Update on the Yucatan Hands On Projects
July, 2007

  Dear Members of Palo Alto Rotary,


Below is a report by Cindy Wilber of Proyecto Itzaes, the nonprofit

in the Yucatan  that our club has supported and visited.  It gives a positive and  grateful account of our activities.
 
Walt

I have been here in Yucatan for almost two weeks now and I have much to report from our six villages. I wish somehow that I could email more than just words and photos so that you too could feel the sense of community and the excitement for learning as families  arrive for  book exchange; with kids clustered in corners reading, playing with puzzles, drawing, putting on puppet shows and working on computers.  Most of our participating families live in extreme poverty  (less than $1.00/day per capita) and the Proyecto Itzaes  books, programs and resources provide  essential services. With your continued help Proyecto Itzaes (PI) programs are making a meaningful difference in the lives of the families we serve. http://www.proyectoitzaesusa.org

Our literacy and early reading programs got a tremendous boost in  February when the Bring Me A Book Foundation (BMAB) delivered hundreds of beautiful hardbound  Spanish  language books to the villages of Ixil, Mococha, and Dzemul. The green BMAB book bags and the wooden display shelves were produced locally, not only creating jobs for our families and reinforcing the community spirit of the program, but also reducing our shipping costs and carbon footprint.   The carefully chosen titles represent the best of Spanish language books from all over the world and provide much needed books for our primary and middle school readers.

 

            

 

Our health and nutrition project, funded by Rotary International, Palo Alto Rotary and Merida Club  Rotario Nuevas Generaciones (NG) in 2006 provided  computers and other technology to all six villages  to provide education for the prevention of  Type ll diabetes.   Students continue to interview elders in their villages about local foods and diet before the arrival of fast food. The students compare this to their own diets and are researching how foods and obesity are related to diabetes.  This project has produced valuable historical information (now archived digitally) about Maya village life, agricultural methods, health and land use.  Below is a photo of  don Nando Pech who was interviewed by his grandchildren.

 

 

During a three day Rotary work project in February, planters were constructed  in Ixil and Mococha  where Proyecto Itzaes students are now learning  through experience about healthy food, native plants, and ecology.  This same weekend volunteers from Los Altos, Palo Alto, Toronto and Merida  painted the casitas inside and out, repaired electrical circuits and donated books, shelves and toys. 

Photos on our webpage: http://www.proyectoitzaesusa.org  click on   our Flickr photots

Your  generous support of Proyecto Itzaes  continues to make a big difference! I will send  more updates and links to photos soon.

 Mil gracias y dios bo'otik

Cindy

 

Indian Water Harvesting Project

From the June 2007 Special

"Rotary In Pictures" Rotarian Magazine

     Below is the spectacular photograph by Alyce Henson of our Indian Water Harvesting Project from the June 2007 Special "Rotary In Pictures" Rotarian Magazine.  It has a prominent place in the centerfold of the magazine.  
 

The caption reads:
 
     "The Rotary Club of Bombay Metropolitan, India helped build eight rainwater collection dams in several villages, including Vihule Kond, hit by violent monsoon two years ago.  Here women carry water at a dedication in November 2006.  The project is funded by a Health, Hunger and Humanity Grant from the Rotary Foundation."
 
     The Rotary Club of Palo Alto has been in close partnership with the Rotary Club of Bombay Metropolitan for all these projects.  We have provided financial assistance that has been enhanced by our local district and by Rotary International matching grants.   Several of our members visited some sites in India in January 2006 and returned with enthusiastic reports. 
 
    These projects have had a profound impact on the lives of more than 3,000 villagers in rural areas outside Mumbai (Bombay).  In addition to freeing the women from the daily drudgery of carrying water miles during the dry season, the projects have materially improved the economic and social structures of the villagers.  An important aspect of the way these projects are constructed is that every member of the villages involved must agree to provide manual labor.  The basic concept is to build large ponds close to the villages to capture the heavy monsoon rains.  During the 6-month dry season from January to June these storage areas provide local water supplies. 

     We can be proud of what we have helped to achieve and the recognition that is now being given.  Also pictured in the article is one of the above plaque that was erected after the completion of the latest project in Underi.  You will see that our club is given equal prominence with the Bombay club indicating the importance of the relationship between our two clubs and our part in these ventures.

Palo Alto Rotary International Hands On Project
February 2 - 8, 2007

Our trip objective was to support Proyecto Itzaes build libraries in three villages in the Yucatan province of Mexico -- Chicxulub Puerta, Ixil and Mococha.

The work was done in conjunction with the Los Altos Rotary Club and the Rotary Club of Merida (Club Rotario Merida Nuevas Genaciones). The group delivered numerous boxes of books, toys and clothes.

Assemblers included our Palo Alto Rotary President, Art Stauffer, along with Mike Couch, Walt Hays, Le Levy and Judy Huey, Dave and Sharon Smullin, and Rachel Meyer with her daughter, Devan.  All joined the group leader, Cindy Wilbur, and four members of the Los Altos Rotary Club. 

Proyecto Itzaes is a non profit organization that is designed to provide a self sustaining program dedicated to the goal of democratizing, learning, and knowledge on the Yucatan Peninsula.  Its goal is to provide after school programs that emphasize early childhood education, family literacy, special education, cultural preservation, computer literacy, local ecology, creative writing, and more.

The work involved painting the walls of the two new libraries in Ixil and Mococha, building planters from concrete block, demonstrating the effectiveness of solar cooking technology, and working with the children to decorate and stock the new libraries with the materials that were donated and purchased.

                 

We worked three days, and relaxed while enjoying the sites in the Yucatan for two days.

As of 2006, Palo Alto Rotary has done three international hands-on projects:

Building Fuel-Efficient Stoves in Guatemala

In January 2003, twelve members traveled to Tiquisate, Guatemala to work with local people in building fuel-efficient stoves.  The trip was pursuant to a matching grant from The Rotary Foundation to build 400 such stoves, working with the Guatemala del Este Club and Trees, Water & People, a nonprofit in Colorado that sponsors such projects.  Before leaving, we met Todd and Mary Phoenix, non-Rotarians who had adopted a Guatemalan boy and are supporting a library in Tiquisate, and we carried containers of books and clothes with us to deliver to the library.  The local people fed us and worked with us as we built five stoves in two days.  They then put o a celebration in which they gave each of us a hand-embroidered pillow case in gratitude for our support.  We then spent one day at a lovely B&B on Lake Atitlán, owned by the daughter of Art and Peggy Stauffer, before flying home.  It was a moving experience for everyone.

January 2003 Tiquisate, Guatemala Hands-On Project

Furnishing a Library and Providing Trash Cans for Chicxulub in Mexico

In 2004, we met Cindy Wilber, Education Coordinator at the Jasper Ridge Preserve at Stanford.  She has had a longstanding relationship with the Maya village of Chicxulub in the Yucatán in Mexico, and established a nonprofit called Proyecto Itzaes, to provide the local children after-school instruction in reading and computers.  The local library in the village had no furniture, no shelves and few books, and the beach on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico had no trash receptacles, making it difficult to attract tourists.  At Cindy's request, we obtained a matching grant to solve both problems, working with the Nuevas Generaciónes Club in Mérida.  Twenty-two of us, from our club and Los Altos, also traveled to the area to do some hands-on work.  Once again, we each carried containers with books, toys, clothes and even a used computer.  The grant had paid for materials, and ourt work consisted of assembling and stocking shelves in the library, and working with local youth to paint symbols on the trash cans showing which was for organics and which for inorganics.  Then the village put on a grand fiesta for us, at which we had the privilege of giving each child in the project a gift.  We then spent a couple of days visiting local nature preserves and Maya ruins before flying home.

January 2004  Chicxulub, Yucatan, Mexico Hands-On Project

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Water-Harvesting Project in India

Our club has done several matching grants with the Bombay Metropolitan Club, providing materials for water-harvesting projects.  In each case, local NGOs obtain a written commitment from villages to establish a self-help committee with adequate representation for women and all castes, and to provide all necessary labor to dig a percolation pond to capture water from the Monsoon, which otherwise would run off and leave the area dry for several months.  On this project we did not do any hands-on work.  Instead, seventeen members and spouses from our club and Los Altos traveled to India to meet the Rotarians and visit the project, and received a very warm reception.  We also experienced the wedding of the son of one of the Rotarians, and spent several weeks traveling around the country.