were wars going on, and she was down there just helping the people … she wanted to continue her work somehow down there. She was asked what they needed, how she could do it, what they could do. And she started this foundation with Diane Henke. There was a core group of people involved (who) set up the foundation, and it’s been going ever since.”

Their work, which costs just pennies on the dollar in comparison to creating such water projects in the U.S., changes so many patterns of daily life for the residents in these smaller villages where they center their work.

“They have to go sometimes a long way, a mile or more, two miles, and carry heavy containers of water to bring that back to the house, sometimes several times a day, for all their needs,” said Nigh.

“They go down to the river, and that’s where they wash their clothes, that same water that they’re drinking, so the water is not sanitary. The kids suffer a lot of waterborne diseases, so they miss a lot of school, and it’s just not healthy, not taking into account even the wear and tear on the bodies carrying the heavy containers of water.”

Nigh said in the time after a safe water delivery project is completed, lives are changed.

“It’s transformed,” he said. “Instead of spending all those hours of the day hauling water, they have time to either study or get involved in some work. There’s different jobs that they do. The women that we talked to, their hands were always working. They were weaving different things that they sell to different companies, making money for the family. They have a lot more time to do that, so they can help out with the family income. They can invest in things just making their lives better.”

To help new volunteers, board members and the general public understand the transformational project’s effect, they have each person understand the literal and symbolic weight these people feel on a daily basis.

“When they’re talking to a group, they’ll have these containers full of water, (and) they’ll just have the people pick them up and carry them a few feet and see how heavy they are — what big, hard, hard work that is,” said Nigh.

Nigh sponsored one of the water projects and saw firsthand how the impact not only eases the daily life of those in the village, but changes their worldview to a more hopeful, grateful outlook.

“When we went down in March, I remember going to the village that I ended up sponsoring. Some of the women (were) practically pleading and crying. When I announced that I was going to sponsor that village, there was a lot of, ‘Yeah, we’ll see,” because they’ve heard that before. They’ve been promised a lot of things. So, when we went down in August, they were just so happy. I mean, they just cried.”

Global Partners: Running Waters also focuses on food and education projects as part of its ongoing ministry.

“When I went down in August, one of the schools that we have a partnership with down there, I asked them, ‘What do you need?’” said Nigh. “They said, ‘We need computers.’ And so my daughter was telling her boss about this, and the boss just bought five laptop computers. We took them down, and so they had five brand new laptop computers.”

Within all the work Global Partners: Running Waters does, they notice a running theme on where they find God in the project.

“It’s in the people,” Nigh said. “Their needs, and then the relief when it comes,”

To find out more, go to Global Partners: Running Waters.