Charamoco is found in the lower valley of Cochabamba in the province of Capinota and belongs to the Charamoco Cantón (~County) in the Municipality of Capinota. It is a rather hot area with an average temperature of 28oC (82oF). The Rocha River borders the main access road to the capital, Capinota, and crosses the community, connecting it with several other communities. It contains beautiful landscapes with its vegetable crops and its pasturelands which support the main economic activity of the community which is dairy farming. 166 families live in this community with around 632 inhabitants. It has a high school that allows the children and youth of both Charamoco and the surrounding communities to obtain their high school diploma. The type of leadership practiced in the community is that of a labor union with a director/president and his board, a Milk Producers’ Association that is made up of almost 65% of the families, and also political authorities such as the magistrates, who are elected by the community. Also in this community, there is a Catholic church (which is only open for special festivals), an Adventist church, and a UCE (Evangelical Christian Union) church. The pastor of this last one is Victor Hugo Espinoza who, together with his family, is the principle character in this story.

In spite of being a sizeable population, Charamoco has lacked water safe for human consumption since its foundation in 1903. Though the community has been wanting a water system for years, the established leadership was unable to come up with a solution to the problem mainly due to a lot of division among neighbors. Several options were tried including the digging of wells and taking surface water from the river, but none of these solutions seemed to work, even less so with a divided community. The evangelical church did not participate in the search for solutions and did not involve itself in the social realities of the community.

The Child Development Program of FHI got involved in the community in 1998. It was at this point when repeated requests were made to construct a potable water system that was so needed in the community, but these requests were sometimes personal or made by small groups of people in the community who were not willing to include everyone, making consensus impossible for a community project in these first years of FHI involvement in the zone. The Playa Ancha CDP Center, with its coordinator, Magda Mariño, and technical staff: Karina Mejía, Eugenia Lopez (until 2001), and Rosa Sarzuri, and the Integral Health Technician, Nicanor Bustamente and later Valerio Bustamente, were the people who had the most contact with the families of the community and that brought the requests for a solution to the problem to the Cochabamba regional office of FHI. In the year 2000, technical staff from the area of Infrastructure Projects entered the community to review the technical feasibility of the project under the leadership of engineer, Freddy Yugar, who took the initial steps for this important and costly project that was found to be possible. However, once again the disunity among the families made this short-term project an impossibility.

In the year 2002, Pastor Victor Hugo Espinoza assumed the rotational leadership position of the labor union. Motivated by the Vision of Community and the Biblical Worldview teachings by the Playa Ancha CDP staff, the Health Supervisor, Zenaida Aracibia, and the VOC Facilitator, Pastor Rodolfo Mallón, Pastor Espinoza reinstated a search for a solution to the community’s problem of a lack of water and again asked FHI to put together a project, having already obtained a list of interested families and an initial monetary contribution that was ready to be deposited as a show of the community’s interest. In this way, meetings were held with the community and FHI Projects staff members, Julio Aramayo (engineer) and Jaime Mamani (technician). The meetings turned out to be disastrous because of the lack of vision and the pessimism on the part of the families who had had bad experiences with other institutions and solutions. However, Pastor Victor Hugo Espinoza continued motivating the people and praying with the few women in the church to be able to unite the people. Finally, toward the end of October, 2002, for the first time, almost 90% of the community attended the meeting. This surprised not only FHI staff, but also the community leaders themselves. The meeting did not have many arguments. On the contrary, there were many encouraging words for the realization of the project on the part of the representatives of various sectors of the community. Also, those who had been in on the dispute were finally in agreement and said: “Only together can we move forward with this project that we need so much.” In addition to financial investment by FHI, the Municipality, and the community, hard work would be required for almost 6 months during which they would travel almost 20 km every day, carrying up to 50 kg of weight for the construction of the main water line to the community (almost 10 km from the water source to the community tank). The project was begun in December, 2002, under the leadership of Edwin Miranda (engineer) with 95 interested families initially. Later, upon seeing the advancement of these families, 31 others, who had been rather skeptical, were added so that by the end of the project, 126 families were with safe water in their homes and new bathrooms with a shower installed to encourage good hygiene practices and to help maintain better health.

The inauguration took place on August 11, 2003, (after 8 months of work) at the school with the participation of teachers, students, community leaders, the mayor and aldermen of Capinota, FHI staff, and the presence of the entire community. Pastor Victor Hugo Espinoza directed the inauguration as the first president of the new Charamoco Potable Water and Sanitation Committee, having been elected in an assembly of members that meets every 5th day of the month, beginning in August, and is at the same time, a monthly community meeting, since almost 95% of the community are now members of the Committee. At the inauguration, there was a display of a series of drawings, made by the parents and children of the community on “how they see” their community in the not-so-far-away future. In these, one can see the difference between the initial pessimism of the older generations and the people who drew with a “vision of a better future for them and for their children.” The mayor of Capinota, in his participation, stated: “This great desire of the believers of Charamoco is completed thanks to God….” And an elderly resident of Charamoco mentions: “I remember this village more than 70 years ago and really, I never thought that I could have a water spout in my home and even less the possibility of being able to bathe myself after a hard day of work. Thanks to FHI and thanks to God for this dream come true.”

Presently, Pastor Victor Hugo Espinoza, having constructed a bathroom for the church with the support of the believers from that church, gives the example of using this liquid element, having the responsibility of “plumber” of the Potable Water and Sanitation Committee. In this way, he not only teaches life principles to the church, but also to his family and to every family in Charamoco with his dedicated work and watching over the maintenance of the project that “GOD GAVE THEM.”