Record of Event
Where: La Tinaja Community – Health Clinic
When: 28th Sept. 2011
Who: Holly, Saul, Chela & Jacqueline -Visitor from Honduras (Cedesa), Laura (Rotary), 104+ adults incl. 11 men,
Purpose of the meeting: usual 4-6wkly meeting of the representatives forming the Consejo for the 18 communities in this región. (there have been more tan 9 events, but this is the 9th I have atended).
The Consejo was formed in Oct. 2010 to work together on common issues affecting the communities in this Consejo, primarily wáter but also other issues, such as dry toilets, roading, backyard production & health issues.
La Tinaja is on the outermost extremity of San Miguel, on the road to GTO.
Pickup truckloads of people arrived from all communities, 3 women had walked for more than 2 hrs from Cinco Senores to be here.
Tarpaulins had been strung to extend the shade structure, & people from La Tinaja arrived carrying as many chairs as they had.
Saul welcomed everyone, thanked them for making the journey here today & handed over to Adela from La Tinaja… She also thanked everyone for coming & welcomed everyone.
Saul said, lets get going & plan today’s agenda, Cata – president of the Consejo is here, but unfortunately Roberto – Secretary could not make it.
Each of the communities was invited to stand, introduce themselves & give a count of attendees:
| 1. Juan Gonzalez 10 2. Guerrero 4 3. Montecillo de Nieto 3 4. Vivienda de Arriba 6 5. Vivienda Urbana 1 6. Villa de Guadalupe 2 7. Cruz del Palmar 11 8. Cienega 2 9. Capaderillo 6 10. Tierra Blanca 8 | 11. Corralejo de Abajo 6 12. Los Magueyes 6 13. Cinco Senores 3 14. Presita de Santa Rosa 3 15. Los Torres 8 16. La Tinaja 18 + 2 + 6 17. La Palmita II 1 18. San Lorenzo 3 Total 109 |
Chela introduced Jacqueline from Honduras she is a co-ordinator of Misereor a global organisation. She is here to know more of work being done here, she was grateful to be able to see what is being achieved on various levels, congratulated the gathering on a grand meeting & encouraged them to continue to keep up the good work & commitment.
Chela introduced the board of the Consejo, some members couldnt make it but had sent representatives in their place.
Chela gave a brief introduction of the history of the consejo & the work Cedesa has been doing in the región. Holly & Laura explained that when they are talking it is for Holly to translate finer points that Laura may have missed in spanish. Chela explained that it is Rotary’s “fault” that Cedesa began working in SMA, they have previously worked in Dolores Hidalgo & surrounds.
3 yrs ago Laura from Rotary approached Cedesa to begin a Project in the first community of Los Torres, “we have been a good team, working on solutions piece by piece & we have come a long way” Saul has been working in same “symphony” with Cedesa & Rotary for almost 1 yr.
Proposal for co-ordinator – Adela (31), Ana (34)
Proposal for record taker – Adela
Call for points for the Agenda:
Cata proposed the following points.
- Sanitarios Secos update
- Cisternas update
- Workshop
- Information re coalition in defence of the Cuenca de la Independencia
- Propose an “encuentro” (conference) of Consejo in November
- General points
Moment of inspiration:
Saul explained he had been tasked to come up with the moment of inspiration & the more he looked the more confused he became, he quoted a phrase about organisation that loosely translates to “now is the time to raise our voice to the govt. Because if we don’t we deserve what we get”
Everyone was asked to add to this –
“if the govt leaves it to us, it’s up to us to make ourselves Heard”
“we need to work together to organise ourselves”
“it’s a question of what we do to deserve things, if we don’t work & are lazy we don’t deserve anything, & we should also know our rights”
Chela asked why we need to raise our voices – “so people can hear us”
“so people are aware of the situation in the campo”
Do we have enough wáter & toilets for example? “no” , then we deserve to not have these things if we don’t raise our voice & work for them.
Saul: Organisation in families, communities & between communities is essential, to organise to achieve solutions to our common problems. One person does not have the voice of 18 communities, for this reason it’s good to work together.
There is planning for 8000 houses near Atotonilco, they are going to need sanitation & wáter, which is not easy for 8000 houses. We need to be more informed of the plans & in this decisión, one comment from the crowd was “this development will not have dry toilets, they are likely to want drainage which will affect our river”
Item 1: Sanitarios Secos (dry toilets)
Cata: We have been working for a long time on this Project, we’re at the point of having resources for some Sanitarios Secos.
We feel we have 1st priority for SS since we have been working so hard for them, even if there are others with more need, it’s not fair if those not working receive them for nothing.
We are receiving $4milliones pesos out of $8milliones originally slated for another community Tambula. The Govt wants to administer the funds, not through Cedesa or Rotary, we would have preferred to receive the $$ for the materials & provide the labour ourselves to extend the funds further, but since this is more than $2milliones the restriction is that a contractor (& bid process) must be followed.
Unfortunately that means the $$ will not stretch so far, as the labour & co-ordinators will have to be paid for out of the $4m… The new design, 2 chambers, has been accepted.
Next week Desarrollo Social will be sending out social workers to verfiy that families on the list do not have any form of toilet currently. Unfortunately this will exclude many on the list that have been working hard for this, for example DIF houses must have flush toilets installed as part of the requirements, even if there is no wáter to flush the toilets. So, these toilets sit there, not functioning but because they exist they exclude the participant from this phase of the dry toilet Project.
We are currently awaiting the result of the “bid” process to see how much 1 dry toilet will cost, to know exactly how many can be built.
We attempted to argue the situation re the bid process, but it is a requirement. “I have a septic tank, but no wáter to uses it, so I don’t qualify – even though it’s a decoration because of the lack of wáter”
“many people on the list no longer qualify, even though they have been working on this for ages, & there will be others that do qualify that havent worked at all, it’s not really fair”
“it is unlikely we will just be able to ‘replace’ people on the list, we will probably just lose our allowance”
Chela- We are working in Phases, this will be the 1st Phase. Our objective will be for all campesino families to obtain a dry toilet, so we will continue to work & do it in phases.
If we do it in less than $2millones phases, we don’t need a “bid” process, but since this one if $4milones bids are needed.
Concha (from Los Torres) “we have been working continuously for 3 years & multiple phases, & often the ones inthe last phase are the ones that work the least or the Young ones who just got a house. It’s a struggle to ensure the ones working are the ones receiving the benefit, in some cases the ones working are not eligible as they have a “toilet” even if it does not function, so we need to make sure it doesnt just go to just anyone that “qualifies” by not having a toilet”.
A list of names was created of the people who will accompany the social workers in each community.
There was a vote as to whether or not to accept the conditions of receiving the $$ (ie the bid process), all voted yes, despite it ultimately no being favourable for all.
Item 2 – Cisterns
Saul gave an update, there is a 108 cistern grant with 95% likelihood, coming from Rotary grant, funded by Chinook RC & District & Alberta Govt & The Rotary Foundation. It will be for
Presita Santa Rosa : 24
La Tinaja 23
3 Esquinas (near Palencia) 23
Cruz del Palmar phase II 38
Laura asked for confirmation that CdP phase II was priority, Tierra Blanca person said “CdP have been working a long time so maybe they should receive the available 38”, the rest of the communities all voted in favour of CdP receiving the phase II cisterns.
Saul also explained that Sapasma have agreed to fund a 2nd Project with us.
This will be for approx 62 cisterns.
So far Guerrero is included for 24 cisterns
& Los Torres phase III for 19 cisterns
Sapasma have 4 solo cisterns they would like to build, therefore 15 available…
Currently looking at Los Magueyes & San Jose de los Allende…
One genteman in the crowd commented “I have been to San Jose de Los Allende, I was working there one time, & they have a really bad wáter situation, they are basically drinking out of puddles”
Item 3 – Workshop
Saul talked about the forthcoming “workshop” – ie working in groups on the backyard production Project. Production of food is going to be crucial this year, since no rains have come & many crops are failing. People will be forced to buy food & the prices will be pushed up since many are having to buy it.
During the workshop we will learn how to grow a vege garden including:
A micro tunnel for Nopal cactus
Natural medicines
& the next workshop will cover:
Conservation of soils & plants to grow for health.
What is your biggest urgency? “wáter” & “food”
It’s a priority to achieve wáter & food, do you guys have maize? “no, because no rain, no beans, no maise no calabassas” “the maize are all drying & dying, we desperately need wáter, so it’s going to be urgent to find food from other sources” “we’ll have to eat nopal”,
Who know’s how to grow nopal in a tunnel? (only a couple) so let’s have a training sesión…
3 people per community can come to Cedesa for the training, these people will be the Train the trainer people, they will be expected to pass on the valuable info they learn. You will need to co-ordinate & contribute for transport costs. Holly is going to try to find money to subsidise the cost of food for the day, & maybe help with a bus.
Who wants training? – they all eagerly raised their hands.
Laura mentioned that it is difficult for Holly to raise money & that participants could contribute at least what they can, eg 10 pesos. After brief discussion this was agreed, they will contribute what they can.
Taller/Workshop will be Saturday 29th October at 10am in Cedesa /leaving Cienegita at 8am
Item 4 Form part of the coalition in defence of the Cuenca de Independencia
Saul asked Audelia to report on what happened in the recent meeting re the Cuenca, held in Juriquilla, this was a follow up sessión of the diploma of wáter studies carried out by Dr Ortega from Unam. It included extras in the latest session, ie those that had joined the Consejo since then.
The subject covered the Aquifer that serves this región including 7 municipalities. Topics included contamination (natural & man-made), agriculture over-use. All attendees reviews info & dicussed issues, including prevention of over-use, pollution etc. The Consejo was described to these 7 municipalities as a good example of how to achieve positive change, it was decided a coalition should be formed to bring together the 7 municipalities, to work together to defend the aquifer.
Saul said the Consejo needed to appoint representatives if they considered this a worthwhile action, hence he is informing them today of the purpose of the coalition & the Consejo can choose to be part of it or not.
Chela asked who remembers what a coalition is – Saul re-explained, it is unión & organisation of people in defence of a common cause – what cause? Wáter, tres, natrual resources, rivers. There were about 10 organisations meeting at Cedesa in Sept. & do you think it is worthwhile to be part of this?all answered “yes”… the only responsibility is to have responsibility.
It is a process we are building Little by Little, we dont need to know how as you are all learning how to be part of this coalition, is everyone in agreement? “yes”
Saturday 22.10.11 10am @ Cedesa – Coalition in defence of the Cuenca
Previous attendees Cata, Roberto & Abraham – Consejo board members.
Item 5 – Consejo reflection, summary
Formed in approx Oct 2010, Saul invited people to evaluate the work & process to date & see if there are people who want to become reps or resign – how is it working, what needs to change?
Cata said it has been a lot of work, hopefully she has done a good job, but she doesnt actually have much time, for example she is here today, but supposed to be working. There have been lots of papers involved, lots of planning, lots of meeting, but they have achieved a lot…
Item 6 General Points
One of the delegados at the meeting said he was interested in forming a committee to ensure delegados do what they are appointed to do. He has begun working on this & asked if the Consejo was in agreement, the general consensus was that it was a good idea.
Chela asked Jacqueline – our visitor from Honduras to sum up, & describe how she found the meeting,
Jacqueline said she was impressed with the respect & harmony with which people participated in the meeting, that organisation is the prime key, & that Chela is doing a great job of demonstrating the benefits of organisation, that organisation costs (time, effort & commitment) but that it’s value for the pain… She invited everyone to keep active.
The meeting closed at 2.50 - & everyone enjoyed a lunch hosted by our host Community La Tinaja…
Beans, rice, tortillas, juice-water,
Then all piled back on the back of pick-ups & crammed into vehicles & made our way back along the dusty road home
