When Nature Calls

While using the bathroom is a private endeavor, it's something everyone does. And for many in rural Nicaragua, that endeavor can be overly daunting, unintentionally public, and sometimes downright dangerous.

Before El Porvenir came to her community of La Sabana in El Sauce, Erce Gray Sevilla and her family had to share her neighbor's latrine. "We may run to use the bathroom, and we get to the neighbor's latrine, and he's busy, so we have to wait," says Erce Gray.

The 24-year-old mother and her family took advantage of the opportunity to work with El Porvenir on a community latrine project. "My family contributed the bricks," says Erce Gray. "We worked hard so that it was done well." She decorated her new latrine, and she plans on keeping it clean and well taken care of.

Over in Limón Dulce, Mercedes del Carmen Montoya Martínez and her family did not even have a neighbor's latrine to relieve themselves, so they went into the woods behind their home.

Thanks to the double-pit latrine project developed with El Porvenir, this mother will no longer be afraid that she or her children will be bitten by a snake, stung by a scorpion, or attacked by some nocturnal animal when using the bathroom.

"Now I feel better because we no longer do our necessities in the field. We are no longer in danger at night, and the children go safely to the new and well-built latrine that we now have," says Mercedes. "We thank El Porvenir for this project."

Like many in her San Lorenzo community that did not have a proper bathroom, Mercedes is proud of her latrine, and she happily shares, "I never thought we would have the opportunity to have a project like this."

Thanks to the contributions of many generous donors, El Porvenir has ensured that more families in rural Nicaragua have their own personal double-pit latrine so that they can use it safely at any time, and they're not taking care of business out in nature when nature calls