Irayol, Municipality of Santa Rita, State of Copan
Mennonite Social Action Commission (CASM)
Honduras

The Mennonite Social Action Commission (CASM) was founded in 1983 by the Honduran Mennonite Evangelical Church to provide support and assistance to Salvadoran and Nicaraguan refugees, and displaced Hondurans who were victims of the armed conflicts in those countries. CASM grew into an organization that provides training, housing, clean water, and technical assistance to rural communities in Honduras. CASM also helps develop sustainable initiatives that allow communities to organize and promote solidarity and civic participation. As a result of Hurricane Mitch in 1988, CASM faced the need to change its focus from community development to services provided directly to more than twenty thousand families in need. With the support of local and international entities, CASM was able to provide much needed housing, food, medical assistance, and education to these families. In order to continue to seek and utilize international assistance, CASM became an independent entity that was based on Christian principles, as evidenced by its retention of the Mennonite designation. By 2005 CASM was able to again return to its community emphases and is again actively involved in the development of communities in ten municipalities in Honduras.

Today CASM serves the Honduran people through programs and projects that enable sustainable development on a local and regional basis. It helps strengthen many communities through processes that promote political advocacy for local/regional development through civil structures that benefit the whole of society and promotes human development for civil participation in efforts that address the problems that affect the social-economic growth of communities.

A global mission partner since 2005, Global Ministries has provided funds for a water system construction project improving the quality of life in the Honduran community of Chorreón, Choloma, state of Cortes. Currently, CASM is working on a clean water expansion project on the Honduran/Guatemala border settlement community of Irayol, Municipality of Santa Rita, state of Copan. The community is home to 20 families, approximately 120 men, women, and children. The main source of income for this community is corn and bean farming for consumption, coffee for exporting, and poultry for consumption. The community has a pre-school and primary school. The community has an organized Community Development Council, Indigenous Rural Council, Water Services Board, Coffee Board, and Society of Heads of Households. Each household has an income of less than $2.00 per day, which enables them to provide for the most basic of needs, such as food and some education.

The current method of obtaining water in the settlement community of Irayol is through hoses that are placed in waters sources of higher elevation and, through gravity, move the water to the homes. Those who cannot afford the hoses must carry the water in buckets and containers, a task that falls on the women and children of the family. The community is unable to raise the funds needed to expand their water system in order to provide for the needs of the immediate communities of the municipality and some outer communities. This proposed system will allow for clean water to be accessed from each home, providing water for drinking, cooking, and personal hygiene. This will improve health, environmental, and economic conditions in the community.

CASM has been working with this community since 1997, helping to organize organic farming, providing basic health services, and civil services advocacy training. The Municipality of Santa Rita has good water sources that can supply its communities. In order to protect these water sources from contamination due to harmful water extraction, CASM proposes to protect the water basins through proper extraction and distribution systems that allow for household access and reasonable and accessible costs to each family. The project includes installation of water management system, installation of water distribution piping, installation of water pipes in the homes, organization of a local Water Board for Irayol settlement communities, and establishment and training of water maintenance crews. The project will take a total of four months to complete at a cost of US$5,900.