Focus

Primary Focus: Drinking Water - Households
Secondary Focus: Hygiene Education

People Getting Safe Drinking Water: 270

The village of Kalampatzom has 54 families. About 12 of these are presently living on the village site that was abandoned during the civil war. The balance of the villagers have plans toreturn to the site when the water system is complete. Most of these villagers are now living in a near by village Janlay.

School Children Getting Water: 0

The children of the Kalampatzom families are presently going to school in Janlay adjacent to the project site.

People Getting Sanitation: 0

APS is presently seeking funds from Water For People to augment this project with latrines for each house site.

People Getting Other Benefits: 270

The community of Kalampatzom is located at a direct line distance of 15 kilometers northwest of Nebaj. It is approximately 230 kilometers from Guatemala City in the Cuchumatan Mountains, in the Guatemalan central Highlands. It is about 2000 meters above sea level. The village is approximately 30 minutes by road from Nebaj.

All of the villages in the area were destroyed in the early 1980's as a result of a campaign by the army to defeat the guerilla resistance movement. As a result of this campaign, all structures, houses, water systems, animals, orchards and crops were destroyed. The villagers from Kalampatzom were forced to move to Nebaj and had their houses burned.
At the moment, the community is not totally restructured, but 10 families already came back to live on their fields. About forty other families come daily to work on their land. These 50 families need to walk two hours a day in order to get to the land they work. The village has a school building that was constructed by the government for these families and is shared with the neighboring community of Janlay. It includes about 160 children. Peerwater is presently funding by a separate project the improvement of water facilities in the Janlay school.
Men’s primary occupation is agriculture. As for the women, it is house-keeping. The area around Kalampatzom is considered to be cold land and only supports one crop a year. Most of the crops obtained from their land are used to feed their families, but very often it is not enough to cover the whole year. As a result of this crop shortfall, many of the men or even the entire families migrate to the warmer south coastal areas of Guatemala to find seasonal work with the sugar cane and coffee plantations.

The incidence of water-related diseases and other illnesses is high, especially during the rainy season. For medical attendance, the villagers of the area must walk between 20 to 40 minutes to Janlay or two hours to Nebaj to visit a nurse. Recently, Cuban doctors and medical technicians have been visiting the area providing a better level of health care.