Julien's Journal March 2016 (Volume 41, Number 3) | Page 25

Honduras
Sister Clara Streng,
OSF, helps to dig a
trench in Honduras on
a mission trip in 2008
Contributed by the Sisters of the Order of
St. Francis

by Becca Dargatz

“Many people live without
love, but no one lives
without water.”
–W. H. Auden

G

lobal water shortages and access to clean water are critical issues in our
world. In 2004, a Community Focus Committee began an ongoing conversation about a project they wanted to start. There was no sense of what the
project would be, or what it would turn into. Two years later, after many
more conversations, the Sister Water Project (SWP) was officially launched
at the 2006 fall Assembly of the Congregation. The theme was “Sister Water
in the Community of Life: A Call, A Challenge, A Celebration.” The stated
strategy of the Focus Committee was to effectively educate themselves about water issues
and then heed the call to take action.
That spirit-inspired strategy and concern for water issues became the foundation for the Sister
Water Project. The mission of the SWP is to provide portable water to villages in Honduras
and Tanzania.
During the beginning phases of the project, there was a Dubuque Franciscan Sister ministering in Tanzania and Honduras. Because of the presence of those Sisters, there was already an
established connection and also an understanding of the need for clean water in those areas.
March 2016  ❖  Julien’s Journal  ❖ 23