Every week we profile a Dow Live Earth Run for Water partner organization that works toward providing solutions to the nearly 1 billion people who lack access to clean, safe water. To donate to one of these projects, visit liveearth.org/give.

Fondo para la Paz is a non-profit organization that has worked for 15 years with rural indigenous villages in Mexico promoting community-led development and building social capital to improve their living conditions.

In spite of Mexico’s unprecedented economic stability, enormous gaps remain between indigenous and non-indigenous populations, causing the indigenous communities to be excluded from social and economic development. Nowadays, Fondo para la Paz promotes development in indigenous communities which live on less than 1 dollar a day per person.

Fondo para la Paz offers indigenous people a model for helping lift themselves out of extreme poverty by making use of their abilities and talents. Our local personnel facilitate the creation of community projects tailored to the specific needs of each community, regarding access to water, sanitation services and environmental sustainability.

Along with our "development partners" comprised of local organizations, national research institutes, government agencies at the local, state and federal levels and hundreds of field volunteers we have achieved full coverage of sanitation and safe water access to more than 100,000 people.

We have promoted access of households and schools to ecological sanitation services, benefiting thousands of children and families. Additionally, this year alone, we have been building rooftop rainwater harvesting systems that will allow access to more than 10 million liters of clean water a year. Nevertheless, several millions of indigenous people still are in need of improved sanitation and clean water.

You can find out more about Fondo para la Paz by visiting www.fondopaz.org. And, you can donate to one of Fondo's projects by clicking on the button to the right.