June-July 2011 newsletter
First of all, apologies for the lateness of this newsletter. We had our biggest event of the year, the 12th Annual National Fair “Lucha Rivera” (for a dignified and sustainable life, and for fair trade and solidarity marketing) on August 5-7, with nearly 700 producers coming from 18 states. I was been extremely busy with preparations for that event, about which I will report in the next bi-monthly newsletter, and then catching up with projects and meetings postponed during the preparations.
A second apology: during the month of June, I was recovering from hip surgery and so I did not attend any meetings for the first half of the month and only a few during the second half, though I did receive reports from the my team members, which I will summarize.
Without further ado, notes on our activities in the months of June and July, 2011 follow.
Wednesday, June 1 –Community Assemblies at La Tinaja and Palmita II. These two communities are located on the west side of the highway to Guanajuato, in mountainous terrain (as opposed to the other communities where we have worked, which have been mostly riverside communities). Both La Tinaja and Palmita II are interested in dry toilets, and we hope to include La TInaja in the next International Rotary grant for rain-harvesting cisterns.
Wednesday, June 8 – Inauguration of the Tierra Blanca cisterns. The 40 families of Tierra Blanca completed their rain-harvesting systems in time for the rains expected this month (note: we did have good rains the last week of June, which filled many of the Tierra Blanca cisterns nearly to half-full, but July was an unusually dry month with only occasional light showers). Thank you Laura Stewart for the great photos!
Wednesday, June 15 – Full Council Assembly at Vivienda de Arriba. At this meeting, representatives of all 17 communities of the Citizen’s Council attended, plus two persons from a new community, Los Magueyes were introduced (Los Magueyes is a small community of about 20 families, located near the Atotonilco turnoff on the highway between San Miguel and Dolores Hidalgo).
It was decided that the next communities within the SMA Citizen’s Council to embark on cistern projects will be Presita de Santa Rosa (Rotary), Guerrero (SAPASMA), Cruz del Palmar II (Rotary), Los Torres III (SAPASMA), and La Tinaja (Rotary).
Saul reported on the application for dry toilets referred to the Department of Social Development by the mayor. Social Development proposed 125 dry toilets to be “given” to the “most needy”, financed by the federal SEDESOL program, at a cost of $25,000 per toilet, with a 15% cash contribution by the beneficiaries. Some comments: these types of programs benefit the laziest people and outside contractors (as opposed to our participatory methodology of having the families provide labor rather than cash, and employing local workers), and have no social context or follow-up. All agreed that we want to continue with our application which includes using local construction workers assisted by the families receiving the materials, training and follow-up technical assistance by CEDESA. The council rejected the SEDESOL proposal and voted to send a committee to the Department of Social Development to insist upon our proposal, and if unsuccessful, to the Mayor’s office.
Holly reported on a research project sponsored by CEDESA on medicinal plants – an internationally renowned expert on healing with herbs, Dr. Rosita Arvigo, is gathering information from local healers on plants of Guanajuato for a book in order to preserve knowledge that has traditionally been passed down from generation to generation orally. With the advent of “modern” medicine, this knowledge is in danger of being lost since many people now prefer to go to doctors and buy medicines made in laboratories. Revalorizing traditional knowledge of healing herbs can help families spend less and cure simple ailments in a more natural way with fewer side-effects. Representatives from several communities in the San Miguel Rural Citizen’s Council volunteered to contact their local traditional healers for interviews.
illustration for plant book
Ana of Vivienda de Arriba reported on her meeting with the Cruz del Palmar Ejido Commission regarding donation of land in that community for a meeting room and eco-technology demonstration center for the Citizen’s Council. The Council decided to request a plot next to the Vivienda de Arriba kindergarten, off the main road, rather than a more distant plot next to the football field. Irene of Capaderillo offered a piece of land in her community, but it does not have road access. Emelia of Cienega mentioned that the Cienega Ejido is selling land in the wedge between the old and new Guanajuato roads. For the moment, it was decided to pursue the donation first, and if that does not come through, to consider the purchase possibilities.
Monday, June 20 – Meeting with SAPASMA to review the progress of the cistern-building projects in Villa de Guadalupe and Cienega de Juana Ruiz. Both projects are proceeding on schedule in spite of problems of delivering water during several weeks of construction.
Friday, June 24 – Tierra Blanca: meeting with Dr. Ortega, who reported on the results from the water tests taken at and around Tierra Blanca, and discussed the symptoms of fluorosis (fluoride poisoning). The 80+ people attending were very attentive and expressed interest in knowing more about the quality of all the sources of water in the region. Results from Dr. Ortega’s fluoride tests:
1. Well – Cruz del Palmar: 1.99 mg/L
2. Well – Cruz del Palmar: 0.40 mg/L
3. Spring – Artesano: 2.56 mg/L
4. Well – Presita Santa Rosa: 2.67 mg/L
5. Well – Tierra Blanca de Abajo: 0.86 mg/L
6. Spring – Tierra Blanca d Abajo: 2.72 mg/L
7. Spring – Tierra Blanca de Abajo: 2.40 mg/L
8. Spring – Tierra Blanca de Abajo: 2.36 mg/L
9. River – Tierra Blanca de Abajo: 0.74 mg/L
10. Well – Rancho Nuevo de Banda: 3.47 mg/L
11. Spring – Los Torres: 0.70 mg/L
Wednesday, June 29 – Inauguration of cisterns at Juan Gonzales. The 21 families of this community celebrated the completion of their rain-harvesting systems at the old primary school – literally the day before the heavy rains at the end of June, which half-filled most of the cisterns.
Saturday, July 2 – Founders Day Gathering at CEDESA. From the municipality of San Miguel, representatives from 14 communities attended: Capaderillo, Los Magueyes, VIvienda Urbana, Guerrero, Presita Santa Rosa, Cruz del Palmar, Juan Gonzales, Cinco Señores, Correlejos, San Lorenzo, La Palmita II, Villa de Guadalupe, Cienega de Juana Ruiz, Tierra Blanca. The event included talks, displays and workshops on this year’s theme of natural health as well as activities for children.
Tuesday, July 5 – Meeting at Fondo Verde – a commission of six representatives from the Citizens Council visited the Department of Ecology and agreed that the $200,000 pesos that we turned down for another cistern project should be applied to a dry toilet project – pilots in the 15 communities that have requested them.
The written application was submitted on Tuesday, July 12 for fifteen dry toilets.
Thursday, July 7 – Assembly at Tierra Blanca to explain the protocol written by Dr. Georgina Mejia (SMA rep of State Health Dept) for an epidemiological study of the high incidence of cancer in that community. The assembly agreed to send a small committee to the Mayor’s office on July 20 to seek support for the study to be done by the Instituto Biomedico of UNAM .
Monday, July 11 - Visit to Cienega de Juana Ruiz to interview healers for the medicinal plant book. Holly took Dr. Rosita Arvigo to this community in order to interview Emelia, Socorro and Juana about the medicinal plants that they use. Their kids helped out by gathering wild plants.
Saturday, July 16 – Inauguration of cisterns at Cinco Señores. The 11 families of Cinco Señores celebrated the completion of their rainwater-harvesting systems. The ribbon-cutting ceremony took place at Josefina´s and Esther’s homes, a double-barreled system with two cisterns connected to one roof since the roof of Josefina’s house is higher and larger than Esther’s.
Wednesday, July 20 – Meeting with the Mayor. The Council met with Mayor Lucy Nuñez to discuss the application for dry toilets. Lucy supported the Council’s participatory project (over the SEDESOL outside-contractor project) and committed $4 million pesos to the Council project.
On this same day, we had a Community Assembly in Guerrero primarily to discuss the cistern project that we are proposing with SAPASMA.
Monday, July 25 – Visit to La TInaja and Espejo (next to Tierra Blanca). Holly took Dr. Rosita Arvigo to these communities to interview traditional healers about the plants they use.
Thursday, July 28 – Full Council Assembly at Cienega. Approximately 70 people from all the communities except Vivienda de Arriba and Vivienda Urbana attended. The meeting was initiated by Chela with a reflection on the phrase: “Today our Mother Earth is wounded, and the future of humankind is in danger.”
The rest of the meeting mainly dealt with the dry toilet application with the municipality. New clusters were established, and one community within each designated as the site for dry toilet construction training (marked with asterisk below).
Cluster 1 – Capaderillo*, Guerrero, Vivienda Urbana de Abajo, Presita Santa Rosa
Cluster 2 – Cruz del Palmar, Los Torres*, Montecillo de Nieto, Los Magueyes
Cluster 3 – Tierra Blanca, Vivienda de Arriba, Juan Gonzales*, Cinco Señores, Correlejos
Cluster 4 – Cienega de Juana Ruiz, Palmita II*, La Tinaja, Villa de Guadalupe, San Lorenzo
The Council was invited to participate in a panel at the National Fair in Dolores Hidalgo on August 5-7, to discuss the environmental problems of the region and the projects taking place or being proposed to resolve them (rain-harvesting cisterns and dry toilets)
On that same day, the four families of San Lorenzo celebrated the inauguration of their cisterns.
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