3rd Event of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Palencia

3rd Event of the SMA Midday Rotary Water Project Palencia

Where: Community House in Palencia – 1hr north of Dolores Hidalgo,
When: 3rd Feb 2011 12.20 start (left SMA at 10am), meeting finished 2.40 (back in SMA5pm)
Who: Chela, Benigno – Cedesa, Laura – Rotary, 18 adults (incl 1 man) + 5 kids

Purpose:
The cisterns are all constructed, the project is essentially finished, the final inauguration requires planning.

Background.
Rotary met with this community in January 2010, after Chela had alerted us to the fact this community has the highest levels of Fluoride & arsenic than any in SMA. They had heard of the projects in SMA & petitioned us for assistance. See report 1, & 2 for more information.

Some brief facts about the community were raised in the previous meeting, included again here for ease of reference
• 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

Item 1 – introductions all round:
A co-ordinator & record taker were nominated & unanimously elected
Agenda points were called for
• Inauguration of the cisterns project
• Closure of the water project
• Planning of continuing work with Cedesa & the Palencia community
• Diagnostics of Community needs
• Information re Campesino Climate workshop at Cedesa
• Other points

Item 2 – role called & introductions made
All attending the meeting introduced themselves, including me & Rotary.

Item 3 – general opening discussion
Chela mentioned that her & I had been talking on the way in the car about the situation with the rural communities, that they were in dire need & were barely subsisting.
She had mentioned the reasons for this were, her mum’s generation were not taught to read, & historically there was a lack of nutrition, water, education, as a result of generations of this situation, people were not motivated to change & not aware of the possibilities for change. They were not united, families are separate, & communities are not encouraged to work together. This has allowed for the situation to stay the same.

Other parts of the world, for example Brazil, “have vision, imagination & curiosity”…

Here – what future do we currently have? We need to improve our thoughts about the future & what we would like to change.

Item 4 - Report from the Climate Workshop at Cedesa
A couple from Palencia had attended the workshop on climate at Cedesa & gave a very thorough report of what they learnt there, the themes, the focus, suggested solutions to issues as well as summary important points…

It was very detailed & well reported & took around 45mins.
Some of the topics raised were:
• Seed heritage
• Genetic modification of seed & implications
• The need to save a %age of seed from each crop for the next crop
• Conservation of water, land & seed.
• 22% of Mexicans are campesinos.
• Monsanto, & compulsory seed purchase, as seeds do not replicate
• Chemical fertilizers & their negative effects on flora & fauna (incl humans)
• Maintaining a tradition of healthy food (beans, nopal, etc)
• Natural fertilizers
• Land ownership, maintain productivity by retaining larger parcels, foreign ownership
• Deforestation
• Abuse of the rivers by extraction
• Campesinos are not poor, but rich in that they have the capability to grow food to sustain themselves
• Campesinos are not 2nd class citizens they have great riches in their land & potential
• If you have food & not money you can survive, but if you have money & there is no food you can not.
• Involve youth,
• Catch water
• Defend the integrity of the seed
• Maintain your property, selling for $$ is very short sighted
• Television is a huge waste of time, should be used responsibly, can be educative but also disruptive.
• Important to teach the kids so the ‘learning” is not lost
• Video games are time wasters
• People have bad priorities, have $$ for tv, phone etc, but not to buy tools or seed or trees to make the land more productive

Chela talked a little on the topic of youth & they are the future, “you need to consider well, the future you are creating for them”.

Chela asked the audience to sum up the topics Juan & Estella had raised re the Workshop.
What were the solutions:
• Conserve our native seed
• Avoid selling your land
• Even without water you can grow nopal & maguey
• Produce food
• Teach our children

Item 5 – planning for the closure/inauguration of the project 11th Feb 2011
Necessity – clean/safe water because we have contaminated water.
Objective – what do you want to do for the closure?
Reach more people in the community with the information re the purpose of the project, so the people can see the results of the project, one of the women undertook to make sure her whole family is aware of the issues & solution.
Maybe do a workshop to involve the kids in the theme.
One cistern was constructed at the Community Salon, one at the school & 19 individual family cisterns were constructed.
A small committee was formed to create the program & invite the kids & teachers.

Program
Juan & Estella to be co-ordinators of the event
11am welcome & a few words
11.15 a panel of 3 to describe the development of the community (history)
12midday, workshop with the kids on the subject of water
12.45 reflection
1pm cultural events
2pm lunch
3pm walk to see some of the cisterns constructed
4pm closure, doubts & questions, discussion, farewell

Item 6- Diagnostico (needs analysis)
A needs analysis will be carried out by the community with assistance by Benigno…
They will do this on Tuesday 15th Feb. ie what needs do the community have & what would they like to continue working on?
On the way back to Cedesa I questioned Benigno about the process of the project, he said it had run very smoothly, this community are used to working co-operatively in groups & there were no issues there… The only issue was delivery of materials as it is a long way from Dolores Hidalgo.

The cisterns were completed without an issue. 19 family cisterns & 2 community use cisterns.

A very good result!!

Meeting finished at 2.40pm.
We drove back to cedesa to drop off Chela & Benigno & arrived back in SMA around 5pm