San Martin , near Mazamitla, Mexico moving forward.
Over many years FWOP worked with families trying to improve their
existence a bit.
First, with a generator and later with three solar panels some small amount of electricity was created
for the residents . Second, as they had
to walk a mile or more for water, FWOP
and local residents installed a gravity
water system to bring water from a spring some two miles away to all
houses. No pumps were required. Third, a
bath house with two toilets and a shower was built later.
. You can click on the you tube
below to have a sense of how students from UNT and FWOP installed the water
system.
Recently, GRID electricity has arrived to San Martin which
means the generator and solar panels are no longer needed there. FWOP
is now planning to move the solar panels, invertor, generators and batteries to a new village
without electricity. We will need to
also buy electric cables, light sockets, and
plug-in receptacles for the walls.
One resident from another village has dropped by Pato’s home to asked FWOP to consider moving the alternative energy
system to their village.
If you wish to assist
with a few dollars to help us make the
transfer of the panels and the generator
to a new location., go to www.fwop.org
to make a welcome donation.
In the photo below,
Anthony is the man on the left
side who lives in San Martin. Some two
years ago, he repaired the gravity water system when the spring went dry where we were collecting the water in
a cistern buried in the ravine. He relocated the cistern and reconnected the
pipes. He had been part of the original team to
install the system. He also heads up the committee to collect a
few pesos to pay for gasoline for the generator.
Pato, to the right in
the photo , is a FWOP colleague in
Mazamitla who allow us to complete our
efforts in the State of Jalisco.
Elena who is sitting
in the chair explained the water problem to Tom Benjamin some 8 year ago and
took Tom on a walk to show him how far
it was to secure a bucket of water. Most older children and adults work in the
fields nearby for one farm owner. They
have been squatting on this land for some thirty years. FWOP has managed to secure them ownership to
their land now.
We have had challenges. At one stage someone was paid to cut
the water line at 8am. We managed to
repair the line at 9am. Finally the opposition gave up . After we showed the land owner how to
install such a system he was able to install
a large water cistern near San
Martin and thus the was finally able to
irrigate a five acre field with new avocado trees. More work for residents of San Martin and
more money for the landowner.
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