Celebration Charco de Araujo October 29, 2016

Today we celebrated the completion of 14 cisterns & 3 tinacos in the community of Charco de Araujo. 

This community is near San Diego de La Union & is the first community we have worked with this far north for several years. The area of eastern Dolores Hidalgo, San Diego de La Union & San Luis de la Paz has some of the most contaminated water in the Aquifer. It is for this reason that Rotary San Miguel Midday took the decision to expand its geographical service area with this grant for 319 water harvesting cisterns.

The rural grassroots organization, UCCANG, is working as a partner with CEDESA & Rotary in these projects. UCCANG was founded approx. 35 years ago to work to resolve the issue of lack of potable water resources in the northern part of Guanajuato. They are well organized & managed by a board of directors from those communities. UCCANG helps us identify communities that are requesting cisterns & play a critical role in the project in addition to choosing beneficiary families. 

They have the responsibility of inspecting & verifying all cisterns are in 100% working condition before we have our community celebrations. They are also going to make a formal review six months later to follow up on maintenance issues & recommendations for cistern water disinfection. This is critical to the long term success of these projects.

Seven UCCANG communities attended today’s event. The program for the day included testimonials from the beneficiary families describing their experience in self-constructing their cisterns in work groups each consisting of 7 families. All of the communities in attendance performed songs or dances that remembered their cultural traditions. A wonderful meal, including carnitas (!), capped off the day.

In attendance were:

Chela, Ceci, Benigno and Meche from CEDESA, UCCANG directors & members of the local communities.  Nate, Fred, Beatriz, Gary, Wendy (who developed the project’s education program), Lee, & two guests from Rotary Midday, Carla Cadena (a Jovenes Adelante Scholar who is doing social service in helping administer the project), Edgarkis Crisostomo, (a Rotary Foundation Water & Sanitation Cadre volunteer from the Dominican Republic - who conducted extensive interviews with CEDESA representatives) came with us also.

After the event we all went to La Colorada, down the road, to see their progress in their project.

Submitted by: Lee Carter

Boca de la Cañada Inauguration 22 Oct 2016

Today we celebrated the completion of 21 cisterns in Boca de Canada. There were visitors from other COCIRA communities who wanted to share in the celebration: Presa Allende, Begona del Progresso, Salitrillo, Vivienda de Abajo, Corralejo, & Alonso Yanez. Mercedes Paramo & Abel Suartze were in attendance from CEDESA. Beatriz Salcedo, David Bossman, Catalina Rivera, Frank, & Lee Carter attended representing Rotary. All told there were about 70 persons in attendance. Following a program that included stories from the new cistern owners about the construction process; a poetry presentation by one of the community members, & a traditional dance performance by 12 of the beneficiaries, diplomas were awarded to all of those who successfully completed the education program.

The pilot cistern was built at the elementary school. The beneficiaries of the project agreed to teach an abbreviated form of the education program to some of the students of the school & they were awarded diplomas as well.


The community built two “models” of cisterns; the first demontrated a completed & connected cistern next to a home & the second demonstrated a cistern under construction. They also prepared a 4 ft x 8 ft picture board showing the people working in each stage of the cistern construction.

       

As always the program concluded with a delicious meal prepared by the community.

Report by Lee Carter