Community Projects That Change Lives [] Rotary Club – Rotario Midday, A.C.

Published September 25, 2021

What could we do for San Miguel?

In 2008, the young Midday Rotary Club of San Miguel was looking around to find what they could do to make a big difference in the lives of San Miguelenses. After an exhaustive needs analysis, we found that rural San Miguel was in crisis due to lack of healthy, potable water. Wells were drying up in some areas, and water in other areas was contaminated with excess fluoride and arsenic that cause serious health issues. None of these problems were addressed by city agencies or local nonprofit organizations. Clean, healthy water became our cause.

Then…
We found CEDESA!

Knowing that we did not have the language skills or credibility in rural communities, we found CEDESA, the Centro de Desarrollo Agropecuario, a small grassroots organization, had been working on water issues since the 1950s. They had adapted a design and built above-ground 12,000-liter cisterns that could capture enough rainfall to store safe cooking and drinking water for a family of six for a year at a time. Not only did CEDESA have the design, they also had community development and technical skills to launch projects where families (mostly women) built their own rainwater harvesting systems. We realized that CEDESA was the perfect partner for us and we agreed to cooperate in addressing the problem of clean, healthy water.

We couldn’t do what we do without CEDESA.

So, back in 2009, we began in a small community in our region, Los Torres. The project was a huge success! Soon we had people from other communities asking for help building cisterns. Thus began our three-way commitment:

1) Rotary provides funds and project management;
2) CEDESA organizes and teaches beneficiaries how to tackle the project.
3) Finally, the women all pitch in to do the actual construction in each family’s home.

By building the cisterns themselves, they value and care for them with pride.
Within a year, so many families asked for support, that we helped them form a grassroots organization to manage the requests and participation of the first eight communities asking for support. Those eight communities quickly grew to 16 over the next two years.

We are proud to report that since 2008, we, with CEDESA, have built more than 1,450 cisterns in more than 60 communities in the region and we are currently building 80 more. We have invested more than USD$750,000 and we capture nearly 17.5 million liters of pure, clean, healthy rainwater each year.

Introducing Graciela “Chela” Martinez

Since she was a teenager–almost since the founding of CEDESA 50 years ago—-charismatic Chela has been an evangelist who inspires, argues, prods, everything possible to bring a better life to campesinos.

Water and Sanitation (WASH)

In the Rotary world it is important that grants come from the bottom up … ie that the people who ultimately benefit are involved from the very beginning from identifying the project themselves, being involved in the planning from the beginning, etc … Rotary global grants are “supposed” to require this to have the grant approved.

Over time and in response to direct request from our water beneficiaries, our work expanded to a new initiative, Water and Sanitation (WASH) where the construction of dry composting toilets addresses the problem of open defecation in many communities. We recently finished a pilot project of 55 ecologically friendly and waterless toilets. In June 2021 we were awarded a new grant of USD$212,000 to continue this work. All of these projects include education and training to boost sustainability.

Why are our CEDESA Projects SO Successful?

It is important to understand that although these projects solve very important problems for the beneficiaries, the true lasting value is the human development. Our partner, CEDESA:

. Empowers women campesinos by teaching them skills to improve their lives and the lives of their families.

. Provides workshops in backyard gardening, animal husbandry, transformation, natural homeopathic remedies and more.

. Encourages women to join local campesino organization and work together without relying on government give-away programs.

. Teaches women to analyze and solve problems by working with their neighbors.

. Helps women become leaders in their communities

.  Narrows gender disparity issues common in rural San Miguel.

. Most of all, they earn the respect and admiration of all of us because they, themselves, are changing their lives in a permanent and significant way.

Our Other Partners:

Over the years, Rotary clubs and other organizations have supported projects undertaken by CEDESA and SMA Midday Rotary. There are more than 60 clubs, 15 districts, the Rotary Foundation, the San Miguel Community Foundation, the Lotus Foundation, Sacre Cour Foundation, the Municipal Government of San Miguel, and others.

What can you do to help?

Rotary is where neighbors, friends, and problem-solvers share ideas, join leaders, and take action to create lasting changes including our many community projects. For more information and to contribute to this effort, contact President Skip Essick at skipessickmedia@gmail.com.