The good thing is that Amigos for Christ does provide water to rural communities where there would not be otherwise. The down side is that the same people in the community are the people who administrate. That can become personal, and vindictive when there are problems within the so called community. These small rural communities exist of families hay have resided there for generations and can easily cause problems with service to the other owners of the co-op. I have seen this personally and the abuse of authority and the favoritism of the CAPS committee is something that doesn’t coincide with what Amigos for Christ is to stand for.
I have seen water meters pulled due to ‘ industrial usage’ in a home with one habitant. Where the bill was not actually due to usage but faulty meter. This family forced to pay for usage not used by the family but due to the faulty meter or go without water. Ultimately they were without water and this is not what the organization stands for. It was obvious that this was personal and shouldn’t have escalated to that point. These community CAPS members live off of the profit of the nonprofit.
There is always room for improvement and in this community a change of policy would benefit everyone if there was someone administrating from outside as I am sure that this is happening in other small communities as well.
I had an incredible week in Nicaragua with my son as part of a spring break mission trip that included teens and adults mostly from Atlanta area Georgia and Whigby Island, Washington. We worked side by side with local communities, digging ditches, installing water pipes to bring fresh water and faucet into village homes who currently carry water buckets from shallow wells or rivers. Amigos for Christ has done incredible work building relationships with these communities. We visited a nursing home and an orphanage but the primary work was supporting their efforts to build modern bathrooms in communities that are still using unsanitary latrines/out houses. The Amigos staff was amazing and there were also opportunities to install a solar powered system that brought a light switch into a home for the first time. It was amazing to witness a family turning on a light switch in their home for the first time and light into their community school for the first time. I can't say enough about the value of this trip and the perspective it gave to the volunteers of all ages and the impact we made on the communities we served and how hard the local community worked with us. The Amigos for Christ staff organized every detail and I hope to make another trip soon to work with the wonderful people of Nicaragua and I even plan to learn some Spanish to help me communicate better next time.
Kevin Lewis
Buford, GA