Junior High students support Guatemala water project
Columbia Falls eighth graders sell Guatemalan brands of cookies at the junior high recently in an effort to raise money for hand washing stations in La Soledad. From left, Addy Bowler, Annika Reid, Ciara Robison, Ryder Burling, Lauren Rogers. (Teresa Byrd/Hungry Horse News)
Columbia Falls eighth grader Carson Settles makes a donation Friday morning to help fund handwashing stations in Guatemala. (Teresa Byrd/Hungry Horse News)
The seventh and eighth graders in Paula Koch’s Columbia Falls junior high Spanish classes have, for the last year, been encouraged to contemplate a certain theme: How to reach out to community in the time of a pandemic.
And recently, they found a way to do just that.
The middle schoolers rallied earlier this month to raise funding to provide hand washing stations to several rural Guatemalan schools lacking adequate water and sanitation facilities.
The effort came after the Spanish students completed a several-week unit studying the history, culture and economics of Guatemala.
As part of the unit, the students heard from Dave Renfrow, a longtime Columbia Falls liaison of Maya Pedal, a Guatemalan-based organization that creates pedal-powered machinery from bicycle parts, and who’s spent a significant amount of time in the country himself.
For many of the students, one of the more striking aspects was learning the level of access to clean water that many Guatemalans have.
“They only get water running two hours a day, for two days a week I think,” said Brenna Ruggiero, one of Koch’s eighth grade students. “And it’s never clean, like ever.”
“And a lot of people don’t wash their hands, because they don’t have water,” added Arne Troy, one of Ruggiero’s classmates. “So they just have to go around with dirty hands.”
A scenario the students viewed as especially problematic in the time of a pandemic, when effective hand washing is seen as an important aspect in preventing the spread of infection.
It was through Renfrow that the students learned of Los Buenos Vecinos, another Guatemalan-based organization that, as stated on its website, seeks to “creat[e] solutions to the problems of sanitation, health, and disease prevention.”
One of the ways in which Los Buenos Vecinos does so is to build and distribute gravity-fed hand washing stations known as “tippy taps.” These stations most often feature a 50 gallon water drum, capable of collecting rainwater, elevated on a type of scaffolding with spigots piped from the base of the drum to four individual hand washing basins. This specific design costs the organization about $250 to build.
When the students heard of the organization’s goal to distribute 50 of these stations to rural schools in the country’s mountainous Pacific crest region, it seemed the perfect avenue for them to provide support in a way they could— by raising money within the school with the hope of earning enough to purchase two tippy taps for a school in La Soledad.
“So the kids just went to town,” said Koch, who went on to detail how the students, in one whirlwind week, created a school-wide fundraising campaign for the hand washing stations.
The students drew up posters, created a video, posted bulletins, and stood in the lobby to advertise the need of their 3,500 mile-away central-American counterparts. They emphasized the importance of their outreach, said Koch, by creating conversations about the preciousness of clean water and what an equivalent limit in access would mean for themselves, especially during a pandemic.
“We’re really fortunate to have what we have,” stated eighth grader Annika Reid.
The students went on to organize a competition-by-class donation system, with each grade’s previous day’s donation totals announced over the morning loudspeaker. The Spanish classes also sold Guatemalan goodies, like traditional-brand cookies and “chicle,” or gum.
By the end of the campaign, the students had wildly surpassed their goal of raising $500, instead earning enough for six tippy tap stations.
Because of Renfrow’s close involvement with Los Buenos Vecinos, there was minimal delay in starting production of the stations once funding was procured. Koch’s Spanish students have seen photos and videos of at least two of the designs already installed in La Soledad.
“They figured out a way to do it,” said Koch, in regards to her classes’ theme of reaching out with support during a pandemic. “And they didn’t just do it in their own community, they did it internationally.”
To donate to or find information about Los Buenos Vecinos, visit https://www.losbuenosvecinos.com/about or write to Los Buenos Vecinos USA, 1150 Nucleus Ave., Columbia Falls 59912.
