Nick Fanion waits at a prepared pit as village residents and church volunteers (including his brother, Zachary Fanion, right) move the frame of a pit toilet to the hole during a mission to the El Pilon, a remote village in Honduras. Members of Wyben Church are raising funds to make another trip to improve sanitation in the village. (Photo courtesy Holly Fanion)
WESTFIELD – The ripples created by city residents can be far-reaching and those started by a city family, and their churches, have reached the remote village of El Pilon in Honduras.
There have been Fanions living in the northwestern part of the city for generations and although some of them moved from the city their ties to Westfield remain strong. So strong that, when David Fanion decided to expand the help his church in Cooperstown, New York, gave to the impoverished village, his family and his hometown church stepped up to help.
David Fanions’s brother, Brian Fanion of Wyben, reports that his brother went to Honduras last year on a mission trip with his church, the Cooperstown Presbyterian Church, and found he had to go back.
The church group completed their mission but, Brian Fanion said, “when they were leaving they felt they weren’t finished and they had to go back” and he decided to go with them.
His church, the Wyben Church, decided to help.
David Fanion, who is a physician, offered his medical expertise but the primary mission of the group was to improve the sanitation in the village by providing toilets.
His wife, Holly Fanion, said that when the group arrived last year, the 49 families in the village were sharing four pit toilets.
After the group left, there were 18 pit toilets in the village she said.
She explains that a pit toilet has similarities to an outhouse but the waste is piped away from the toilet structure to a pit. When the pit eventually becomes full the flow can be redirected to a new pit.
She said that the pits are dug by the villagers and three men have to work for three days to dig the 20 feet deep holes.
“What they would love to do is make it so each family will have a pit toilet” she said but, her husband added, the group will build “as many as we can raise money for.”
Brian Fanion said that all of the participants will fund their own travel expenses but the churches in Cooperstown and Wyben will raise money to buy the supplies needed for the project.
Holly Fanion said that the supplies are purchased ahead of time and delivered to the village, about an hour and a half away from a paved road, so they will be waiting for her family and the rest of the missionary work crew.
The mission committee of the Wyben Church is working to raise funds for the trip, planned for early January next year, and have scheduled a spaghetti supper at the church for Saturday.
Brian Fanion said the committee is not selling tickets for the meal but diners will be offered the opportunity to contribute to the effort.
He also said that persons who may wish to support the effort, but are not able to join in the meal, may send checks made payable to The Wyben Church, with an El Pilon Mission memo, to the church in care of Marjorie Anderson, 472 Russellville Road, Westfield, 01085.
