I hope that the beginning of the school year finds you all well back in the U.S. (or wherever else you may be!) Things are moving along here in El Salvador, although (as usual) much more slowly than I would like. I guess that after all this time I am still an impatient American!
Bio-Sand Filters Project
The good news is that – thanks to many of YOU -- it looks like we will be beginning the bio-sand filters project very soon! (In case you forgot or are new to my email list – these are cement filters filled with sand and gravel to be installed in each house. The filtration process removes 97% of bacteria and 100% of parasites and worms.) Gastro-intestinal illness (caused by bacteria and parasites found in contaminated water) is the most common health problem in the community and also the biggest killer of kids under 5. The Health Committee and I are hoping that this project will nearly eliminate this problem, improving child survival, school attendance of kids, and productivity of adults. The project has already been approved by the Peace Corps Partnership program and is posted on their Web site for potential donors to make contributions (read the project summary at: https://www.peacecorps.gov/resources/donors/contribute/projdetail.cfm?projdesc=519-091®ion=latinamerica). I want to thank all of you who have already donated through my church … they will soon be sending the money to Peace Corps Partnership, which, along with promised contributions from Holden Village (an ecumenical retreat center in WA state) and Pure Water for the World, should put us very near our goal! Please know what a difference your generosity – whether with financial support or well-wishes – will make in the lives of the people of El Amatón.
In mid-September I’m planning to visit another Peace Corps Volunteer who is paired with Pure Water for the World in Choluteca, Honduras to observe the different stages of the project. Then, I’ll return to El Amatón to train the Health Committee to carry out the filter installation and monitoring and hygiene education.
Water System Infrastructure Project
This is going much, much slower thanks to political issues. Most of the infrastructure of the Mayor’s project is already built – that is, the tubing and tank. And as you may recall, I have been working with engineers from the Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in San Salvador and leaders in the local Association for Community Development (ADESCO) to design a solar panels project and raise the funds to implement it. This would help decrease the energy costs of pumping water from the well drilled by the Mayor to the community and make the project more sustainable.
Unfortunately, we are having some problems with land title issues. Upon beginning the project, the Mayor has claimed that the municipality had a 50-year permission from the landowner for the use of the well. That turned out to be a lie – there is no permission, no title, no nothing. And instead of trying to obtain the title to the well in the name of the ADESCO, the Mayor is trying to obtain it in his own name. He’s also pressuring the community to transfer the title of the land where the water storage tank is built to the Mayor as well, saying that the project will be stopped if they don’t.
For now, the community has narrowly voted against ceding the title to the water storage tank – but there remains the problem of the title to the well. I really, really don’t like the idea of the title being in the hands of anyone but the ADESCO. Especially with the trend towards privatization of water here in El Salvador, if the land titles are not in the community’s name the project could be sold off to a private company, with a high possibility that the quality of service would decrease and the price increase beyond the ability of the families to pay (if interested, read this article from World Press about "Privatizing Water and the Criminalization of Protest"). Certainly, without security to the well and project administration firmly under the community’s control, we can’t be accepting donations for solar panels to pump water from the well to the community.
We have sought legal counsel from the Institute for Human Rights at the UCA (IDHUCA for its initials in Spanish) and they have promised to help us investigate the situation and protect the water project from being (further) exploited for political or financial ends. Hopefully we will be able to resolve the land title issues in favor of the community, in which case the fundraising for the solar panels can continue. We already have the support of two Rotary Clubs in the U.S. But this could be a long, long process.
I’m just glad that the bio-sand filters project is decentralized and therefore not tainted by such nasty politics. If we can get the bio-sand filters installed and people start filtering their drinking and cooking water, that will make a big difference in the community’s health, even if they still spend nearly their whole lives finding water.
Agriculture Projects: soil conservation, trees, veggies, and chickens
-- Soil Conservation: In view of the water project, the Agriculture Committee has worked hard to promote projects that will contribute to conservation of the watershed and increase water infiltration. Before the planting season we carried out a soil and water conservation project consisting of water infiltration ditches called acequias. These structures are dug on level curves across sloping farm fields and help to detain both water running over the fields and eroded soil particles. For each meter of acequia, the agronomist Manuel informed us, 2 barrels of water are stored in the underlying aquifer in each heavy rainfall. So the 2,500 meters we dug will be helping to store 5,000 barrels of water with each rainy-season storm for use in the dry season, as well as helping prevent erosion and preserve humidity in the soil. Not bad!
Above Left: Samuel digging an acequia.
Above Right: I try my hand at digging acequias.
Below: A finished acequia.
-- Agroforestry: More recently, about 30 farmers participated in an Agroforestry project, planting 3,000 multiple-use trees on their lands. Kevin, the agronomist from the NGO that donated the tree seedlings (Trees, Water, People) and I made the first round of visits to the farmers who had planted the trees last week. It was especially fun to visit don Leopoldo’s parcel – not only did we get to see the little seedlings planted just this year, but also the trees we planted over 2 years ago during my first year in El Amatón. Some of the cedro trees are over 1 ½ times my height already.
Leopoldo and I with a cedro tree planted 2 years ago, during my first year in El Amaton
-- Home Vegetable Gardens: This year I continued the semi-hydroponic home vegetable gardens with a group of about 7 women. After making compost, preparing liquid bio-fertilizer, starting the seeds, mixing the substrate (compost, coffee husk, and sifted white pumice rock), transplanting into the containers, and caring for plants, we are finally harvesting tomatoes, sweet peppers, radishes, and … broccoli! Broccoli was a new one for us this year – we weren’t sure if broccoli could be made to produce in this relatively hot climatic zone, but when I went to thresh beans lat week with don Aroldo, Niña Emelina brought us steamed vegetables – including broccoli -- with the lunch she carried out to the fields. ¿De su huerto? I inquired, indicating the broccoli. “From your garden?” On my last round of visiting the gardens the huge plant had just a tiny sprig of broccoli nestled beneath giant leaves. “Sí,” she nodded shyly. It was delicious.
Above Left: Cutting up leaves to be used in a liquid biofertilizer for the vegetable crops.
Above Right: Moises with crop of radish plants.
Below: One of my pepper plants.
-- Chicken Project: Through the generosity of my home church, Wildwood Presbyterian, 17 more families have also joined the chicken project and have begun to raise improved breeds of chickens in enclosures. Last year’s beneficiaries shared their knowledge of proper facilities, animal nutrition, vaccination, and record keeping with the new participants. Meanwhile, last year’s beneficiaries have continued to add to their flocks, hatching more chicks from the communal incubator. We (my Ministry of Agriculture counterpart, Manuel, and I) are now teaching the women to vaccinate their chickens so that they can organize community vaccination campaigns at the beginning and end of each rainy season.
Above Left: Emelina teaches new participants about the vaccinations their chickens must receive.
Above Right: Alejandro and Yulissa hold their family's young chickens
Below: Yolanda vaccinates a chicken against viruela.
Youth in Action for the Environment!
One area where I feel like things are really coming together is in my work with the youth. In April I worked with 5 other Volunteers to organize an Environmental Leadership Camp. Each Volunteer brought 5 student leaders to El Amatón, where they spent three days in talks and activities on natural resources and their protection and leadership skills for motivating their peers to get involved in environmental activities. I have been totally impressed with the youth from my community and the way they have involved their fellow students and followed up the camp with concrete actions: forming a Clean-Up Committee to manage trash in the school, organizing a River Clean-Up, planting trees in community water sources, promoting a recycling campaign, and even writing and performing environmental dramas and songs (at one point before the big show they were coming over to my house every single day after school to rehearse, making a big happy environmental racket!). It’s been a pleasure to work with these kids – their enthusiasm is contagious, and with all of the time we have spent together, I feel like we’ve become more than just teacher-and-students. We’ve become friends. (In fact, they have informed me in no uncertain terms that they are NOT going to allow me to leave!)
Reforesting community water sources with the youth.
Book Recommendation: Mountains Beyond Mountains
So in the past couple of weeks it has been raining almost nonstop which has put a damper on a lot of planned “outdoor” activities like supervisory visits to the sites where trees have been planted … and so, miracle of miracles, I’ve actually gotten to spend a few afternoons in my hammock reading. By far the best and most inspiring book I’ve read, which I am now recommending to everyone, is called Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man who would Cure the World, by Tracy Kidder. It is about a doctor who began working in rural Haiti in the 1980’s and since then has dedicated his life, and the organization he co-founded, Partners in Health (www.pig.org), to providing a “preferential option for the poor” in health care – from Peru to Africa. It’s an amazing tale of what a difference a “small group of dedicated people” can make. I found the PIH philosophy especially refreshing … their firm conviction that each human life is beyond value, disdain for standards of “cost-effectiveness,” and commitment to improving the lives of the poor, whatever it takes. I could sympathize with Dr. Farmer’s frustration with standards applied in the international health community which deem $5,000 / year to treat a multi-drug resistant tuberculosis patient in Peru “a poor use of resources” -- while $68,000 / year is spent per TB patient in New York. I get mad, too, when people tell me that $100,000 is too much money to bring water, sustainably, to 500 people in El Salvador – while the average home for a four-person family in the U.S. costs more than that. Give this book a read … and let it move you to action, in whatever way you feel called.
Read more about Mountains Beyond Mountains at PIH's website.
So it is looking like I will be here in El Salvador until April of next year, in order to see through the monitoring of the bio-sand filters project. I am considering a visit home between now and then, most likely at Christmastime, but we’ll have to see how things go. At any rate, I’d love to hear from all of you!
Con amor desde El Salvador,
Megan
