11th Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Vivienda de Arriba Water Project

Record of Event pg 1 of 3
11th Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Vivienda de Arriba Water Project

Where: Vivienda de Arriba (40 mins from SMA)
When: Wed Sept. 1st 12pm- 2pm
Who: Holly & Saul, (Cedesa) Laura, (Rotary), (Jesus absent) 39 adults (incl 10 men) 4 kids. Some people missing as there was a meeting at the school at the same time)

Purpose: The water project funded by Rotary has concluded, with the successful completion of 17 cisterns (1 school & 16 individual family).

This meeting is continuing relations & development in the community & neighbouring communities. There were representatives from 4 communities attending today.

Juan Gonzalez (2nd visit)
• Juan Gonzalez (located past Tierra Blanca, on the other side of the river)
• Attending were Maria Ramirez ph 415 149 4772, Soledad Lopez, Margarita Hernandez & Salvador Correa
• Commitment to visit their community on the 29th Sept at 10.30 on the way to meeting at 5 Senores)

Cinco Senores (3rd visit, 1 in Tierra Blanca, 2 in Vivienda de Arriba)
• Cinco Senores is in front of Juan Gonzalez but the Vivienda de Arriba side of the river
• There are approx. 20 Families
• They have no wells, their only source of water is the river, which is dry in the dry season (ie most of the year!) they have to dig as much as 1mtr in the river bed to find water. This is their only water.
• Attending were Letitia Lopez, Adelita Gonzalez, Josefina Herrera, & Maria Beatriz Baranca – contact Maria Ramirez (as above) 415 149 4772, Felisa, Maria Vazquez
• Commitment to visit their community on the 29th Sept at 11am (after brief meet at Juan Gonzalez)

San Lorenzo (2nd visit)
• San Lorenzo is close to Juan Gonzalez (makes more sense to combine JG & SL, than with Vivienda 2nd phase).
• Approx. 4 families
• Attending were representatives of Estevan (3), Abel (4), J Piedad (9), Alfredo (4), the contact person is Rosa Maria Ramirez (the sister of Aurelia the young woman attending), 415 114 2539.
• Humberto Alfonzo – the young man, that approached us after the last assembly & said he was very interested in doing social development work & learning how to be a promoter, was here again.

La Tinaja (3rd Visit)
Saul has the list of names.
The people attending did not have a contact phone number, they instead took the number of Saul & Holly.
The visit to La Tinaja was postponed as Saul had not made the arrangements & did not have a contact number. Saul & Chela will go to La Tinaja on the 29th Sept. 11am

Brief introductions
Holly briefly introduced us, & then went on to describe the process of a normal meeting, & that we work in the communities by having regular assemblies so the community can organise themselves.


Record of Event pg 2 of 3

Steps in the process are 1. Pass the roll. 2. Appoint a co-ordinator . 3. Appoint the person to take notes (secretary). 4. Set/call for the agenda points, & prioritise them.

Agenda
I Phase I revision
II Phase II
III Traspatios
IV Activity re primary school event – water info day like Los Torres
V Dry Toilets
VI Ecocina Stoves

I Phase I revision
Senora Tomasa now has her new roof & pipes installed, & has collected a little water. All other cisterns are completed & have water!

II Phase II planning
We don’t have much to report re the $$ or progress on this phase. We are currently working on a large “combined community” project, ie combining all the current communities that have requested assistance into one large group, with subsets per neighbouring communities, eg Guerrero, La Aurora, Don Juan, San Gerardo… Vivienda de Arriba 2, Juan Gonzalez, San Lorenzo, 5 Senores, Tierra Blanca…

There is no timeline for this currently, could be 6mths or more… we are working on it.

Saul described the Capaderillo Project, in regards to the time it’s taken & the precedent it has set for possible future funding sources.

Holly explained we will need more info. Re families who wish to participate, closer to the time of receiving resources. She also mentioned the “tanda” kind of like the habitat for humanity model, or pay it forward, ie where one family has help from all, & then reciprocates until all families have a cistern, they said they would prefer to wait for the other resources opportunity event if it takes a long time.

III Water Info Day - school
Annamaria asked about arranging an event like Los Torres had for the kids “dia del agua”, Saul was asked to explain what it entailed, since no-one at the meeting had attended the day (except us).

He explained the purpose of the day was to inform the kids about the importance of all aspects of water in their lives. This was done in a fun learning way, with quizzes & games, & the ultimate winners became the “guardians of water” for their school . The community also created a big poster detailing the water history in their region.

The kids all received water bottles as participation prize, so they would fill their water bottles instead of sucking water directly from the tap (& wasting a lot).

Saul also talked about FAI (save the children) who have an environmental education program going in many schools,

Action: this was carried forward until next month, as many of the parents are absent from this meeting (attending a school meeting). An organising commission will need to be formed to ask FAI/Cedesa to facilitate.


Record of Event pg 3 of 3

IV Traspatios
Holly explained that it’s expensive for Benigno (technician from Cedesa) to visit the communities unless there are a lot of people attending, she asked who was interested in attending. The people asked for more information.
Holly gave a brief explanation of what Traspatio, or backyard production entails, including soil preparation, growing fruit & veges, using animal fertilizer, nopal tunnels, chickens etc. Small plants & seeds can be bought & shared less expensively (Co-operative production),
It could be done monthly or in an intensive multi day workshop, with follow up visits.
No decision was made.

V Ecocina Stoves
Laura asked to talk about the Ecocina stoves as a potential project for these communities.
Laura (via Holly) briefly described the ecocina stove, an efficient, small, portable smokeless stove.

We asked what kind of cooking arrangements people currently have.
• Everyone has wood stoves for part of their cooking, some have gas stoves inside as well.
• Some have wood stoves inside, some outside, & some partially under cover.
• Everywhere these stoves are, there is black soot & a lot of smoke
• They usually use the wood stoves for cooking tortillas & gorditas, as large hot plate area, & gas stoves for cooking rice & beans (inside).
• They asked about the hotplate size & unfortunately I had not seen the video at that stage & so did not know the small stoves have 2 different tops, one large hotplate for tortillas, & one small with a ring for beans & rice & water etc.
• They were definitely interested to know & learn more…

Meeting concluded. We reminded the community that the next assembly would be the last one, as the training is complete (until the next project)…


Next meetings:

Next & last assembly in Vivienda de Arriba 6 Oct 2010 12pm

Commitment to visit Juan Gonzalez community on the 29th Sept at 10.30 (on the way to meeting at 5 Senores).
5 Senores at 11am on 29th Sept (in front of the Chapel), & San Lorenzo will attend


(We then headed to Annamaria’s aunty’s house for Tamales & Atole, as we were on our way to Tierra Blanca next)