Global Grant Project Update August 2015

We have been very busy since our last post in July. 

In early August, there was a meeting of COCIRA in the community of Boca de Canada. It is a stunningly beautiful place in San Miguel. 

COCIRA has really become a strong organization and there is now a council of Directors who are anxious to move the group forward in many areas in addition to water harvesting. There are 12 Directors, a representative from 12 different communities. They are taking on the task of inspecting and evaluating all of the cisterns that have been constructed since 2009 when Laura Stewart began this long and enjoyable journey.

Boca de Canada is a new community with water problems. They have been attending COCIRA and other community meetings for several months now. New communities coming for the first time were Tlaxcalilla (no water whatsoever), Saltrillo (contaminated water and wanting dry toilets) and Begona de Progreso (contaminated water). Now they have the information necessary to go back to their communities and discuss the possibility of joining COCIRA and seeking various resources that come from being part of COCIRA and having a relationship with CEDESA. In addition to Rotary funded water projects, backyard vegetable gardens, health clinics using medicinal plants, apicultura (beekeeping) and dry toilets are among the many things that can be accomplished on a community level when the inhabitants come to gather to work in teams for the betterment of all.

Mago attended this meeting as the CEDESA representative as Chela has been sidelined with a knee problem. Mayra, Carolina and Hilaria came as promoters in sub-regions that have been set up to better serve the San Miguel municipality. Lee attended as Rotary’s representative.

Dates were established during the meeting to do “inspection and evaluation” of the Presa Allende project and to finish up the final inspections at Alonso Yanez and Lindero. The closing ceremony for Presa Allende was set for 22^nd of August.

In August Mago traveled to Ex-Hacienda de Pena Blanca to finalize the organization and teams for this second phase project. There are 19 families participating and we are also supplying two 1,100 liter tinacos to capture rainwater at the houses of two much older persons who are not able to do the work necessary to construct the 12,000 ferro-cement cisterns. Benigno, the master cistern builder from CEDESA, will be the technical representative on this project and Abel is being trained to become the cistern technician for the San Miguel area.

Hierro Comercial delivered the materials for the pilot cistern in Ex-Hacienda de Pena Blanca for  two cisterns in San Lorenzo on August 22^nd and construction began on August 24^th. Lee delivered the plywood and took the "nipples" back to Eric’s so the heavy wire reinforcing could be welded onto the galvanized parts that penetrate the cistern walls. Alejandro arranged with the department of social development of the municipality to make water truck deliveries each week of the project as there is no water in XHPB to even mix the cement.

As planned above, on August 22nd we had our closing celebration in Presa Allende with more than 80 persons in attendance. Ivar, Alejandro and Lee went from Rotary. Chela’s knee is improving and she attended with Meche and another CEDESA visitor. 

On Aug 25^th Alejandro and Lee went back to San Lorenzo and XHPB to deliver the reinforced "nipples" for the pilot cistern. This was a great opportunity to talk at length with Benigno about the construction process and the techniques and decisions the technical rep. needs to make in regards to how and where cisterns are located.

On Aug 27, Holly and Lee went to CEDESA HQ in Dolores Hidalgo to review with Chela the new education program that will be added to our next grant. Welcome back Holly! The eight modules were reviewed and we had time to talk about how this can be implemented by having promoter and then later COCIRA and UCCANG workshops to build enthusiasm for the program. Holly will be working hard with Rotary to develop the modules and copious auxiliary materials to distribute in the communities where we will be working.

On Aug 28th all of the new Presa Allende cisterns were inspected by a team of COCIRA representatives, Alejandro, Beatriz and Lee of Rotary and Meche of Cedesa . The new inspection program appears to be a very valuable activity as it gives us an opportunity to meet individually with every new cistern owner to reinforce the importance of maintenance activities and disinfection of the collected water. We are finding new ways to improve the projects overall and where to avoid problems.

  

On Aug 31, Alejandro, Beatriz and Lee went to see the progress in San Lorenzo where we were served a delicious breakfast of atole and gorditas. Abel from CEDESA went along with us and I was impressed that he is very thoughtful and dedicated to the success of the two current cistern projects. From San Lorenzo we went on to XHPB to check on the completed pilot cistern and to see where the next cisterns would be located. Because this community has so few construction workers (too far from San Miguel) we also needed to purchase some basic tools to lend to the project.

On Sept 1, Lee traveled back to XHPB to deliver the remainder of the tools needed and also the reinforced "nipples" needed for that week’s construction. This is the first project that we have undertaken since Saul left CEDESA (to develop his personal business). It has really been a little difficult because Saul used to take care of so many little details (taking and returning "nipples", for instance). He also had the "luxury" of having a CEDESA truck to be able to accomplish the many errands. CEDESA does not have a truck that can be used by Abel at this time. It has fallen on Rotary’s shoulders to do all of this detail work. Whereas I am happy to have a chance to work on and learn about every little detail, it is not practical that we do this for all future projects. Lee has been discussing with Chela (CEDESA) and our project partners for the next project of obtaining some additional grant money so that a truck can be available to the CEDESA workers in the San Miguel region. Saul used to be the promoter, coordinator, technician and all-around boy Friday for these projects. Moving forth and having different persons filling the different roles is requiring that we establish clear communication systems and cooperation to be able to operate efficiently. This mini-project is proceeding reasonably well - we are on a steep learning curve.

It was a busy month and I have not even reported it all!

Submitted by Lee Carter, Rotary San Miguel Midday, September 7, 2015.

2 More Communities Complete Their Projects - Hacienda de Pena Blanca and Ex Hacienda de Jesus

Lotus Humanitarian Aid Foundation and SAPASMA

Jointly Fund Cistern Projects in 

Ex Hacienda de Peña Blanca and Ex Hacienda de Jesus

With A Little Help From Their Friends

Cedesa & San Miguel Midday Rotary Club

In March of 2014, Lotus Humanitarian Aid Foundation (Lotus) and SAPASMA (Sistema de Agua Potable Y Alcantarillado de San Miguel de Allende) agreed to fund a project for construction of 18 water harvesting systems in the San Miguel community of Ex-Hacienda de Pena Blanca (XHPB). The Midday Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende agreed to manage the project for the benefit of the donors. 

XHPB had no local water source other than a much polluted, mostly dry, riverbed. They depended solely upon sporadic delivery of water trucks from the municipality which often left the whole community without safe water for weeks at a time. An agreement to split the anticipated cost of the project 1:1 was made between Lotus and SAPASMA. The proposed budget was $165,909.00 pesos for the Pena Blanca project. (See appendix.)

Simultaneously Rotary San Miguel Midday (RSMM) was asked to manage a pilot project of two cisterns in the community of Ex-Hacienda de Jesus (XHJ) in the municipality of San Diego Union. The budget for those two cisterns was $23,290.00 pesos. (See appendix.)

Lotus sent US$8000.00 to RSMM project checking account in San Antonio, Texas. That money was transferred by wire to the RSMM project account at Bancomer in San Miguel de Allende on April 22. A total of $103,360.00 pesos was received and it was allocated: $17,047.72 for XHJ and $86,312.28 for XHPB. SAPASMA agreed to fund its half of the project by providing materials “in-kind”.

Members of the RSMM project team were Lee Carter, Alejandro Guerra and David Hartman. Centro de Desarrollo Agropecuario AC (Cedesa), once again agreed to be the RSMM partner organization to manage these projects. CEDESA’s team included Chela Martinez, Holly Yasui, Saul Juarez C., and Benigno Caltzonzin.

 RSMM visited the XHJ organizational meeting with CEDESA and began to manage the financial aspects of the project at that point. CEDESA was responsible for meetings, teaching the citizens to construct cisterns and coordinating the delivery of construction materials. 

In this simultaneous project it was planned that  Lotus would fund two cisterns and that the local community would try to raise funds to complete two more cisterns. The original first Lotus cistern was planned to be at the elementary school in XHJ but the participants have been unable to obtain permission from the school administrators to put the cistern on school property. 

Because of this, the materials for the first “Lotus cistern” were moved to the community of Adjuntas de San Jose. 

A "second" cistern was completed through using community funds in the community of San Cayetano and there are independent funds available to do the original first school cistern should permission ever be obtained. The two pilot cisterns were built by a group of about 25 persons in XHJ and this portion of the project was completed May. Payment records are available on the shared Google Document.

The XHPB project began with CEDESA organized community meetings, attended by RSMM, in which the 17 families were self-selected through their participation and work with the Regional Citizens' Council (COCIRA). They divided themselves into three work groups who would send representatives to learn the construction process (kind of "train the trainer") as a cistern was built at the Kinder (kindergarten) in Pena Blanca. On most days that we visited, there were between 13 and 15 persons at the Kinder doing the work. 

The roof of the Kinder was old clay “tejas” and it was determined that ½ of this roof needed to be changed to galvanized metal to assure best sanitation procedures. Rotary agreed to fund this out of project contingency funds by foregoing part of the administrative funds set aside for RSMM in the budget. 

The community’s parents decided amongst themselves that they would self-fund the other ½ of the roof and they purchased and installed the materials to accomplish that. A good cooperative start made for an auspicious beginning.

Upon completion of the pilot cistern, CEDESA and RSMM coordinated the delivery of materials for the rest of the cisterns from our normal suppliers and directly from SAPASMA. This created extra coordination and minor difficulties, but the donation of ½ of the total cost of the project in materials from SAPASMA has made us optimistic re possibility of the current administration of SAPASMA to partner with RSMM in future projects, (we have successfully partnered with Sapasma with past administrations, & this is the first one with the current administration).

Because of economies that we were able to achieve in the materials cost, we were able to add a 19^th cistern to the project,  at the local primary school. We were very pleased this worked out as the children at both schools had no safe water supply available.

Each team of 5 to 6 families began the work of constructing one cistern at each of the family’s home. CEDESA representative, Saul Juarez, and the RSMM project team visited the community at least on a weekly basis during the construction process. The 19 cisterns were completed and a celebration was held August 8, 2014 at the community with all involved parties invited to attend.

The final celebration, as always was a joy to attend. More than 100 adults and children were in attendance of which approximately 50 were from the seven COCIRA communities that are on the waiting list for our upcoming projects. 

SAPASMA sent the Secretary of the Administrative Board along with two others. Cedesa brought five representatives including Chela Martinez, the Director of CEDESA.

Rotary showed up with nine club members, one wife and two grandchildren. Gary Reid came with us to take photographs of the families, the cisterns and the beautiful Pena Blanca area. After painting the pre-school and a nice closing ceremony, we enjoyed a spectacular fiesta prepared by the families of XHPB. It was a beautiful day and a fitting closing to a successful project.

Of significance, the teacher at the pre-school brought two of the supervisors who oversee most of the schools throughout the various San Miguel communities. We had the opportunity to talk with them about future school projects and particularly working to improve water education with the kids, the teachers and the parents.

Financial Notes:

This is a financial summary of the Ex-Hacienda de Pena Blanca project. Details of payments and costs are available on shared Google Docs and all parties to this project have been invited to share and review these documents at their leisure.

1.       Project Budget for 18 cisterns: $165,909.37 (mxn Pesos)

2.       One-half of this amount was funded by materials in-kind from SAPASMA. 

      Thus, RSMM was managing Lotus’ portion of $82,954.69. $86,312.28 was available after wire transfer expenses.

3.       The municipality of San Miguel de Allende provided “pipas” (water trucks) needed to mix cement) weekly throughout the project saving approximately $3,500.00 pesos.

4.       With a 19^th cistern added to the project, the final cost of the project for Lotus was 72,058.26. This is $10,896.43 below the budget.

5.       At the request of Lotus, RSMM will be holding the saved funds to be applied to the next Rotary Water Harvesting Project that is Global Grant #1422619.

6.       Also Lotus funds received for this project were $86,312.28 when their budgeted portion was $82,954.69. The extra $3,357.60 pesos will also be held for the Global Grant.

7.       Total Lotus funds to be applied to GG#1422619 are $14,254.02 or approximately US$1,117.96.

Simultaneously Rotary San Miguel Midday (RSMM) was asked to manage a pilot project of two cisterns in the community of Ex-Hacienda de Jesus (XHJ) in the municipality of San Diego Union. The budget for those two cisterns was $23,290.00 pesos. 

Project Budget for 2 cisterns: $23,290.00.(mxn pesos)

2.       Project Expenses paid in cash by Lotus directly to CEDESA: $6,395.00

3.       Allocated funds to this project from Lotus Foundation donation: $17,047.72.

4.       The final cost of the project for Lotus was $21,472.40. This is $1,817.60 below the budget.

5.       At the request of Lotus, RSMM will be holding the saved funds (and overfunded amount) to be applied to the next Rotary Water Harvesting Project that is Global Grant #1422619.

6.       Total Lotus funds to be applied to GG#1422619 are $1,970.32 or approximately US$154.53.

THEREFORE: Total funds carry forward from both projects combined: US$1,272.49.

Report submitted by Lee Carter - RSMM