Current and Future Projects

Cross Sound Church is committed to a five-year plan with San Pedrito.  We are working alongside San Pedrito to help them discover and utilize their potential.  Given our holistic approach this requires parallel relief efforts and long term projects that are sustainable.  While long term development efforts and projects are now fully underway, the first year of this partnership emphasized immediate relief efforts required to help the village get to a minimum level of subsistence.

This is not a charity effort.  The Agros model is premised on dignified and sustainable development.  This means not only that San Pedrito must decide on and prioritize its own efforts, but that they must pay back Agros loans and make hard investments of their own once they are capable of doing so.  The investments we make over the next five years are merely to help get San Pedrito kick started and help fund the Agros operations and resources required to walk alongside San Pedrito.

Even donations for immediate relief efforts such as the water are not simple gifts without mutual commitment and effort.  The people in San Pedrito must for example provide most, if not all, of the labor required for these projects, and commit to other activities and investments in return.

Life Giving Water

The most immediate efforts included construction of a year-round water system tapping the seasonal stream and natural spring nearby.  This is being implemented in multiple phases.

Phase I (Completed) consists of a permanently covered cistern at the spring source. It is large enough to capture sufficient water volume during the driest month and transport it downhill by natural gravity.  The water will finally be collected at the top of the village in an 8 foot high 40,000 gallon storage tank at the top of the village.  The women of San Pedrito will no longer have to hike up and down the ravine for water.  More importantly they will now have sufficient water for drinking, cooking and basic hygiene during the driest months.

Phase II (Partially Completed) includes a larger reservoir at the bottom of the ravine behind their village to collect the necessary water volume from both the seasonal stream and the spring.  This water will be used for drip-based irrigation throughout the entire year, survival through severe prolonged droughts, and construction of adobe or block homes.  It also includes reforestation up stream and construction of stone and concrete retaining walls to prevent silting of the reservoir.  Both of these latter items are completed.  The trees now need time to grow.

This phase consists of a primary reservoir built into a depression in the ravine, and secondary overflow reservoir with a vertical damn constructed of concrete and stone.  The latter is complete and the second has been dug out but soil retention and compacting of the base are still underway. 

Phase III (Completed) includes eventual plumbing to the homes and the test drip irrigation system itself.

Phase IV (Not Started) includes a full irrigation system for the crops, vegetable gardens and orchards.  This will start only once Phase II is complete and the community has fully developed its irrigation skills.  Help fund these efforts.

Shelter from Elements

The village could no longer wait more years for permanent shelter.  Temporary relief from wind, cold, sand and rain was needed until the necessary water and manpower can be provided to build permanent adobe or block homes.  In December 2005 we installed enough construction quality continuous plastic lining for all the homes of San Pedrito until water volumes collected with the new water system were enough to commence construction of more permanent dwellings.

Constuction eventually began in 2006 and as of January 2007 four adobe homes are completed with the remainder under constuction and due to be completed by Spring 2007.  One of the homes is even being constructed with concrete blocks made right in the village with sand from the surrounding soil.  Agros is providing credits to the village for some of the construction, but most is being funded with their net savings from their first successful crop in Autumn of 2006.

Each house requires approximately 400 adobe blocks.  They are made from the soil and water now available, and lined with concrete made mostly of the same sand.  The only materials they must buy are lime/cement for the concrete and tin and lumber for the roofs.  Each house is designed to be separate from the kitchen so that smoke and fire are not a danger.  The adobe for one house takes approximately one week to manufacture and the construction takes approximately another week.  A couple of families are still short on funds and need help.  Help fund this effort.

Heating and Cooking

Construction of environmentally conscious and sustainable stoves built with modern concepts but mostly from naturally available materials – clay and adobe - began in late 2005.  All except two of the homes now have fully functioning stoves, but they are expected to be completed by Spring 2007.

The new adobe living areas and structures will be built separate to those stoves as the insulation provided by the adobe is sufficient to keep the homes warm.  The stoves will remain in separate structures or just on the other side of the adobe walls, surrounded by wood walls until funds are avialble in the future to erect more permanent kitchens. 

These stoves reduce the damaging smoke and the danger of fires.  Most importantly the amount of wood consumed per family goes down from five to three tons annually.  Only new energy sources will eventually completely solve this problem over the long term.  For now it reduces the load on the children that have to forage for wood every day, which slows down the erosive effect on the surrounding forest. Help fund this effort.

Sanitation for Health

Environmentally safe sanitation is important for the long term health and sustainability of the village.  These latrines require no water, are hygienic, separate urine from solid waste, and transform the waste into safe and reusable organic material through a natural chemical/aging process.  Lime is used to naturally disinfect and keep the area hygenic.

The first latrine was completed in September of 2005, as an experiment but replaced in mid-2006 with the first community latrine seen here.  Several families have already indicated their desire for a latrine, but it is still secondary to their other needs, and it will take time for this concept take hold in the community.  The goal is to eventually provide each home with its own latrine.  For now, they continue to use simple holes in the ground, distant from their homes.

Latrines and clean water are alone are not enough to sustainably improve the community's health and overall situation.  An integrated hygiene program starting with education in the classrom is required to reinforce the need for a pollution free environment.  San Pedrito's children will be taught not only in the class room but in the field by participating in litter retrieval activities. Help fund this effort.

Safe Water for Drinking

Clean drinking water is critical to the village's health.  In mid-2006, with Phase I of the water system complete, the village installed a water filtering and chloronation system.  At first the village was reluctant to use it as the water takes different from the unfiltered spring water collected in the new tank.  However, through education and example, the children are now drinking from it directly throughout their school day.

The system is composed of three stages.  In the first, water is drawn from the main village tank into a smaller storage tank where chlorine is added and the water is sanitized.  From there, the water is then drawn into a multistage sand and gravel filter which removes particles.  Lastly, the water is drawn into a charcoal filter for final purification and removal of the chlorine taste.  The water is sufficient for the village's entire drinking needs, and needs to be flushed only every three months to clean out the filters.

The water is not filtered before going into the main village tank as that water is currently being used for the gardens and orchards as well.  The chlorination would damage the plants.

The goal is to get everyone to eventually drink solely from this system, and long term to provide this purified drinking water directly to the homes.  Help fund this effort.

Sustainable Agriculture and Land Management

Land is ultimately the most important area in San Pedrito’s efforts to achieve long term sustainability.  Several efforts to develop the land and improve crop management have already begun.  San Pedrito is in the earliest stage in a controlled process that will ultimately help them transform their land and their crops to provide the food, nourishment and income they need. Click here to see map of ejido and crops.

Soil Transformation - Soil transformation through controlled irrigation, organic composting to develop top soil, organic fertilization and pest control techniques, and improved planting and rotation techniques, is at the top of this list.  This includes reusing harvest remains, transporting organic material from the forested hillsides down to the arable land and spreading it across the soil.

Reforestation - The hills behind the village have been severly damaged by woodcutting for firewood and lumber.  The nearby townspeople have also invaded San Pedrito's forests for their own benefit.  With Agros help, the village has replanted 30,000 trees and placed barbed wire around the property.  While this does not completely stop the trespassing, it does reduce it considerably but the men have to be vigilant every day.

Wind Barriers and Water Retention - The village is promoting natural vegetation where it can to promote water retention and prevent erosion.  Furthermore, it plans to plant natural tree lines around the village to reduce wind and soil erosion, as well as construct terraces in the ravines.  The ravines will also help increase the amount of arable land for development of orchards.  Construction of the new silt retaining wall at the reservoir was practice for this effort.

Fruit Trees - The village has already planted hundreds of fruit trees throughout the village.  These promote soil and water retention, break the wind, provide for a balanced diet, and are an additional means of income.  We recently painted the lower trunks of the new trees with lime to protect their flower and fruits from insects.  The most mature trees are only a little over a year old but are already producing dozens of papayas.

Vegetable Gardens - The first year was marked by education projects to help the community learn how to grow vegetables properly and sustainable.  With water now available, each family has planted a garden next to their home.  They gardens are thriving and the village is balancing its diet with tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, peppers, corriander, cabbage, radishes and more.  We were recently treated to fresh salads during our recent service trip. The community also has a larger shared garden where we recently planted squash seeds.  The expected yield is approximately 600 squash from that effort alone.

Harvesting Local Plant Life - The village is learning to use natural fauna as well for homeopathic medicinal purposes, oils, seeds, food, insect repellant, and many other uses.  These plants are fully sustainable and require no care. 

Crop Management - Education in new crops and improved management is currently underway.  New technigues include introduction of crops suitable to the enironment - beans, peanuts, tomatoes, squash, etc;  minimizing their reliance on corn as a primary cash crop as it is too expensive and not suitable for the environment;  improved plant spacing and interspacing; organic pest control; sustainable tilling and harvesting technigues.  However, the single most important introduction is irrigation which will allow them to have multiple planting seasons rather than just one per year as they do now.  The community recently harvested its first successful cash crop - providing over 200 kilos of beans for internal consumption and over 900 kilos of beans for sale.  Help fund this effort.

Livestock

The village’s protein intake is rapidly improving with addition of regular poultry to their diets.  With over 300 free range chickens, ducks and turkey as of Autumn 2006, they no longer have to rely solely on beans and eggs for their daily required intake.

Additional sustainable sources of protein and calcium are being studied.  However, the land is not suitable for livestock as they would eat the very organic material required to build the top soil.  They have tried goats, pigs and at even one time cattle - all of which they were accustomed to successfully raising in the highlands of Chiapas.  All have failed.  Some livestock can be fed, but this in turn requires diversion of needed food, or purchase of feed.  Furthermore, many livestock require a high degree of care and investments.  Efforts are underway to assess what livestock is most suitable for San Pedrito given these considerations.

They recently completed an experiment with quail.  Quail are not sustainable in this enviroment, and none remain.   However, the experiment was for learning new production techniques for future cash generation activities.

The birds are all free range, yet they know where every single bird lives, and they are learning how to build and manage natural shelters for the birds. Every winter they vaccinate all their poultry against avian flu and other diseases, as this is their most vulnerable season.  To date, they have vaccinated twice and their growing numbers of birds are an attestation to the program's success, as well as the improved conditions for water and cleaner environs for feeding. Help fund this effort.

Education for the Future

We recently constructed and inagurated a new library and resource center for the children.  It's small and made of adobe, but it works for now and it has enough space to house the hundreds of books we are funding.

Three village men recently formed their first school council.  After two years without any schooling, San Pedrito's children now have a full-time teacher, and all the primary school aged children are learning to read and write in both Spanish and Tzotzil.  The program is really doing well and these children finally have a shot at a future.  However, the challenges are still daunting.

Teachers are hard to come by as they must be fluent in both Spanish and Tzotzil and willing to live in these conditions.  The only source for these teachers currently is a government sponsored program that provides high school and college students scholarships in return for teaching one year in an indigenous community.  There is a great program but continuity is a real problem, as at the end of every school year, the community is not sure whether they will have an equally capable teacher, if any at all, the following year.

The older children and teens are at this point very far behind in literacy and basic education, and thus the most vulnerable.  This is particularly compounded in a one room school with one teacher where everyone is starting out at the same level.  We need more teachers and resources to help this older generation catch up before it's too late for them.  We will need to look to other institutions and outside assistance to make this possible.

The children had been attending class in the new community center.  However, their ruling Presbitery recently ordered that they vacate the community center in respect to its sanctity as a church.  They are now attending class in two 10x10 partitions in a temporary wood shack at the top of the village.  It is very difficult to keep their attention in such an inhospitable environment.  We are currently working with the village on plans for a new community center this spring.  It will double as a school until they can get government funding for a formal school in the coming years. Help fund this effort.

Cottage Industries - Textiles

The village is rapidly transforming its traditional textile making skills (the women all make their own traditional Tzotzil clothing) into embroidery of blouses and other items they can see competivitely in non-indigenous markets, not just for tourists but for local urban populations.

They are led by an ulikely individual, a male, Domingo Perez, who has turned out to be the most talented person in the community.  Agros, with the help of volunteer experts, has been working with the Domingo and the women to make their skills marketable, and provide the business credits to fund them initially. 

We have tried marketing some pieces to date but they are still not at a quality and distinctiveness necessary to fetch the prices merited for so much handwork.  They have been working at this for a year now and are very close to going to market.  The quality and attactiveness are really improving.  We expect this to become an important income stream in the coming year or two.  Help fund this effort.