In 2016, SCSRN staff was invited to meet the Organized Women of Yasica Sur, or “UMOYS” for their initials in Spanish. Yasica Sur is the northern, wet zone of the municipality of San Ramón, and is the home of many extremely remote communities. At the meeting, we shared a little about our organization and the types of projects we’ve supported in the past, and the women of UMOYS very quickly saw an area where we could support their most remote communities: latrine building. Many families don’t have any sanitary facilities at all and have to practice open defecation, which leads to a myriad of health and development issues for families and children. After the meeting, the women categorized their communities in order of priority, and requested that we support them in the purchase and delivery of the necessary building materials.

After a pilot project in two communities, El Cuyus and Las Delicias, we came up with a successful model: SCSRN provided the materials to reinforce the hole and build the seat, and the families provided the labor and the covering for the latrine. The pilot was a complete success, and since then we’ve continued to install latrines in four more communities: La Lima, San Martin, San Roque, and El Jicaro 2. We also work with the Ministry of Health to provide families with water management and sanitation training as part of their commitment to the project. We hope to return to the communities who have completed the latrine project to support the current water management efforts in each location. There are representatives of 24 rural communities in UMOYS, so we have a long way to go before we satisfy the needs present in each community. You can read more about this project on our blog.

If you’d like to support the women of UMOYS, please contact us!