Record of Event pg 1 of 2
9th Mtg of the SMA Midday Rotary Vivienda de Arriba Water Project
Where: Vivienda de Arriba (40 mins from SMA)
When: Fri 23rd July 2010 12.10pm
Who: Holly, Chela, Jesus, & Gerardo (Cedesa) Laura, Kerry, Walter, Enrique, (Rotary), Gary & Sue Reid, Manuel Agri(sp?), (Rotary Guests), Roberto Andre – (Presidencia, now subdirector of Desarollo Rural ), the film & photography crew of the Presidencia, the community of Vivienda de Arriba including the Padre of the church, & Victor – Maestro of the primary school
Purpose: Celebration of the completion of the project to construct 17 cisterns (1 at the school & 16 family cisterns) at Vivienda de Arriba.
Cedesa, Rotary & the Presidencia were invited by the project participants of Vivienda de Arriba to participate in the celebration of the completion of the water project in this community.
We arrived in convoy & it was pouring with rain. The community had strung up tarps across the courtyard & set up tables & chairs.
We were invited to view a Photoboard the teacher & his pupils had created to document the process of constructing the cistern at the school. The photos were in black & white & excellent. Anamaria (the young community leader) explained to the guests the process & answered questions.
The Padre then invited us to another room where we all discussed the project & the benefits to this community, way beyond just the completion of the cisterns, the organisation & solidarity it had created, & the willingness & motivation of the community to resolve their own issues. There were many “speeches” in Spanish, by Chela & the Padre & others, essentially explaining the ideals of development & the advantage of this “hand up” not “hand out” approach.
Roberto from Desarollo Social, now Rural, said they have only 5 promoters for a region of 500 communities & so welcomed initiatives like this one… Chela described the benefits of this development approach, from where it had started & what it is growing into (now more than 18 communities have requested a water project in their community!), it all started in Los Torres & has grown from the success there.
She mentioned Los Torres now has a team of 4 tech advisers & Vivienda de Arriba has 2, we also have identified 4 excellent potential community promoters from the leaders of the projects, Saul, Juan & Concha & AnaMaria (& others)…
Los Torres have now completed 2 phases of water projects & the experience gained from successfully executing those projects has enabled them to tackle other issues of importance in their community, for example they have petitioned the presidencia to mend their road & the petition has been accepted. They continue to work in the area of back yard production & are planning workshops in health.
Working together on positive issues, also creates a distraction from other less desirable activities, the teachers in the communities also provide an excellent way to continue the growth.
The community said, they have gotten to know others in their community, they now have experience & focus, & a can do attitude.
Record of Event pg 2 of 2
“more than a beautiful experience, now we have water but we also have good relationships with the people we have been working with” “we enjoyed working in groups it is much easier & faster, by ourselves it would have been too heavy, but with everyone working it was much easier & fun” “good helping eachother” “good sharing the workload”.
The community & team was congratulated, Rotary & Cedesa were thanked for the opportunity of this project. Members of the community were asked to describe how it was for them, & their responses were filmed by the film crew for local television broad cast, & update for the presidencia.
We then attended mass in the Chapel, & after were treated to a huge banquet… This is the smallest community we are working with, but by far the biggest “spread”, every family had contributed with huge pots full of delicious food, including corn on the cob, chicherone (pork rind), wild greens, barbacoa (pit cooked sheep), as well as the usual delicious rice, beans & home made & grown, tortillas… Walter exclaimed he didn’t like Mexican food, but that this was something different! He had never experienced the like of it in any Mexican restaurant in San Miguel, & proclaimed it to all be delicious!!
We were then given a tour of some of the cisterns, including 2 that had been decorated, one with 3 ceramic stampeding elephants on the top & a large drawing of an African elephant on the side, the other with a light attached to the top of the cistern, with electrics stringing back into the house, & a large picture of a shepherd & sheep on the side!!! You can see photos on the blog www.02h2o.blogspot.com in the Montecillo de Nieto slideshow.
We also visited the house of Lorena, where before the project she had a roof made of black cardboard & bamboo canes, now she has a tin roof & it is effectively channelling the water to the cistern now.
We said our happy farewells & bundled back into our cars, happy & full.
The water project is concluded in this community, the assemblies are continuing with Cedesa (& Laura) attending, until a big picture plan is made which may include more planned development projects.
It should also be noted, that we have come in under budget on the combined Cruz del Palmar/Vivienda de Arriba project (which started out as Lomas de San Jose)…This was achieved due to many hours of comparative quotes & maximising the bulk purchases with other community projects in process at the same time. Economy of scale.
We are currently in the process of working with TRF to determine the best way to spend these funds.
Although the Vivienda de Arriba Water project is officially concluded, I will continue to update via mthly reports until the project is officially closed & financial reports provided to TRF as required.
Next assembly 4th August @ 12midday.
Report respectfully submitted by Laura Stewart
