A Call To Imagine

What if? It’s a bold question that’s not only a call to action, but a call to imagine. This is your invitation to imagine a world where safe water is not a privilege, but a basic right.

A wooden bench beneath a canopy of trees holds a scattered collection of small treasures—three rusty tin cans, a red plastic lid, a kettle with a broken handle, two empty cardboard boxes. The bench is just the right height for a six-year-old shopkeeper to play make-believe with his siblings. The ragged collection is their inventory—goods on offer to be traded for handfuls of leaves, the chosen currency of vivid imaginations.

In the hills of Plan de Socorrro, Honduras, imaginations are abundant. But there’s one thing that no child should ever have to imagine: safe water. Safe water shouldn’t require an imagination. And for young Ricardo, thankfully, it doesn’t!

Ricardo’s mother, Fatima, recounts the days of incessantly boiling water and using a household filter to supply safe water for the family. But that was before the addition of Cova’s chlorinator to the community’s water tank. Now, when Ricardo gallops around the yard astride his stick horse, she offers him water straight from the tap to fuel his next lap. Cases of diarrhea are rare today, she attests, warmly familiar with the 68 families in her community as both a good neighbor and a community health volunteer.

And while in many communities tucked even further into the hills of Lempira, Honduras, water flows just as abundantly as it does in Plan de Socorro, from rivers, springs, or even wells—accessible water can be deceiving, often hiding dangerous bacteria and parasites, silently robbing families of health, time, and hope. The challenge isn’t always water access—it’s safety. In Latin America, safely managed water service is something that 35% of the population can still only imagine.

But what if that wasn’t the case. What if the roofs dotting the hillsides across the valley from Ricardo’s own yard also housed families with safe drinking water, without worry, and with wild and playful imaginations instead. Just like Ricardo’s.

During our ten-day Spring Campaign (May 14-May 23), we are asking, What If. What if safe water didn’t require an imagination. What if you helped make it so.