Tecumseh grad helps Hondurans get clean water

By CRISTINA TRAPANI-SCOTT

Today, 2005 Tecumseh High School graduate Jeni Servoss is going to classes at Loyola University in Chicago where she is working hard toward a degree in finance. Only a month ago, however, she was in Honduras hard at work in another way.  She and 11 of her fellow students spent eight days in rural communities in Honduras, through the Global Brigades organization, helping the local people build infrastructure that would provide for a clean and constant water source.

A 501c3 nonprofit organization, Global Brigades has clubs in 15 university settings throughout the country. Each club assists with medical, dental, business, environmental and law as well as water issues to help the communities become sustainable.

Servoss learned of Global Brigades through friends who had gone on a Global Medical Brigades trips. “They realized that a lot of the medical problems come from poor water,” she said. That’s when she and others started a Water Brigades chapter at Loyola.
Preparing for the trip was not as simple as packing a duffle bag and heading off to help, however. Servoss and her group held fundraisers to purchase equipment that would help them test the water and survey the land for building water systems. They also developed teaching materials and guides to help the community members maintain the water source after the group had gone.

Servoss’s trip began with a visit to Cuesta Grande, southeast of the Honduran capital city Tegucigalpa. The group spent the first day assessing the water in Cuesta Grande before heading north to the mountain community of Los Pajarillos. The group’s original plan, said Servoss, was to build a dam, but a land dispute forced them to move on. Her group ended up digging trenches and laying pipe to build a water source.

Servoss detailed much of her experience in a letter that she sent to family members and friends who helped her with donations.

“In a Church constructed of four stone walls,” she wrote, “sunlight crept in through the cracks in the ceiling and created shadows on the dirt floor. At the front of the room, a lonely podium shyly stood in front of the pictures and wreaths praising God constructed from old paper clippings holding religious words. It is here we met the leaders of the community. Dressed in dirty old clothing, the leaders could be mistaken for beggars in one of our cities, but nonetheless, their leadership qualities could never be defined in the appearance…”

The group met with community leaders in order to work closely with them to empower the residents. Servoss said that in some places the water would come only on certain days, so people would have to find ways of storing it and often the storage facilitated bacteria growth. “I had no idea what to expect,” she said, adding that her group had gone into the community with a list of things residents could do to conserve water and ensure safe drinking water. Some of the suggestions referred to amenities that Servoss and her fellow group members didn’t think about the residents not having. “We had things on there like don’t leave the sink running, but they didn’t have sinks. They were washing things by hand on wash boards and sharing water sources,” she said.

The members of the group worked alongside community members using whatever equipment they could get from the community. Servoss admitted that much of the work was done with rudimentary tools such as pick axes and shovels. She said that while it might sound cliché, the biggest lesson for her was to not take for granted what she has here at home in the states. “Another thing,” she said, “was that the way of life they have there was different, but not worse. I learned so much from the people in the community. It was eye opening to see how different communities live. It was about empowerment. We weren’t there to change the way these people live, but just to empower them to be able to live the life they want to live,” said Servoss.

Global Brigades has partnered with as many as 40 rural communities in Honduras to bring sustainable development. Through the organization, students and professionals from throughout the world volunteer to help the communities access clean water, build medical clinics and businesses and much more.

Servoss’s group is planning another trip in August and the trips are open to anyone who wants to join the group. “It’s student run but we take professionals also, such as engineers and Spanish speakers, definitely,” she said.

To learn more about Global Brigades or to make a donation visit the website at www.globalbrigades.org.