Tragedy spawns relief effort

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MARQUETTE - Negaunee native Sarah Houghton was 18 years old when she experienced a tragic Andes Mountains bus accident in Bolivia in 2002. While Houghton suffered a broken leg, her friend Etta Turner of Port Orchard, Wash., did not survive.

After Houghton, now 24, fully recovered, she went back to Bolivia to help start what is now called Etta Projects - a nonprofit organization that assists small communities in Bolivia fight poverty by offering educational programs.

"In Bolivia there is a small women's group and a priest who contacted Etta's mom, and they wanted to name this (free) meal program after Etta," Houghton said. "We started raising money. When (Etta Projects) opened its doors in June 2003, we had 100 kids in the program."

Etta Projects has grown over the years and Houghton is still involved with the program. On a recent visit to Negaunee, she gave several presentations on the effort, including to the Marquette Rotary Club that has been funding some of the organization's programs.

The most recent grant, $38,000 from the Northern Wisconsin and Northern Michigan Rotary district and Rotary International, is going to be used to introduce water filters to remote villages in the Montera region of Bolivia, Houghton said.

"In the more rural communities the wells have become more contaminated from sugar cane factories, latrine seepage and e-coli (bacteria)," she said.

Houghton, who was a Rotary Youth Exchange student in Bolivia at the time of the accident, will travel back to the country in July to help with the water filter and education program.

She added that an additional $11,000 was raised by Northern Wisconsin and Northern Michigan Rotary district governor Maynard Bowers of Marquette. Negaunee High School has also held fund-raisers and Ishpeming's Lions Club is collecting eye glasses for Etta Projects.

"It's really neat to see how many people care and feel that connection to a community in Bolivia," she said.

Since Etta Projects started in 2003, there has been much growth and success among locals, Houghton said. At first, Etta offered sewing and nutrition programs for Bolivian women.

"Our biggest successes have been in self-esteem," Houghton said. "The women have reported they feel more confident."

She added that in Bolivia often women are discriminated due to class and gender.

In 2005 another center was opened in Bolivia. Slowly, local Bolivians started taking over administrative positions at Etta, Houghton said.

"By the end of 2008, the goal is to have no more foreigners directly administrate the projects," she said. "The goal is that the funding isn't coming from the north, that they'll be able to do it themselves. They're excited to take over leadership roles. It's an empowerment piece."

Etta Projects is currently funded by mostly foreign donations and grants. For more information, go to www.ettaprojects.org.

Houghton, who in between helping with Etta Projects has earned a bachelor's degree in global studies and East Asian studies from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn., said she hopes to go to graduate school next year.