Record of Event pg 1 of 3
3Rd Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Montecillo de Nieto Water Project
Where: El Cortijo & Montecillo de Nieto Primary School
When: 18 November 2009 11.20-12.10, & 12.30 – 3.05
Who: pre planning meeting –Elena & Laura (Rotary), Chela Cedesa.
Assembly, Elena, Laura & Chela, Hector & Leon (2 professors), 26 women, 1 man & many children.
Purpose: Pre planning session at El Cortijo & then Community Assembly at MdN Primary School – continuing planning of the project, including deciding which families will be receiving cisterns in the first phase, (limited to 26 cisterns) & establishing working groups.
We decided to hold the meeting outside under a big tree, so we could sit in a circle, & be less constrained by the desks & layout in the classroom. It was more conducive to participation & involvement.
When we first arrived only a few women were there, & about 6 women were washing dishes after the lunch. (Feed the Hungry provides this school lunch program).
Elena & I looked more closely at the water collection system the municipal govt. had put in place. The membrane tank & it´s lid are ill fitting, for the support structure, & when we peered into the tank the level is only about 3 inches of water at the bottom. This is at the end of the rainy season, so the tank should be almost full!
We walked around the tank, & found a slimy puddle leading from under the tank, which seems to indicate there is a slow leak. We mentioned this to Leon (one of the teachers) who said they know about it & have informed the Ecology department, who are waiting for it to empty before repairing. This is additional confirmation for us that the ferro cement tank is the better solution.
Chela, Elena & I asked to be shown the kindergarten, which is across the road. We were led there by Eva & Enerina. Chela asked lots of questions about the community. The kinder is a lovely building with a grove of about 8 mature mesquites shading most of the grounds. They have a 1500ltr tinaco (plastic tank) at the kinder, not connected to the roof, but for delivery by the water truck.
Most people in the community have sold their land to foreigners. Only about 3 locals still own parcels of land. The lots they now live on are small unproductive lots. The people sold their land out of ignorance, & have spent the money in most cases.
There is a small springfed creek at the back of the kindergarten, but it is dry except in the rainy season, most of the year the “spring” is dry.
The meeting started at 1.20pm.
1. Hello & thank you for coming. (Chela)
2. “Reflection” (Elena)
a review of what has happened since the last assembly 1 month ago.
The women who committed to collecting a census of the community, listing who would be like to participate in the project, collected all the names & ages of each of the members of all the families (42 in total).
Elena thanked them for their hard & excellent work. She thanked everyone for coming today, walking here to attend the meeting, & described this as the seed, or beginnings, & congratulated them on their motivation to attend.
Is there anything pending from the previous meeting? No.
3. Chela engaged the community´s responses with a number of statements & questions
• It´s important for everyone to take responsibility in their own hands & make their family & community wellbeing a priority.
• “in this community you have a problem with water – what´s the problem?”
• They all responded the water is contaminated, & that fluoride was the contaminant. Chela gave a bit more background re the contamination issue around their region.
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• “You have yellow teeth from drinking this water, we are here to work to solve this issue for who?” & they all responded “for our kids!”
• How many people are at today´s meeting who also attended the 1st meeting – 20 people raised their hands. She congratulated them for organising themselves to attend this 2nd meeting.
• Is it a free project? – no! we need to work.
• People have rights, but with rights come obligations.
• Chela asked where else it talks about rights & obligations, Elena offered – in the bible, & Chela said, also in the Constitution of Mexico, & talked a little about the rights of the people as described in the constitution. An example was described using a book the teachers use in the 3rd grade class.
• The right to drinking water is a basic human right.
• One of the men at the meeting has been buying bottled water for 30 years.
• They all want clean water for their kids & grand kids.
• “you can all speak, not just listen”
• What are you prepared to do for safe drinking water – work & participate, by building the cisterns & attending the meetings.
They all recorded their names in the “roll book” from the first meeting.
4.What future do you see for your kids? What can you imagine?
Interestingly, this was a difficult one for the women to answer. Either they were trying to work out what it was we were expecting them to say, or they weren´t able to visualise anything for their kids´future… I suspect from their eventual answers, it was the former.
a. safe drinking water
b. the awareness to conserve water (because it´s not a renewable resource!)
c. for the kids to learn the bible, know the words of the bible. (living in harmony with eachother & resources, learn values).
(I was imagining how a group of American women would answer this question, with things like to be happy, to have good jobs, be passionate about what they do, be successful in their fields, travel the world, be good people, but nothing like this came up, again maybe they were wanting to provide the “right” answer).
5. Phase 1 Participants selection
The list of people interested in participating has 42 families.
The scope of this project (at least phase 1) is 26 cisterns, we communicated this & then set about determining who the first 26 families would be.
There were 28 people attending the meeting. We worked through the attendees, & called out the name & asked each person how many in their family. This is how the list transpired.
1. Maria del Carmen Villa Franco 7 people (2 families will share, 1 of 3, 1 of 4 people)
2. Margarita Pastor 6
3. Irene Jimenez 8
4. Maria Griselda 5
5. Soledara Ramirez 5
6. Alicia Peña 8 (2 families will share)
7. Marie Elena Cortez 6
8. Nancy Galvan 6
9. Lorena Garcia 5
10. Maria Irene Ramirez 6
11. Emelia Ramirez 7
12. Gloria Peña 6
13. Maria Cruz Jimenez 13 (2 families)
14. Victoria Vazquez 5
15. Lorena Ramirez 3
16. Hermalinda Barranca 7
17. Micaela Muñoz 7
18. Casilda Ramirez 8
19. Aurelia Peña 7
20. Secondido Ramirez 11 (3 families)
21. Eva Garcia 5
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22. Enerina Ramirez 3
23. Irma Carmona 9 (2 families)
24. Maria Blanca Ramirez (Taboada) 4
One elderly woman (with just her & her husband) said her husband can not help build it since he has a job, but she still wanted one, we pointed out that she could do the work herself, but since there are only 2 of them, maybe she could share with her close neighbours (family), she said she had not organised this, in the meantime we have her as the next phase, in an attempt to maximise the number of people we can serve.
We were lucky that so many families have chosen to co-operate as this will definitely maximise the solution!
6. Dividing into working groups
We explained the process of work groups, ie to build one cistern would take 1 family for days, but that 7 families could build 7 cisterns in 4 days, & that the group was collectively responsible for ensuring all cisterns are built.
There are currently 24 people on the list (with a space for 2 more if they attend the meetings in future & seek permission of the community).
It was decided to work in 4 groups of 6 (not 3 groups of 8). The names in bold are the leaders of each group.
Group 1. Group 2. Group 3. Group 4.
Margarita Carmen Griselda Gloria
Casilda Victoria Alicia Soledad
Eva Secondino Elena Audelia
Micaela Emelia Lorena R Enedina
Irene Nancy Maria Cruz Lorena G
Maria Blanca Maria Irene Irma Hermelinda
The next Assembly (#3) date was set for December 16th at 12.30
With luck we will have the funding approved by TRF, & be ready to begin the project by this date.
Photo album http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=steve.mckee&target=ALBUM&id=5395898476865345153&authkey=Gv1sRgCN3a_7DOi7iACg&feat=email
