Living Water

A village in Guatemala now has clean, safe drinking water thanks to a class gift from graduates of the East Carolina University College of Nursing.

The small Guatemalan community was dependent on an unprotected hand-dug well, causing many of its 150 residents to suffer from cholera and dysentery. The new 35-meter well will provide safe drinking water for residents who make their living farming, ranching, or teaching at the nearby school.

“Seeing pictures of the grateful faces of those affected by this project was priceless,” Kaitlyn Whitlock, president of the spring 2011 class, said. “I'm so glad our class was able to do something that will be so meaningful for the health and well-being of an entire community.”

Each year, ECU seniors get to decide where to focus their class gift. This year was the first time students chose an international effort.

For several years, Dr. Kim Larson, assistant professor of nursing, has led summer study abroad classes to Guatemala where students have seen needs up close by working in health clinics, schools, and nutrition centers in the Mayan community.

“Students always say, ‘I wish I could do more.’ Now I can say, ‘you have,’” Larson remarked. “The well will bring safe drinking water to hundreds of families, especially young children who are the most vulnerable to consequences of unsafe water and inadequate hygiene. The students know that the well will do more for the health of the community than dozens of nursing students helping out at the nutrition center. They see that as a real community service.”

*story re-published from the ECU News Service with permission of the author, Crystal Baity