After spending time in Puerto Cabezas preparing, we finally arrived with the mission of bringing pure water and The Living Water to the small community of Awas Tigni, Nicaragua. A swarm of kids chased after the big yellow bus that carried our diverse team of Messiah College students, Living Water educators and newly trained village leaders, welcoming us to the community. Student Rachel Morris reflects on her summer 2012 trip to Nicaragua with Messiah’s Collaboratory for Strategic Partnerships and Applied ResearchĪnticipation rose as we turned off the bumpy dirt highway into off-road country surrounded by roaming farm animals, tiny huts and clotheslines. Posted in Collaboratory, Service, Service-learning | Comments Off on Water and sanitation access: increasing hope for persons with disabilities She explained that some may attribute his impairment to demonic forces and as a result their family would be the targets of extreme discrimination. When we asked the reasons for this, his mother immediately discussed the stigmatization and dangers he would face in the community. A wide smile flashed across his face as he showed us this amazingly complex system he had designed from the simplest of materials.Īs the conversation continued, we were informed that this young man had almost never left his parents’ home. When he touched two of the wires together, several small lights illuminated across an old wooden board. As my colleagues and I began to interact with him, he excitedly showed us a complex system of wires and old batteries that he had assembled. As a child he contracted a disease which left him unable to walk. While completing field interviews in rural Mali, I met a young man with disabilities who was living in his parents’ home. High Center for Worship and the Performing Arts (6).