Report of 1st visit to Juan Gonzalez

Record of Event

Report of 1st visit to Juan Gonzalez
Where: Juan Gonzalez, primary school
When: Wed 16th March 2011 12.15
Who: Chela, Holly (Cedesa), Laura (Rotary), 35 adults, uncountable number of kids, + 2 puppies.

Purpose: To begin planning of the Rotary Global Grant 25397 project in this community.
We had an initial breakfast meeting at the house of Audelia (one of the young leaders) on the way. Then arrived to Juan Gonzalez at approx. 12.15.

We have had many meetings which representatives of the Juan Gonzalez community have attended.
This is the first meeting we have held in Juan Gonzalez.

Items
Introductions were made & then agenda for the day was proposed:
• Presentation of communities,
• Purpose of the meeting
• Report of previous Consejo meetings
• Organisation of work
• Meeting of the Consejo in Vivienda de Arriba
There was some discussion about the history of this community, Augustin Gonzalez (another community) & Juan Gonzalez were apparently brothers.

A record of attendance was taken.
Cinco Senores will have 11 cisterns + 1 pilot
San Lorenzo has 4
Juan Gonzalez will have 21 + 1 pilot.

Chela asked what the purpose of the meeting was
Answers were 1. To make work groups for the project, & to inform about the meeting in SMA with Lucy/Sapasma & Desarollo.

Audelia asked what else we want to talk about?
“I would like carificaton on how we will work & what the process is?”

Audelia read out the form which describes the process a little, they had signed the forms but some had forgotten the content, she also described her experience in the training days she had voluntarily attended at the Vivienda Urbana pilot, “the wire weaving was fun & they gave us a lot to eat there!”

Chela reiterated that this project is not just to obtain safe drinking water, but in the process of working in groups on this project everyone learns to organise & the benefits of working in group/co-operatively & it strengthens the community resolve & ties.

“I’m interested because we will have clean water to drink”
“because it’s from the rain & not contaminated”
Chela asked – contaminated with what?
“bacteria & fluoride” Chela – what are the symptoms of fluoride damage, “yellow teeth, pain in the bones”

Laura & Holly noted that the adult’s teeth appear to be fine but the children’s teeth are showing fluoride damage, so this generation has been affected already.
Chela asked who had kids with damaged teeth & sadly the majority raised their hands.
One woman said her Dr had told her it was because kids were drinking too much coke. Chela explained a little more of the symptoms & affect of high levels of fluoride on internal organs, pain in the bones, the other bad food & drink are also aggravating the problem, without doubt the junk food is doing damage. The food is cheap & easy, but has very detrimental affect on the health of the family/kids.

Removing/killing bacteria contaminants is easy (www.sodis.ch) but removing minerals/chemicals is not.

Someone mentioned Chloro as a purification method, Chela explained that in very small doses it can help kill bacteria, but that sodis is the preferred method as it is not harmful. But neither methods remove chemical or mineral contaminants.

Chela also explained that with the cisterns the water during the dry season can only be used for drinking & cooking, it is sacred & needs to be conserved. During the rainy season, if the cistern is refilling daily, they it can be used for other things, but as soon as the rains stop you must revert to drinking & cooking use only.

Information re what happened at the Presidencia meeting with the Consejo (citizens council)
8 people who were at today’s meeting were present, & they were asked who wants to report.
Antonia – 1st we went to ask for an appt, then we were given an appt for 4 of us to meet with Lucy & Desarollo Social (social development), next we attended a meeting on 23.2 in Cedecom, with Lucy & various departments (sapasma, ecology, desarollo social) as well as approx. 16 communities (of the 18)
Lucy invited us to discuss our issues.
Chela asked “what is the importance of this meeting @ Cedecom & why?”
“gave us a chance to inform the departments about our issues”
“is a good chance for us to work as a region on our common issues”
“when we finish our focus on water & resolve that, we can raise our next issues & approach appropriate dept, ecology, obras publicas etc & work on the next focus”
“the work we are doing is not just for water, we will keep working on the other issues, dry toilets, bridges etc”
“Toilets need water so we are working for sanitarios secos (dry toilets)”
Chela – we’re all here to work together on all of the issues, because you guys are all obliged to resolve your own issues – si or no? “si!”
In this manner, with the citizen’s council, you can work together as a region & by community.

“we have never had a meeting with the govt departments before, this was a big advantage to even know who they are & how we can approach them”
“It’s important that the Representatives report back to the communities they represent eg. Letty called a meeting the next day & reported back what happened at the Cedecom meeting to the Cinco Senores community”

Chela – it’s about taking responsibility for your own community development & together your regional development.

Chela asked Laura to describe what happened at the meeting with Dra Mejia (& Irma & Mayor Lucy & Jesus) re the issues in Tierra Blanca & fluoride in the region. Laura also mentioned the good news re the collaboration with Sapasma for the last 2.5 yrs, & the announcement that they would be funding water cisterns project for USD$35k, thanks also in part to Lucy for listening to our requests & asking Sapasma to include water cisterns in their budget.

Organisation of work groups for the Project
Since Cinco Senores & San Lorenzo are small communities we need to combine them (funded by Fondo Verde of the Ecology dept) with the project funded by the global grant in Juan Gonzalez.
Chela asked if the community wants to do the planning now or wait until the FV funds arrive?
“let’s do the planning now & have a brief mtg when the $$ arrive”
“can we do work in groups of 3 or 4?
No, better to have bigger group for level of work involved & get to know more people by working together co-operatively.

Chela asked What does Presta fuerza mean to you?
“I lend you my work & you lend me yours, ie we work together to achieve a bigger result”
The possibility of paying an abanile (expert mason) was discussed as there is a shortage of abaniles in this community.

Cinco Senores Groups (10 families + 1 pilot)*chapel was discussed but changed to JG School
2 groups.


Juan Gonzalez (21 families + pilot in one JG school) 3 groups


It was confirmed that there are 2 abaniles in each group.

It was mentioned that it is important for the groups to work with harmony & openness to achieve a good result.

San Lorenzo (4 family cisterns) very small group…
Audelia, Ana Maria, Esteban, Matilde

Next meeting 23/3 Regional Consejo meeting Vivienda de Arriba 11am

Next meeting in Juan Gonzalez to be announced once all the $$ arrive, Saul will communicate

Meeting concluded at 2.15 & then all ate lunch together.