How We Work

HCJB's water engineers and health professionals are dedicated to improving the health of rural communities through clean water and preventive health care. The team is committed to Biblical values and community development principles. In each project, the benefiting communities bear significant responsibility for the resources to obtain clean water. In Chimborazo Province for example, where community development has had a long-term presence, the communities provide over 60% of the resources necessary to build their water systems and provide significant leadership.

HCJB staff design the community water systems and national field technicians with whom HCJB has a long-standing relationship supervise construction. The field technicians are primarily employed and paid by the benefiting communities they serve. Design work includes topographic surveys, hydraulic design, spring protection/development structures and design of water storage structures. Community water systems may vary in size from 25 to 500 homes. The communities provide all of the unskilled and semi-skilled labor. This arrangement allows HCJB to promote community unity, employ community development principles and to emphasize a Biblical perspective of development at all stages of the project.

Water projects have been undertaken in collaboration with a number of organizations. These include Water for People, Lifewater, Instituto Ecuatoriano de Obras Sanitarias (IEOS) which translates as the Ecuadorian Institute of Health Construction, the Swedish International Development Agency, the Canadian International Development Agency, Jersey Aid, and MAP International. In addition to working with the organizations mentioned, concerned individuals, churches and a variety of interested organizations also provide funding.