Inaugural Celebration at Las Magueyes and La Palma 19.4.13

It was a beautiful day out in the country today. With the completion of 16 water harvesting systems, we gathered to celebrate the success and hard work of the community work teams that made this happen. There were 38 persons in attendance plus some extra children coming and going. Octavo Perez, the Secretary of the Board of Directors of Sapasma attended and spoke briefly and eloquently about the importance of bringing water to those communities without water or, worse, water contaminated with harmful chemicals that cannot o be filtered out. Octavio emphasized that Sapasma (local semi-governmental water agency) needs to be a player in bringing safe and potable drinking water to all those living in rural San Miguel. Octavio, we are going to hold you to that promise! Although we completed two previous water projects with the previous directors of Sapasma, we are hoping to be able to do a Sapasma funded cistern project with the new administration soon in the community of Juan Gonzalez.

Also we were pleased to be joined by Mauricio Sanchez, Presidente de la Red de Comunicación y Cultura del Agua del Noreste de Guanajuato (President of the Northeast Guanajuato Network for Water Culture and Comunication) y Vice Presidente de Educación y Comunicación del Observatorio Ciudadano de Agua y Saneamiento (VP for Education and Communication for the Citizens Monitoring Group on Water and Sanitation). It is good that we are beginning to form more formal partnerships as we work to resolve water and sanitation issues in the San Miguel villages.

Fellow Rotarians Layla, Ivar, Denis, Alejandro and I went to enjoy the day and the completion of this project that will provide safe, clean and potable drinking water to 120 people protecting them from the harmful effects of excessive fluoride in the water. We had visitors, Pat, Fran and Kelly from La Joya, California that were also interested in these projects and who we hope will join forces with us in a future project. Pat is the president elect of the La Joya Rotary Club. Adriana Felix, a new comer to San Miguel joined us to learn more about the rainwater collection systems. We were also joined by David Burton of the United Universalist Church (The UUs). He came to see a water project and decide whether they want to join with us in another project down the road.

First, we all piled into all of the available vehicles and went to visit three of the cisterns built in La Palma. Ivar Schacke, President of Rotary San Miguel Midday cut the ribbon to officially mark the successful completion of the La Palma part of the project. After returning to Las Magueyes, Lilia guided a short meeting where everyone had an opportunity to introduce themselves. Holly and Saul of Cedesa spoke briefly about the importance of these projects and the importance of participating in the Regional Water Council (Cocira).

It is a bittersweet day for all of us involved with Cedesa. Only two days ago, we suddenly lost Maria de Teresa Martinez Delgado, a founder of Cedesa. Tere labored for more than 50 years in helping develop the communities surrounding San Miguel and Dolores Hidalgo. We will Tere miss terribly. She worked with great passion and dedication in helping the communities and the people living there. Today, in addition to celebrating the completion of this project, I choose to think that we also celebrated the life of Tere and the incredible things that she and her sister, Chela, have accomplished over the previous 50 years. Vaya con dios, Tere.

Next, after a quick tour of the Las Magueyes cisterns and the final ribbon cutting ceremony, we arrived in the best part of the day: lunch prepared by the 16 families to welcome us and thank us for the resources we provided in this great team project. We are grateful to have been able to serve in this way. Finally, we know that we are only a part of the wheel. Real work is also done by the family work teams, by our partner Cedesa, and by the work of the Regional Citizen's Council (COCIRA). I believe that the families in Las Magueyes will continue to conduct community meetings and seek solutions to other problems that they identify in their community. I know they will continue as members of Cocira. They see now that the work invested brought them such a great return; a permanent and sustainable water source free of the injurious chemicals arsenic and fluoride.

This is an especially touching project for me as Lilia, the community representative, came to our English speaking Rotary Club two years ago after she heard on the radio that the Midday Rotary was helping construct cisterns in our communities in San Miguel. After sitting patiently through our meeting, she made her plea for help to several of us. We advised her to contact Cedesa and begin to organize her community. Soon thereafter they were actively participating in Cocira. They earned they way up the waiting list, and now, two years later, her community has its completed their phase project. The finish the full circle, Lilia will be speaking on the radio next week to inform the public about the rainwater harvesting program that Rotary has been supporting since Laura Stewart undertook the first project in November of 2007. I take off my hat to you, Lilia!

It has been lovely working with these two communities. Perhaps I may not be visiting soon on Rotarian business, but I know that I will go there shortly as a friend, and particularly, to enjoy Dona Beatriz’ gorditas and updates from the wonderful Lilia.

Submitted by Lee Carter 

Happy Update...Sapasma Project II

Work with the Consejo (citizen's council) continues, they meet around 6wkly & continue to provide priority for water projects, dry toilet projects & other issues. As a result of their continued hard work, we have now been successful in achieving funding for 2 more major projects. One with Sapasma (detailed in this post) & the 2nd with another Rotary Global Grant (see separate post)

Sapasma (our local water authority) have agreed to fund another project for 59 cisterns mxn$439,399 pesos. This project will be carried out in 3 communities with an additional 3 solo cisterns to be provided in 2 more communities.
Los Torres will carry out phase III & construct 18 cisterns.
Presita de Santa Rosa will carry out phase I & construct 20 cisterns - with an additional cistern being funded by a private donation - thank you Chris - & thank you Holly for arranging this.
Cienega will carry out phase II & construct 18 cisterns.
Cinco Senores will work with University de Leon & receive a single cistern.
Rancho Bonito will receive 2 single cisterns...

Paperwork is currently being completed & funding is expected to be received this week, with 1st Pilot in LT scheduled to kick off on 7th Nov.

It will be a punishingly tough rollout, with every effort to get things underway before Christmas!!

Record of Event 10th Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Cruz del Palmar Water Project

Where: Cruz del Palmar Community - courtyard of chapel
When: Wed 19.10.11
Who: Chela, Saul & Holly (Cedesa), Laura (Rotary), 54 adults incl 8 men, + 13kids, 2 dogs,

Purpose: General Community assembly & pre-planning meeting re forthcoming water & dry toilet projects being administered by Rotary, Cedesa & the Consejo (in different
combinations)

We arrived at 12.30 thinking the meeting was to begin at 12, running a little late, but were advised some thought the meeting was to start at 11am, so apologies were made to these people for waiting so long…

The attendance roll was called, 10 were present for Sanitarios Secos only, 22 were present for cisterns only & 12 were present for both, 5 were absent from cisterns list.
(39 on the list but 5 absent – a govt program was also scheduled for today, re the elderly, possibly some were at this event.

Chela asked if there were any in the crowd that didn’t know us (the water project team), a couple of people raised their hands so we gave introductions of ourselves & Holly explained if she & I were talking it was because she was translating for me.

Chela introduced herself & gave a brief history of the project including a little re the separate roles & also about the Consejo (citizen’s council).

In the first phase we were working in the close region, as the projects have continued we have extended to more communities in this region & formed a citizen’s council, Cata – a member of Cruz del Palmar community – is president of this Consejo & has been reporting back to all of you - correct? “si!!”

“Let’s go ahead & create the agenda for today’s meeting”
Saul explained each meeting we have in communities follows the same basic format, elect a co-ordinator & record taker, he explained the roles of each & the need to have a specific “minutes” book as an archive of each meeting & agreements made.

“It’s important for the people n the community to not be afraid & step up to take the roles, who do you propose?”

No-one immediately responded, Saul laughed & said this was the easy bit, ie to propose someone – this elicited a response with 3 people proposed. Juana will be co-ordinator & Letty records taker.

“what is the role of the co-ordinator?” To keep order, the way to do this - ask people to raise their hands & be appointed to speak, for the respect of all & to create a harmonious meeting, everyone is encouraged to speak in turn to increase the “rain of ideas”.

The record taker records all agreements made & details we might need to refer to in future.
We need to suggest points for discussion & work for today’s agenda

Agenda
Cisterns
Dry Toilets
Introduction re Cisterns & Dry toilets
Backyard production
Doubts & questions
The Consejo, purpose & function

1. Introduction – why do you want cisterns? Dry toilets?
“almost no water” “contaminated water” “upper part of community have no water” “we don’t have water & are looking for a form of obtaining water” “water is life” “the contaminated water is damaging to the health of our kids”
Discussion ensued, who has toilets, some people do, but mostly latrines (just holes). What are the contaminants of the water in this region “fluoride, arsenic & manganese”.
Bacterial contaminants are a different question & are very easy to remove (using www.Sodis.ch) but the chemical/minerals are not easy to remove – for this reason we are using rainwater as our alternative – storing in cisterns.

Who has a cistern & can explain the function?
“principally for drinking & cooking & use the other water sources – if there are any – for domestic use”. The objective of cisterns is to capture rain water in tanks from the roof for drinking & cooking.

Dry toilets – primary objective – to have a method of disposing of excreta without use of water because a) there is a shortage of water b) the drainage of sewage is majorly polluting, c) to provide excellent fertilizer for production of plants.

One woman explained the use of dry toilets as a relative has one, & Chela asked if everyone was now clear on the purpose of cisterns & dry toilets – to which the response was “SI…”

2. Cisterns :
Saul explained that the cisterns projects were the beginning of the organisation process, as a result of the many communities working on cistern projects, they joined together to form a Consejo (citizen’s council) to work on common issues. It has involved many meetings, working on common issues, writing solicituds to the govt. informing Rotary of our priorities.

Holly – who knows how the cisterns are made?
“all of us build them, we form groups & construct together”
“we first learn during the pilots & hands on training, then build the cisterns together”

Saul – It is much more than just building a cistern or a dry toilet, there is a lot of participation involved, the value of organisation & co-operation is learned. The value of learning you have the ability to resolve your own issues by working in solidarity to achieve & accomplish your goals, it’s not a gift, you are organising & working hard to achieve this , including learning what the purpose of the Consejo is & how it functions. For me it is important you understand the whole process & purpose of organisation, not just to obtain cisterns.

3. Dry Toilets
The Consejo & Cedesa (apart from Rotary) have been working to obtain funds to provide dry toilets to those who have continued participating to achieve them. Chela explained the process of obtaining the resources for the dry toilets so far… starting from the 1st meeting of the Consejo with the Presidencia at Cedecom approx. 1 year ago, to the point where they were awarded $4,250,000 pesos for the solicitud, which came with unfavourable conditions. It involves a bid process, ie has to be paid to outside contractors & can not be done by mutual aid groups, the price of one toilet has been quoted at mxn$32,000 which will mean far fewer than the 400+ toilets can be awarded. & toilets can only be awarded to those on the list who have NO form of toilet (functioning or not)…Work continues on this project.

4. Consejo –
A brief summary was given, this Consejo was originally formed in Oct 2010 with representatives elected from each of the communities who joined. For example Cata & Letty are reps. From Cruz del Palmar, as are Adelina (husband attending for her today) & Josefina (absent).

There is a board, made up of some reps the communities, President Cata, Secretary Roberto & 5 other “directors”
All are working/meeting on common issues like dry toilets & cisterns.
It is to give the communities a bigger voice.
For example, the Consejo insisted the design used for the dry toilets be one with 2 chambers…

On 26th Nov 11am – in Juan Gonzalez there will be an Encuentro & anniversary Fiesta of the Consejo – everyone is invited.

5. Workshop at Cedesa – 19th Nov 9am-5pm
A workshop at Cedesa will be held on the 19th, 3 people are invited to attend from each community, there will be 3 separate “work tables” 1 on Nopal tunnel construction, 1 on backyard production & 1 on medicinal plants.

The crops this year are particularly bad, since there has been insufficient rain, this year we need to come up with alternatives to just beans & maize, we need to start producing in our backyard, for example tomatoes & onions, 1 of the work tables will teach this.

Each of the representatives is expected to then teach the assembly in their own communities – to spread the information – train the trainer style.
Some people mentioned they were interested but lack water to grow a garden – this is obviously a major issue!

The meeting finished at 3.15 pm, & we were treated to a banquet of tortillas, rice, beans & chicheron casserole.

9th Regional Event of the Communities requesting assistance with water

Record of Event

Where: La Tinaja Community – Health Clinic

When: 28^th Sept. 2011

Who: Holly, Saul, Chela & Jacqueline -Visitor from Honduras (Cedesa), Laura (Rotary), 104+ adults incl. 11 men,

Purpose of the meeting: usual 4-6wkly meeting of the representatives forming the Consejo for the 18 communities in this región. (there have been more tan 9 events, but this is the 9th I have atended).

The Consejo was formed in Oct. 2010 to work together on common issues affecting the communities in this Consejo, primarily wáter but also other issues, such as dry toilets, roading, backyard production & health issues.

La Tinaja is on the outermost extremity of San Miguel, on the road to GTO.

Pickup truckloads of people arrived from all communities, 3 women had walked for more than 2 hrs from Cinco Senores to be here.

Tarpaulins had been strung to extend the shade structure, & people from La Tinaja arrived carrying as many chairs as they had.

Saul welcomed everyone, thanked them for making the journey here today & handed over to Adela from La Tinaja… She also thanked everyone for coming & welcomed everyone.

Saul said, lets get going & plan today’s agenda, Cata – president of the Consejo is here, but unfortunately Roberto – Secretary could not make it.

Each of the communities was invited to stand, introduce themselves & give a count of attendees:

1. Juan Gonzalez 10 2. Guerrero 4 3. Montecillo de Nieto 3 4. Vivienda de Arriba 6 5. Vivienda Urbana 1 6. Villa de Guadalupe 2 7. Cruz del Palmar 11 8. Cienega 2 9. Capaderillo 6 10. Tierra Blanca 8

11. Corralejo de Abajo 6 12. Los Magueyes 6 13. Cinco Senores 3 14. Presita de Santa Rosa 3 15. Los Torres 8 16. La Tinaja 18 + 2 + 6 17. La Palmita II 1 18. San Lorenzo 3 Total 109

Chela introduced Jacqueline from Honduras she is a co-ordinator of Misereor a global organisation. She is here to know more of work being done here, she was grateful to be able to see what is being achieved on various levels, congratulated the gathering on a grand meeting & encouraged them to continue to keep up the good work & commitment.

Chela introduced the board of the Consejo, some members couldnt make it but had sent representatives in their place.

Chela gave a brief introduction of the history of the consejo & the work Cedesa has been doing in the región. Holly & Laura explained that when they are talking it is for Holly to translate finer points that Laura may have missed in spanish. Chela explained that it is Rotary’s “fault” that Cedesa began working in SMA, they have previously worked in Dolores Hidalgo & surrounds.

3 yrs ago Laura from Rotary approached Cedesa to begin a Project in the first community of Los Torres, “we have been a good team, working on solutions piece by piece & we have come a long way” Saul has been working in same “symphony” with Cedesa & Rotary for almost 1 yr.

Proposal for co-ordinator – Adela (31), Ana (34)

Proposal for record taker – Adela

Call for points for the Agenda:

Cata proposed the following points.

1. Sanitarios Secos update
2. Cisternas update
3. Workshop
4. Information re coalition in defence of the Cuenca de la Independencia
5. Propose an “encuentro” (conference) of Consejo in November
6. General points

Moment of inspiration:

Saul explained he had been tasked to come up with the moment of inspiration & the more he looked the more confused he became, he quoted a phrase about organisation that loosely translates to “now is the time to raise our voice to the govt. Because if we don’t we deserve what we get”

Everyone was asked to add to this –

“if the govt leaves it to us, it’s up to us to make ourselves Heard”

“we need to work together to organise ourselves”

“it’s a question of what we do to deserve things, if we don’t work & are lazy we don’t deserve anything, & we should also know our rights”

Chela asked why we need to raise our voices – “so people can hear us”

“so people are aware of the situation in the campo”

Do we have enough wáter & toilets for example? “no” , then we deserve to not have these things if we don’t raise our voice & work for them.

Saul: Organisation in families, communities & between communities is essential, to organise to achieve solutions to our common problems. One person does not have the voice of 18 communities, for this reason it’s good to work together.

There is planning for 8000 houses near Atotonilco, they are going to need sanitation & wáter, which is not easy for 8000 houses. We need to be more informed of the plans & in this decisión, one comment from the crowd was “this development will not have dry toilets, they are likely to want drainage which will affect our river”

Item 1: Sanitarios Secos (dry toilets)

Cata: We have been working for a long time on this Project, we’re at the point of having resources for some Sanitarios Secos.

We feel we have 1st priority for SS since we have been working so hard for them, even if there are others with more need, it’s not fair if those not working receive them for nothing.

We are receiving $4milliones pesos out of $8milliones originally slated for another community Tambula. The Govt wants to administer the funds, not through Cedesa or Rotary, we would have preferred to receive the $$ for the materials & provide the labour ourselves to extend the funds further, but since this is more than $2milliones the restriction is that a contractor (& bid process) must be followed.

Unfortunately that means the $$ will not stretch so far, as the labour & co-ordinators will have to be paid for out of the $4m… The new design, 2 chambers, has been accepted.

Next week Desarrollo Social will be sending out social workers to verfiy that families on the list do not have any form of toilet currently. Unfortunately this will exclude many on the list that have been working hard for this, for example DIF houses must have flush toilets installed as part of the requirements, even if there is no wáter to flush the toilets. So, these toilets sit there, not functioning but because they exist they exclude the participant from this phase of the dry toilet Project.

We are currently awaiting the result of the “bid” process to see how much 1 dry toilet will cost, to know exactly how many can be built.

We attempted to argue the situation re the bid process, but it is a requirement. “I have a septic tank, but no wáter to uses it, so I don’t qualify – even though it’s a decoration because of the lack of wáter”

“many people on the list no longer qualify, even though they have been working on this for ages, & there will be others that do qualify that havent worked at all, it’s not really fair”

“it is unlikely we will just be able to ‘replace’ people on the list, we will probably just lose our allowance”

Chela- We are working in Phases, this will be the 1st Phase. Our objective will be for all campesino families to obtain a dry toilet, so we will continue to work & do it in phases.

If we do it in less than $2millones phases, we don’t need a “bid” process, but since this one if $4milones bids are needed.

Concha (from Los Torres) “we have been working continuously for 3 years & multiple phases, & often the ones inthe last phase are the ones that work the least or the Young ones who just got a house. It’s a struggle to ensure the ones working are the ones receiving the benefit, in some cases the ones working are not eligible as they have a “toilet” even if it does not function, so we need to make sure it doesnt just go to just anyone that “qualifies” by not having a toilet”.

A list of names was created of the people who will accompany the social workers in each community.

There was a vote as to whether or not to accept the conditions of receiving the $$ (ie the bid process), all voted yes, despite it ultimately no being favourable for all.

Item 2 – Cisterns

Saul gave an update, there is a 108 cistern grant with 95% likelihood, coming from Rotary grant, funded by Chinook RC & District & Alberta Govt & The Rotary Foundation. It will be for

Presita Santa Rosa : 24

La Tinaja 23

3 Esquinas (near Palencia) 23

Cruz del Palmar phase II 38

Laura asked for confirmation that CdP phase II was priority, Tierra Blanca person said “CdP have been working a long time so maybe they should receive the available 38”, the rest of the communities all voted in favour of CdP receiving the phase II cisterns.

Saul also explained that Sapasma have agreed to fund a 2nd Project with us.

This will be for approx 62 cisterns.

So far Guerrero is included for 24 cisterns

& Los Torres phase III for 19 cisterns

Sapasma have 4 solo cisterns they would like to build, therefore 15 available…

Currently looking at Los Magueyes & San Jose de los Allende…

One genteman in the crowd commented “I have been to San Jose de Los Allende, I was working there one time, & they have a really bad wáter situation, they are basically drinking out of puddles”

Item 3 – Workshop

Saul talked about the forthcoming “workshop” – ie working in groups on the backyard production Project. Production of food is going to be crucial this year, since no rains have come & many crops are failing. People will be forced to buy food & the prices will be pushed up since many are having to buy it.

During the workshop we will learn how to grow a vege garden including:

A micro tunnel for Nopal cactus

Natural medicines

& the next workshop will cover:

Conservation of soils & plants to grow for health.

What is your biggest urgency? “wáter” & “food”

It’s a priority to achieve wáter & food, do you guys have maize? “no, because no rain, no beans, no maise no calabassas” “the maize are all drying & dying, we desperately need wáter, so it’s going to be urgent to find food from other sources” “we’ll have to eat nopal”,

Who know’s how to grow nopal in a tunnel? (only a couple) so let’s have a training sesión…

3 people per community can come to Cedesa for the training, these people will be the Train the trainer people, they will be expected to pass on the valuable info they learn. You will need to co-ordinate & contribute for transport costs. Holly is going to try to find money to subsidise the cost of food for the day, & maybe help with a bus.

Who wants training? – they all eagerly raised their hands.

Laura mentioned that it is difficult for Holly to raise money & that participants could contribute at least what they can, eg 10 pesos. After brief discussion this was agreed, they will contribute what they can.

Taller/Workshop will be Saturday 29th October at 10am in Cedesa /leaving Cienegita at 8am

Item 4 Form part of the coalition in defence of the Cuenca de Independencia

Saul asked Audelia to report on what happened in the recent meeting re the Cuenca, held in Juriquilla, this was a follow up sessión of the diploma of wáter studies carried out by Dr Ortega from Unam. It included extras in the latest session, ie those that had joined the Consejo since then.

The subject covered the Aquifer that serves this región including 7 municipalities. Topics included contamination (natural & man-made), agriculture over-use. All attendees reviews info & dicussed issues, including prevention of over-use, pollution etc. The Consejo was described to these 7 municipalities as a good example of how to achieve positive change, it was decided a coalition should be formed to bring together the 7 municipalities, to work together to defend the aquifer.

Saul said the Consejo needed to appoint representatives if they considered this a worthwhile action, hence he is informing them today of the purpose of the coalition & the Consejo can choose to be part of it or not.

Chela asked who remembers what a coalition is – Saul re-explained, it is unión & organisation of people in defence of a common cause – what cause? Wáter, tres, natrual resources, rivers. There were about 10 organisations meeting at Cedesa in Sept. & do you think it is worthwhile to be part of this?all answered “yes”… the only responsibility is to have responsibility.

It is a process we are building Little by Little, we dont need to know how as you are all learning how to be part of this coalition, is everyone in agreement? “yes”

Saturday 22.10.11 10am @ Cedesa – Coalition in defence of the Cuenca

Previous attendees Cata, Roberto & Abraham – Consejo board members.

Item 5 – Consejo reflection, summary

Formed in approx Oct 2010, Saul invited people to evaluate the work & process to date & see if there are people who want to become reps or resign – how is it working, what needs to change?

Cata said it has been a lot of work, hopefully she has done a good job, but she doesnt actually have much time, for example she is here today, but supposed to be working. There have been lots of papers involved, lots of planning, lots of meeting, but they have achieved a lot…

Item 6 General Points

One of the delegados at the meeting said he was interested in forming a committee to ensure delegados do what they are appointed to do. He has begun working on this & asked if the Consejo was in agreement, the general consensus was that it was a good idea.

Chela asked Jacqueline – our visitor from Honduras to sum up, & describe how she found the meeting,

Jacqueline said she was impressed with the respect & harmony with which people participated in the meeting, that organisation is the prime key, & that Chela is doing a great job of demonstrating the benefits of organisation, that organisation costs (time, effort & commitment) but that it’s value for the pain… She invited everyone to keep active.

The meeting closed at 2.50 - & everyone enjoyed a lunch hosted by our host Community La Tinaja…

Beans, rice, tortillas, juice-water,

Then all piled back on the back of pick-ups & crammed into vehicles & made our way back along the dusty road home

Next meeting of Regional Consejo at Juan Gonzalez 26.11.11 at 11am, this will be an aniversary party & a meeting.