1st Event of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Palencia

Record of Event pg 1 of 3
1st Event of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Palencia

Where: Community House in Palencia – 1hr north of Dolores Hidalgo,
When: 14.1.10 12 midday meeting began (left SMA at 10am)
Who: Elena & Laura from San Miguel Midday Rotary, Georgina Sautto (President Elect for San Miguel Rotary), Chela – Cedesa & 13 women, 1 man & 4 kids from the Palencia Community

Purpose:
Look at possibility of a joint project with SMA rotary, to assist the community to solve Palencia’s contaminated water issue.

Background.
Chela & Cedesa have been working with this community for 22 years. When they began here there were no services (electricity, water) no registered land ownership, & no solidarity. The community was run by Machismo & Caciques (self appointed bosses/oppressive men).

Little by little this community has come together to achieve many things (as detailed below), the current issue they are struggling to solve, is their contaminated water. They share a govt. drilled well with 3 other communities, unfortunately the water from this well has been tested to contain extremely high levels of both fluoride & arsenic. More than 5mg/l of Fluoride for example. (maximum safe level by World Health Org. is 1.5mg/l)

Chela has previously bought us a petition for help from the community with the signatures of more than 20 families on it.

The issue is, although this community has a higher need, ie higher level of contamination, than any of the communities in SMA municipality, it is outside our Municipality, & the community service committee of SMA Midday RC, have previously discussed, we should first work to resolve water issues in our own municipality before going outside our region.

This is a dilemma, there is an obvious high need here, Elena (as District Chair) has spoken with SMA RC & is trying to enlist interest from clubs within this neighbouring municipality to come together in the hope we can co-operatively solve this.

Today´s visit is to gather information & a preliminary needs analysis.

Item 1 – introductions
Everyone introduced themselves this was the common introduction “ I work in the community & participate in community projects”

Some brief facts about the community were raised
• Approx 80 families /500 people
• Cedesa have been working with this community for 22 years
• Palencia is approx 1 hr from Cedesa in Dolores Hidalgo
• The community well was drilled 18 years ago,
* they have been drinking contaminated water for 18years
• There are smaller family wells that fill up when it rains, but they do not last the dry season
• There was a cacique (self appointed boss) when cedesa began work here, he is still apart from the community
• They have worked on many community projects together, including fighting for land rights, building a community centre (with funding for materials from local govt.), obtaining electricity

We explained a little about the joint project in Los Torres & what the community now has there.


pg 2 of 3
Item 2 History described
The members of the community articulated the following:
The community has been working for 22 years to improve their community for their children. With collaboration & resources we can help transform conditions, with the work of your hands & minds you can achieve change.

We do not encourage dependence, but encourage people to take their future into their own hands, assume responsibility for yourselves as subjects, not objects & work co-operatively to achieve improvements like backyard gardens & resolve issues.

Elena & Georgina were invited to speak, & reiterated the beauty of working on things together, & that it takes planting the seed first, then tending that plant for it to bear fruit, good things take time, & they were commended on their achievements, like the construction of the Salon de Asamblea we were currently meeting in.

Chela explained the relationship Rotary Midday & Cedesa have built while working together in the last year in Los Torres.

Item 3 – appoint co-ordinator & secretary & raise agenda for today´s meeting.
The community had done this many times before & quickly voted for Victoria & Lola.
The agenda was written up
a. how the community had changed over 22 years.
b. Organization of the community
c. Projects in common
d. Future projects

The members of the community were invited to speak of how their community had changed over the last 22 years. Each & every member was very keen to speak, & in turn articulately described the struggles, & challenges they had faced & how they had overcome adversity.

As an aside - in other communities we have been working in, the participants are often reluctant to speak, in this case it was the opposite, each wanted to speak, & had a lot to say, they were very happy, & proud to share their history.

a. how the community had changed over 22 years.

22 yrs ago they had no services or land rights & were dominated by a cacique (self appointed community bully) & machismo. They originally had to meet under the trees on the edge of the community. They were very afraid to participate. They are very proud to list their achievements,

• They now have electricity
• They demanded their freedom from Caciques
• Individual land ownership (a result of protests in 1992)
• Raised enough money to build two community “salons” meeting places.
• They now have their own school
• Each generation carries on the learning & meetings & work & many of the women here today were little kids when Chela first began work here.
• 20% of the men are in the United States (ie 1 in 5 are single mums)
• It was very hard to talk to the women originally, for them to understand the future was in their own hands.
• They fought for equal respect & equal rights for the women
•

b. Organization of the community
• The community well is approx 200 mtrs deep & reducing at a rate of 5 mtrs per year
• Organization has been carried out by assembly
• Issues are raised at the assembly for resolution
• They organize into groups & mini commissions to achieve results
• Every 2 months they meet with 3 other communities who have joint water services, re main of pumps, payments for electricity.
• There are approx 230 families in the 4 communities


pg 3 of 3

C Projects in common

They have many projects in progress – Bees, Health, Backyard production, parcel production.

D. Future projects

The Community are working on a resolution to the issue of no safe drinking water in their community. They would like each family to have their own cistern to be responsible for their own collection, & conservation of water. They have currently made a “solicitude” request for assistance to the local Govt. in San Diego de la Union, but have had no response so far.

The community is also asking if there is any help Rotary could provide.
They are already organized so would only need funding for materials & training & are fully prepared to carry out the rest themselves.

They are also working on Dry toilets as they would like to prevent more contamination of the water table.

We explained the Rotary funding process, & timeframe, it is a long timeframe for response.
Georgina & Elena undertook to bring it to their clubs as a potential joint project.

San Miguel Midday RC has already stated they would prefer to continue to work inside the municipality of San Miguel, which is why we have bought Georgina from the other San Miguel club to see if it is something her club would be prepared to work with other clubs to solve.

There is a list of 21 families that has been presented as a petition to SMA midday RC as a request for assistance.

The money needed to fund the materials for the construction of 21 cisterns (with just 4 days training & 4 days follow up/trouble shooting, is approx US$11,000.

Conclusion
This community has done the hard yards & is organized, now they just need financial assistance with materials only. & a simple solution can be put in place to resolve the drinking water for these people for ever (as long as it continues to rain annually).

We need to work to find a solution for this community, Elena is working at a District Level, & Laura is seeking other possibilities.


The meeting finished at 2.30.
There is no date for a next meeting as the respective clubs need to work with their committees on this.