We’ve just returned from visiting one of our projects in Paraguay, and we’d love to share with you the deep emotion we felt.

This is a story with a hopeful ending, so let us start by telling you how it all turned out: all the students at San Isidro Labrador School in Pozo Colorado finally have clean, safe drinking water every single day!

Our journey began in Asunción, the capital. From there, it took a four-hour drive to reach one of the most rural and arid areas of the country, El Chaco — and specifically our school, La Salle San Isidro Labrador, in Pozo Colorado.
As you move away from the city, the landscape turns into an expanse of cattle ranches (“estancias”), where the parents of our students work — often for very little pay. The distances are so vast that it would be impossible for the children to travel to school every day.

That’s why San Isidro Labrador is more than just a school: it’s a home. From primary through secondary school, the children and young people live on campus with their teachers and educators — the La Salle Brothers and the Sisters of Cluny.

Until last year, life here was marked by a relentless enemy: drought. In the Pozo Colorado area, there are no rivers or lakes, the groundwater is too salty, and there are no sewage systems. The only source of water is rainfall, which is collected in ponds called tajamares.

When the dry season began, everything else came to a stop… but this year, for the first time, the school didn’t have to close.

The water collection system we started in 2021 is now complete!

We have created large rainwater collection tanks (tajamares) and a purification and distribution system that supplies the entire school. And we haven’t stopped there: we’ve also set up three additional collection stations in other parts of Pozo Colorado to provide clean water to the entire community, two schools, and the health center.

For us, it was incredibly moving to see it completed with our own eyes. It was made possible thanks to people like you, La Salle schools around the world, partner organizations such as Misean Cara, Loyola Foundation and CEI, and our partners, La Salle International Foundation and Fundación La Salle Paraguay.

Thank you for making this dream a reality for 250 students and thousands of people.