A Day at CEDESA & Nombre de Dios

May 19, 2016

Today I went to CEDESA to pick up Chela & Abel to go one “last time” to Nombre de Dios. Our plan was to talk with them one more time about doing a water cistern project with them – or not. 

There are only 6 families there (about 44 people total) & it is the most isolated community  we have ever worked in. The families are all currently hauling water from a 30 meter deep noria (hand dug well) about a ten minute walk away.

     

The water appears horribly polluted with both bacteria & mineral contaminants. Fluorosis is readily observed in the younger members of the community. This was my fifth visit with them to talk about the project since May of 2015. I have gone previously with Chela once, with Abel once, with Matt Morrison of Mission for Life once & with Meche (CEDESA) once. On my last visit with Abel, we did not feel they were showing enough commitment for the “auto-construction” of the cisterns to justify the investment risk of delivering about $2,600 dollars of materials out there. 

This trip was to be our last visit to make a final decision. Chela, with all of her 40+ years of experience in community development & motivating people, was needed.

We had a great meeting. Chela was magical. Finally each person made a commitment to do the work & demonstrated  they really wanted to undertake the project. This is a big step forward for them. Mission for Life is committed to returning & working in this community in their self-development process. Future plans are to get them involved in beekeeping, backyard gardening, a medicinal plant workshop to name a few options to keep them working after the cistern project comes to an end. Mission for Life is committed to keep this process going.

Nombre de Dios is equally isolated from both San Miguel de Allende & Dolores so they cannot participate actively in either COCIRA or UCCANG. They were able to attend one COCIRA meeting in Juan Gonzalez to ask for resources & to see the cistern program in action. 

A requirement in our latest grant (GG1524911) is that all beneficiaries are active in one of the two organizations. For that reason, we have pieced together resources from several other sources to be able to do this project: Rotary District 4160 has contributed $1000, the Gordon Logan memorial fund is contributing approx $800, GG1424619 funds left for operations will contribute approx $400 & the Antioch Church (Gordon’s old church) is likely to also help finance the project. Rotary San Miguel Midday will contribute the balance.

Each beneficiary family will contribute $300 pesos per week during the project to hire a construction worker (albanil) to help with the more difficult parts of the work. Rotary will pay transportation for the worker & an assistant to come from Ex-Hacienda de Pena Blanca until all five family cisterns are constructed. The married men of this community all  live in Leon Monday to Friday to work & earn an income. They will help on weekends. We will pay for the assistant construction worker through our youth program. We will also provide a small plastic cistern (tinaco) for two older persons living there that cannot effectively participate in the construction due to their age. The pilot will be built during the week of May 30 to June 3. I am very pleased to see this project finally take place & am optimistic that it will be their first step in learning how to change their lives by working as a team.

Lots of bees – lots of potential honey!

                 

This is Josefina’s house. She drew the short straw and we will be building the pilot cistern here.
Lee Carter - Rotary San Miguel Midday.

ENCUENTRO CULTURAL CHARCO DE ARUAJO

MAY 7, 2016

About 250 campesinos gathered today in Charco de Aruajo to celebrate the culture of the Cuenca de Independencia & talk about the “defense of the territory” & other problems facing the rural inhabitants of our region. 

Over 20 communities were represented from San Miguel, Dolores, San Diego de la Union & San Luis de la Paz. All are members of either UCCANG or COCIRA – grassroots campesino organizations working together to protect their land, their rights & their water.

Fifty-seven members of the San Miguel based COCIRA arrived by bus that was generously supplemented by a special donation of the Rotary Club of Simi Sunrise. 8 promotors & Chela from CEDESA were in attendance. All the rest were members of UCCANG.

We began at 10am with an indigenous ceremony that recognized the four winds & the four elements of life. After that a panel of three persons, Chela (CEDESA), Araceli (UCCANG) & Jesusa from San Miguel  spoke about the importance of protecting the “territory”, using native seeds in the planting of corn, fighting to have agua “limpia” & the other outside influences that are degrading the life in the rural areas. 

Four work tables (discussion groups) were set up to discuss: Water & Health, Defense of the Territory, Saving the native planting & over 60 varieties of corn & saving the flora & fauna of the campo. Each group was instructed to devise specific activities that could be taken immediately to save the cultural roots of the communities.

Several persons offered entertainment in the form of songs, poems & special “felicidades” to the mothers in honor of Mother’s Day. Many wonderful story boards were on display showing the history of UCCANG, CEDESA, the Northern Guanajuato Beekeepers Association

As always a wonderful lunch was served by members of the community.

Second Train the Trainer workshop @ Cedesa

May 4:

We had our second Train the Trainer workshop today beginning at 10 am at CEDESA. 

In attendance : were visiting Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Simi Sunrise,  Nick Frankle, DGE of 5240,  Alejandro Guerra and Lee Carter of San Miguel Midday & 14 CEDESA promotors.

Our intent was to test some of the teaching aids we are planning. The meeting started out slow with each person tossing in a few comments as we studied the Water Cycle. Not before long, however, all were on their feet, eagerly participating and adding ideas of how to teach the information. 

It was a big success and very rewarding to see the enthusiasm of the promotors. 

CEDESA provided a delicious lunch and we concluded at 2:45 pm.

We plan to be teaching in the communities of Boca de la Cañada and Charco de Araujo in the middle of May. 

Meche Teaching the Water Cycle

How and Who is Draining our Aquifer? 

Visiting Rotarians from D5240 with 14 CEDESA Promotors

Ceci - how is water contaminated?
What are the different types of contamination?

New Grant Funded for 319 more cisterns

In May of 2016 a new water harvesting grant was funded to construct 319 more rainwater harvesting cisterns in the Independence Aquifer. 

The grant is supported by 25 different groups including 12 Rotary clubs, 10 Rotary Districts, The Rotary Foundation, the San Miguel Community Foundation, The Lotus Foundation and Fondation Coup de Coeur. 

As always, we are working hand in hand with Centro de Desarrollo Agropecuario (CEDESA) and the two grassroots rural community development organizations COCIRA (Consejo Ciudadano Rural de Agua - San Miguel de Allende) and UCCANG (Union de Comunidades Campesinas del Norte de Guanajuato - Dolores Hidalgo, San Diego Union and San Luis de la Paz). 

CEDESA supplies the expertise in organizing and technical matters, the Beneficiaries provide the labor and Rotary supplies the materials and project administration.

We are adding a new education program for the project beneficiaries. The CEDESA promotors will be our teachers. They already know immense amounts of information about water and our problems here in the region. Many completed the dimplomada given by Dr. Marcos Adrian Ortega of UNAM in 2009. 

Our goal is to help them impart this information in a structured way that will create the best learning environment possible. Wendy Coulson, a specialist in curriculum development, is helping us with the program.

Vivienda de Abajo – 12 cisterns project GG1422619 & Amigas de Vivienda

Materials are being supplied by a private group calling themselves “Amigas de Vivienda”. Rotary is financing the education, training and  project management through GG1422619.

Progress at Vivienda is going well. The pilot is finished & now all wrapped up in plastic sheeting to allow the cement to cure at a slower rate which should increase its strength as well as reduce hairline cracking that sometimes takes place with ferro-cement construction. It is an experiment & I am curious to see if it works. Cisterns 2 & 3 are almost complete.

We have put several new innovations into practice with this project:

1. painted the galvanized nipples with Eco-Prim a special material that will allow the cement to adhere to the galvanized.
2. added a more “convenient” first flush mechanism that will likely result in more people using the first flush as a way to divert water from a dirty roof.
3. plan to add a cement pad under the first flush so a tambor (barrel) can be placed there to collect this water for non-cooking & non-drinking uses. The pad will also discourage erosion around the cistern.
4. produced a sizing chart so families will know how much water to divert.
5. improved the door design for ease of installation
6. added mosquito netting to the overflow pipe.
7. will put a cement pad under the spigot to improve cleanliness and reduce chances of bio-contamination.
8. wrapping the cisterns with shrinkwrap.
9. changed from 3 inch PVC to 4 inch PVC for only a $115 peso price increase. This will make gutters capable of carrying more water & make the installation more secure.

Photos of the pilot cistern and cisterns 2 & 3 can be seen on this link: https://picasaweb.google.com/103368367507077443111/6276876235386985009

Lee Carter
San Miguel Midday Rotary.

And So It Begins...GG1524911 Progress Report – April 10, 2016

We are full forces ahead in getting our new Global Grant for US$199,400 for the next 319 water harvesting systems in the Independence Aquifer. 

The first step in this grant is to develop a comprehensive education program to teach beneficiaries about water & water safety. The program also includes cistern construction & maintenance.

We have contracted with Wendy Coulson, a professional curriculum writer & an experienced teacher in the Waldorf method to help us develop the program but more importantly the teaching methods to use in making this program as effective as possible. Wendy is also a Rotary Peace Scholar.

Alejandro Guerra & Lee Carter have been working with Wendy for several weeks in filling in the blanks for the program. CEDESA has been consulted constantly as they will be the “teacher” &their buy-in & enthusiasm is critical for the success of the program.

On Wednesday, April 6^th, Alejandro, Wendy & I traveled to CEDESA headquarters to present our final “draft”. At this point the didactic method is written down on paper & we wanted to hear from CEDESA & UCCANG about how to proceed. In addition to that, we wanted to discuss the didactic materials that we will develop along with this. Present from CEDESA were Chela Martinez, Director, Meche Paramo, coordinator for COCIRA,  Cecilia Vazquez, Coordinator for UCCANG, & Abel Seratze, Cedesa technician for cistern construction. Araceli Rojas, President of UCCANG also joined us.

It was a long day in project planning as well as presentation of the education program. We arrived at 9:00 am & finished at 5:00 pm. I felt very anxious that CEDESA be truly excited about the education program. Upon leaving we all felt that we were right on track & we had very valuable input from CEDESA throughout the day. Wendy is following up with Meche about various details next week. Once everyone’s input is incorporated in our plan, we will have our next project planning meeting on Friday, April 22 at CEDESA. We will be finalizing the education plan & also planning out the details of the grant including the communities where we will start, billing and administrative issues, & so forth.

This project will be a lot of work but it will be a lot of fun as well. I have seen both Meche & Abel since that meeting &I have been communicating with Ceci also. All three have independently said how excited they are with the new education program. I think we are doing well.

Lee Carter

Rotary San Miguel Midday

March 28, 2016 COCIRA DIRECTOR’S MEETING CIENEGA DE JUANA RUIZ

10:00 am CIENEGA DE JUANA RUIZ

Today Lee Carter, Rotary, traveled to meet with the Directors of COCIRA & talk about the newly approved Global Grant (GG1524911) for 319 more cisterns in San Miguel, Dolores Hidalgo & San Diego Union. 

The grant is for US$199,400 (approx. MXN3,500,000).

There were approx 29 people present incl. Meche from CEDESA. After everyone presented themselves, we had a moment of reflection before beginning the meeting. A meeting leader was elected as well as the Secretary of the Day. Following that the agenda & a time schedule for finishing the meeting by 2:30 was established.

Meche emphasized the importance of COCIRA to continue to develop its independence & to look at CEDESA & Rotary as resources while they made their own decisions in things that affected the organization.

Lee Carter announced that the next grant for 319+ cisterns had been approved & explained that the Rotary Foundation would like to have a MOU with COCIRA and UCCANG in addition to CEDESA. This is important as it formalizes all of the responsibilities that COCIRA has been taking on over the course of the last water project. Lee presented the list of responsibilities that he recommended for the MOU & after discussing them in detail, COCIRA was in favor of all.

COCIRA for its part is asking Rotary to provide them with the didactic materials developed for the new grant so that they can use these as they continue to evaluate all of the cisterns built since 2008. COCIRA is committed to completing their role in the whole water harvesting process. As we have budgeted printing hundreds of extra copies of didactic materials in the next grant, I believe that we can provide them with what they need without having to increase our printing budget or seeking additional funding outside of the grant.

COCIRA further discussed the “rules & guidelines” that they would like to place on beneficiary families including a simple contract between COCIRA & the beneficiary that they would complete their obligations & work. Other rules were suggested that would ensure that beneficiaries completed their obligations in both the education program & in the construction process.

It is a great pleasure seeing COCIRA carrying out their role with such vigor & enthusiasm to ensure that this next project will be a great success.

Lee Carter

Rotary San Miguel Midday