Global Brigades is an international non-profit that empowers communities to meet their health and economic goals through university volunteers and local teams.

A Holistic View

Global Brigades uniquely implements a holistic model to meet a community’s health and economic goals. Our model systematically builds community ownership and collaboratively executes programs with the end goal of sustainably evolving to a relationship of monitoring and guidance.

clean-water

Empowered Communities | All Programs Implemented

# Community Name Country Population
1 El Zurzular Honduras 600
2 El Canton Honduras 500
3 El Ojochal Honduras 250
4 Palo Verde Honduras 250
5 Guaricayán Honduras 185
6 El Jute Honduras 380
7 El Junco y Joyas Honduras 200
8 El Encinal Honduras 185
9 Fray Lazaro Honduras 550
10 Tomatin Honduras 250
11 Piriati Embera Panama 780
12 La Concepción Honduras 570
13 El Espinito Honduras 450

Ensuring Access to Clean Water

Our Water & Engineering programs support the holistic model with four core initiatives: designing clean water systems, establishing water committees to collect water fees for future maintenance, system construction, and creating basic sanitation committees to encourage hygiene and sanitation.

Clean Water System Design

Water systems are designed, planned, and budgeted with partner communities, international volunteers in 7-day trips called “Engineering Brigades,” and the support of our local staff of engineers. Designs take into account accessible water sources and community needs with the goal to provide clean water piped directly to families’ homes when possible.

Water Committees

Local leaders are identified by the community to serve as the community’s Water Council, which collects monthly water fees from households to operate and maintain the constructed water system. This locally empowered team ensures the future sustainability of the project once construction is complete and receives regular follow-up from our local staff.

Clean Water System Construction

Once designed, clean water systems are constructed with local community members working alongside volunteers in 7-day “Water Brigades.” Volunteers and a combination of government and private donors fund the construction of the entire system. Construction may take several months to complete and can include several large-scale components, such as dams and storage tanks.

Basic Sanitation Committees

Our local staff identify and train each community with a Basic Sanitation Committee to promote healthy living practices and support project upkeep from a cultural perspective. The committee is also responsible for carrying out in-home assessments of Public Health projects in the home such as latrines, clean burning stoves, and water storage units.

Success Indicator | Empowered 300 Goal #3

Continuous access to a clean water system with a Water Council in place.

Current status: 39 of 300 Communities

2019 progress

  • 45 Water systems constructed

2018 progress

  • 41 Water systems constructed

2017 progress

  • 8 Water systems constructed

Annual Reports

This DONATION is non-refundable

This DONATION is non-refundable Global Brigades, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Your donation will be used to further Global Brigades' mission and will be allocated toward the program you selected. This donation will not be utilized to fulfill a chapter or a volunteer's fundraising goal. Read Global Brigades, Inc's full Donation Refund Policy here.

Looking to donate to support a volunteer's fundraising goal? Find their Global Brigades Chapter by searching our Chapters map and then selecting their upcoming brigade. If you need help finding their chapter, you can ask the volunteer to send you their brigade's specific website link or you can contact us.

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