Las Brenas, Nicaragua

For years, Project Concern International (PCI) - www.projectconcern.org - has been working to provide poverty relief in Central America as many of these countries are among the poorest in the Western Hemisphere.  In one of PCI’s focus countries - Nicaragua, 2.3 million people live in poverty and 831,000 of these live in extreme poverty with virtually no access to remotely acceptable water sources.  Women and children endure unacceptably poor health in Nicaragua as one of every three children have some degree of chronic malnutrition.  In addition, growing environmental degradation exacerbates poverty among children and their families as valuable natural resources are either destroyed or wasted. 

PCI is helping to reverse the atrocious conditions of Nicaragua’s poor by building five gravity-run mini-aqueducts, five wells and 200 latrines in the Jinotega department municipalities of La Concordia, San Sebastián de Yalí, and Santa María de Pantasma, resulting in immensely improved water and sanitation conditions for nearly 4,000 people.  Furthermore, PCI is continuing to raise funds to assist in the relief and long-term recovery efforts of the most impoverished Nicaraguan communities by providing community health initiatives, rehabilitation and construction of water systems and homes, as well as agricultural support for local farmers.  This is just a small example of some of the incredible work that PCI is performing throughout Central America.

To help raise awareness of their mission and in conjunction with World Water Day 2009, PCI is sponsoring the Water Walk on March 22, 2009 at De Anza Cove in Mission Bay, San Diego, California.  Inspired by the journey women and children in water-stressed countries make each day to obtain clean water for their families, past walks have helped raise awareness of the global water crisis issues among the general public.  PCI has sponsored the event in the three major cities and participated in the rallies preceding the walks, reaching thousands of event participants with an important message: millions of people currently have no access to clean water or sanitation services and we must actively address this crisis now.

NIKA is pleased to announce that it will sponsor the 2009 Water Walk as well as provide NIKA water for the participants.  The money collected by PCI will be used to build a water systems in the countries in which they operate.  While PCI has not yet selected a site for the water system, it will most likely be in Nicaragua where they have successfully completed many water projects and helped to improve the lives of the impoverished.  NIKA is excited to be involved with PCI and the Water Walk and looks forward to following the implementation of the water system going forward.