Panama’s federal government hosted a Presidential Palace meeting to thank District 6900, the Roswell Rotary Club, and the Rotary Club of Panama Nordeste for the Global Grant project of clean water systems in Panama’s remote Darien Jungle. Government officials were amazed at the efficiency and speed of the implementation, compared to their normal procurement processes. The Rotary Clubs of Alpharetta, Roswell, Griffin and Milton, and some individual District 6900 Rotarians contributed $13,041 - the total project investment was $64,162 (including matching from the District and The Rotary Foundation and a contribution from the local Panamanian Rotary Club). 

Past District Governor Kirk Driskell noted that the entire idea sprang from a conversation between Kirk and 26-year-old Langdon Hollingsworth one evening in 2019. Langdon, an engineer and Roswell resident, was explaining some of the methods used during his past two years volunteering to build wells and water systems in the Darien jungle’s most remote villages. PDG Kirk happened to know PDG Allen Sellers, whose home club covers the Darien region. Contact was made and now, approximately 800 villagers, including 300 children, have new, healthy lives ahead of them. PDG Kirk refers to it as the “Power of Rotary." And Langdon is now a Roswell Rotarian.

For the villagers, it is literally an answer to prayers. One villager told me of the effect: Before, his life, and that of his wife, were consumed with the labor of hauling river water each day to their hut, as well as dealing with the sickness that results from untreated water in areas of limited sanitation. In addition, their area is a focal point of the migrant crisis, with  Darien being the frontier barrier between Central and South America. Because of migrants emerging from the jungle, exhausted and empty-handed, villages could swell from 300 to 2,000 in population overnight. This has further stressed the small rivers that provide sewage, drinking and washing.

With the new well-fed water tanks and pvc systems that provide clean water to each hut, he was freed to start a business providing solar power panels to other villagers. “This,” the villager said, “allows me to send my children to school, and for them to have a far better life.”

With 50 villages in desperate need of reliable clean water, a new proposed Global Grant will select five among those now soliciting the system. The success of the first two villages, Nuevo Esperanza and Nazeret, has spread. Uniquely, the project selects new villages based on their written commitments to build and sustain the system. These grants do change lives. Please consider this thoughtfully during November's Rotary Foundation Month. Any club or Rotarian interested in this project may contact Lee Hollingsworth, the Roswell International Director at lee@leehollingsworth.com.