Seeds of Hope Project

Well #1 - Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua

The Seeds Of Hope Project, which was undertaken in conjunction with Palmer Ministries located in Mesquite, Texas and Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, is for the benefit of the Miskito Indians living along the Miskito Coast in eastern Nicaragua.
The Miskito people are a traditional Amerindian African mestizo people who live as subsistence farmers and fisherman in small villages of the lowland rain forest of Nicaragua and Honduras.  The Miskito live in close family units in small autonomous villages.  Families plant common field crops of rice, beans, and yucca, and they gather native grown bananas and plantains.  Due to economic hardships, many Miskito children stay home and work rather than attend school, and health care is limited or non-existent in most villages.  Over one third of Miskito children are considered chronically malnourished and infant mortality is one of the highest in central America, while life expectancy is one of the lowest.  The number one cause of infant death is intestinal parasites due to impure drinking water.
          Santa Rosa is a small rural village of about 45 Miskito families that had no source of pure drinking water.  There families there had drawn their drinking and cooking water from a small stream that runs through the village.  It is the same stream that women wash  clothes in and in which animals and children play and bathe.
          The wells were dug by hand with pick and shovel, and once the water table was reached, concrete casings were stacked into the well, one on top of the other.  The casings are cast in molds on site by the villagers.  As the casings were added, dirt was filled in around them.  The  top 15 casings were sealed in concrete to prevent any ground water from seeping into the well.  The top of the well was sealed and a base poured around the top casing to seal the well from outside contaminants.  A hand pump was the final touch to the well, which now allows the 45 families in Santa Rosa to have a constant supply of pure water.  The well was funded through Hope Springs Water by a gift from the Student Senate of Trinity Valley Community College in Athens, Texas.  Two other wells have been similarly funded and details of these wells will be reported once final results are known.

Well #2 – Kisalaya, Nicaragua

Hope Springs Water partnered with Palmer Ministries and the community of Kisalaya, located along the banks of  the Coco River in Nicaragua. Kisalaya is a community of about 150 families who live along, and drink water out of,  the Coco River, which is polluted by animals and waste from villages up-river from Kisalaya.  The well is located in the front yard of the church and behind the public elementary school. At this point the well is completed and capped, in order to isolate the water from the environment as much as possible. We are anxiously awaiting the installation of the rope pump and a sealed lid to ensure water safety for a long time to come.

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