The GUELAGUTZA in Seattle Saturday June 18th 2-6 PM

Please join our friends from Oaxaca in a special cultural celebration on Saturday June 18th from 2-6pm.  The GUELAGUTZA  will be held at the Dr. blanche Lavizzo Park  2100 S Jackson St in Seattle.

The closes entrance is behind (south) of the Odessa Brown Children's clinic at 22nd & Yesler.

There will be a traditional dance pretensions with the Grupo Guelaguetza, the Grupo Cultural Oaxaqueno and special guests GRUPO AMISTAD directly from Oaxaca

For more information please call 206.723.1986

Water testing at the School in Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla

MARCH 22, 2011.
By Our Oaxaca staff  Nelly Fernandez Tellez
I made a visit to the school in Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla meet with the head master; Valentin Gomez Farias to test the water quality, receiving the parameters measured were: pH, hardness, alkalinity, dissolved oxygen, iron, manganese, salmonella, E. coli, Aeromonas and other coliforms.

 
These tests were made because "Water for Humans", aims to get to install filters at school, and thus the school can stop buying jugs of water. The children will be able to drink water straight from the tap and the money save will be used to invest in material for children or school improvement in general.

 
The results were quite favorable and we can say that although the water is clean, We do not feel nor do the children & staff feel safe drinking untreated water. This is because none of the incoming well water is treated or inspected on a regular basis.  Thus we hope to install a water purifying filter to ensure the greater safety of the children and staff.

VISIT TO THE COLONY BRAVO AHUJA- Oaxaca city

VISIT TO THE COLONY Bravo Ahuja. 
By our Oaxaca staff  Nelly Fernandez Tellez

On Wednesday 6 April, he visited the colony Bravo Ahuja, where it intends to implement systems to capture rainwater for eight families. The reason for the visit was to take pictures of the houses, the beneficiaries and ceilings.We did a route which covered all the houses of the beneficiaries, most of them made collecting cans to sell and PVC recycling. They perform and the collection of rainwater but very rustic, in cans, buckets and all receptacles in which to store water, which is why they want to get the rainwater harvesting in a more formal with tanks and tanks, gutters and pipes.

La Maestra Rosa Lidia Barroso Moreno, who was the first to be approached with trepidation INSO to implement the project Capturing rainwater in your home develops some of the actions environmentally friendly alternatives such as: instead of chlorine for whiten the clothes she wears ash water according to his testimony helps to whiten the clothes and also reduces the amount of detergent you use. It also has vermicompost, compost conventional organically reared chickens, ways of saving and recycling water, for example, the wash water used to water the garden or for toilet, water from the clothes used for washing floors.On the other hand, Mrs. Avelina Ines Barroso already has dry toilet and also recycles water, your house is made of ferrocement and has organic shapes.

The other members of the project are:Hortencia Mendoza GarcíaCarlos Alvarez BautistaEva Susana Hernandez Vazquez .- In addition to her home 5 people live with her. Esther Pascual Lopez .- With her 8 family members live together. Norma Aguilar Gaytan .- There are 6 people in your home. Berenice Delgado Torres - regularly are 5 people in her house.

Each of the women members of this group is very excited and is eager to work on the project "Rainwater Collection" are moving to acquire resources from government institutions and other potential donors have even talked to the president City of Santa Lucia and pretend to have a conversation with the Governor to ask for your support.

However, they are constantly training and attending courses and workshops in order to overcome and be more environmentally friendly.

IT's World Water Day :)

March 22 is World Water Day.  Please swing by Seattle City Hall, as we will be there as part of the cities and county's efforts to support Water awareness.  We will have an information table setup to help us spread the word about our work.

Another reason to attend the Global Washington Annual Conference: Dean Karlan, Yale University Economics Professor,

Global Washington

Conference 2010

November 15 & 16

Microsoft Campus, Redmond

 

Check out the conference agenda, submission and selection criteria for the Video Showcase, and register here!

 

CLICK HERE to access the social networking site connecting members of the development community! (If you'd like to join, but haven't received an invitation, email megan@glboalwa.org)

 

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We are pleased to welcome Yale Professor of Economics Dean Karlan as a guest speaker at our upcoming conference!  

In 2007, The New York Times listed Karlan as one of 13 young “Economists to Watch” for his work in microfinance.  Times blogger Steven D. Levitt described Karlan as an economist who “has been doing important and innovative work, often using field experiments to answer questions related to financial decisions in developing countries.”  Karlan is an expert in economic issues relating to charitable giving and global development methodologies—especially microfinance. He is President of Innovations for Poverty Action; serves on the Board of Directors of the M.I.T. Jameel Poverty Action Lab; and is Founder and President of stickK.com. He also received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2007.

At the conference, Dr. Karlan will share his thoughts on the challenges and successes in evaluation and impact assessment for global development work. He will provide an economist’s perspective on these solutions, particularly:

1) Evaluation matters. Wins and losses are not always where you expect them.

2) Methodology matters: Studying impact means answering a simple but elusive question: how have lives changed compared to how lives would have changed had the program not existed?  

3) Design matters.  The way products and processes are offered can have big effects on decisions people make.  

 

4) The impact of mobile technology on development, highlighting examples and successful partnerships.

Sources:

Steven J. Levitt, “Congratulations to Dean Karlan”, December 5, 2007, http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/congratulations-to-dean-karlan/?pagemode=print

“Economists to Watch,” The New York Times, January 10, 2007, available from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/business/10leonhardt.html?_r=2&ex=1169096400&en=be93236a9e2a3a7f&ei=5070&emc=eta1&oref=slogin

 

 

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Speaker Spotlight   Dean Karlan Professor of Economics Yale University   Dean Karlan is a Professor of Economics at Yale University.  Karlan is President of Innovations for Poverty Action, a non-profit organization that creates and evaluates solutions to social and development problems, and works to scale-up successful ideas through implementation and dissemination to policymakers, practitioners, investors and donors.  Karlan is on the Board of Directors of the M.I.T. Jameel Poverty Action Lab.  As a social entrepreneur, He is Founder and President of stickK.com, a website that uses lessons from behavioral economics to help people reach personal goals, such as weight loss and smoking cessation, through commitment contracts.  Karlan received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and was named an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow.  His research focuses on microeconomic issues of financial decision-making, specifically employing experimental methodologies to examine what works, what does not, and why in interventions in microfinance, health, behavioral economics and charitable giving.  In microfinance, he has studied credit impact, interest rate policy, savings product design, credit scoring policies, entrepreneurship training, and group versus individual liability.  Karlan received a Ph.D. in Economics from M.I.T., an M.B.A. and an M.P.P. from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. in International Affairs from the University of Virginia.

EXAMPLES OF SUSTAINABILITY IN THE WORLD.

KOREA.
South Korea is, in many ways, a model of reforestation for the rest of the world.  When the Korean War ended, half a

century ago, the mountainous country was quite deforested.  Since 1960, under the dedicated direction of President Park

Chung Hee, the South Korean government put into effect a national reforestation effort.  Basing itself on the formation of

rural cooperatives, hundreds of thousands of people mobilized themselves to dig irrigation ditches and create terraces to

help the trees in the arid mountains.  Today, the forests cover 65 percent of the country, an area that comes to

approximately 6 million hectares.  When I drove through South Korea in November of 2000, I found it gratifying to see the

abundance of trees covering the mountains, which a generation ago were naked. 
www.ecogaia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=306:recuperar-los-bosques-con-elcambio-de-habitos&catid=3:noticias-y-articulos&Itemid=4

NIGERIA.

In Nigeria, the farmers who encountered a serious drought and the desertification of the 1980s, began, while they were

preparing the land for their crops, to allow some acacia shoots that grew in their fields to emerge.  When those trees

matured, they reduced the wind velocity, and with that, soil erosion.  Acacia, a pulse, fixes enriched nitrogen into the soil

and contributes to increased crop yield.  During the dry season, the leaves and the pods supply forage for livestock.  The

trees also provide the farmers with firewood.  This act of allowing 20-150 shoots per hectare to grow to maturity over

about 3 million hectares has revitalized the agricultural community of Nigeria.


DIFFERENT PLACES IN THE USA.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/las-10-tendencias-mas-prometedoras/1480

ONE-EYED ARGENTINE DEER.

COSTA RICA AND THE IRIS.
www.tendencias21.net/innovacion/Papel-de-lirio-un-ejemplo-de-innovacion-para-la-sostenibilidadosustentabilidad_a16.html

USING THE IRIS
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/10/18/index.php?section=sociedad&article=045n1soc


www.pym.org/.../ewg/ gaviotas/200506image001b.jpg
www.yesmagazine.org/.../ 33/6_Gaviotas_wind.jpg
www.revistavirtualpro.com/.../ ejemplo.jpg
www.smartcommunities.ncat.org/espanol/buildings/gbsstoc.shtml
www.encolombia.com/medicina/materialdeconsulta/Admon_Salud/Hospital_Autosuficiente.htm

Life Autanoma Conference Oaxaca April 2010

Water for Humans was represented via Nelly (our staff person working for INSO).  This is the poster Nelly had to present us to this growing community.

Earth Day and bottled water

Today is Earth Day and the group "Food and Water watch" has a great article about the "Take back the Tap" project.  Please take action to stop bottle water here

Please click through and view the video from Food and Water Watch.

Thanks

Rick

What’s wrong with buying bottled water?

An interesting video about why we need to protect and support municipal water systems.

What’s wrong with buying bottled water?

February 5, 2010, Friday

February 5, 2010, Friday
Today we debriefed after our meeting with the Council of Elders of Santo Domingo Barrio Bajo Etla and discussed peacemaking with Etla.  Later on this morning we met with Carlos Placensia (INSO) who is in charge of health concerns with water.  He gave us a brief outline and agenda for the Water Forum at which Stan, Rick, and Nelly will present on Friday, February 12th.  The forum is structured in a way that everyone has a voice.  It meets approximately every two months.  This one commemorates the 25th forum.  It has continued and survived many administrative changes in government, unlike many institutions in Mexico (or the US for that matter).

 In addition to the Forum, there will be a guided tour of the Botanical Garden, the venue for the Forum, associated with the Santo Domingo Church.  In this garden, there is a nursery for the rescue of endangered plants especially orchids of Oaxaca.
 

Let´s Start with Schools

One of our first priorities for the target communities we work in is to provide filters free to schools. Access to potable water will better students´ working environments, allowing them to focus on their studies while enjoying safe, clean drinking water. We also hope to educate students about water, sensitizing them to current issues and providing hands-on activities that teach solutions.

A great place to search for water education resources is Schools Water Portal, a Website founded by Arghyam that provides comprehensive, captivating and fun activities for school-aged children. And best of all, the dozens of materials on projects such as rainwater harvesting are FREE. Educators around the globe are encouraged to use the presentations, quizzes, plays, debate topics, water stories and more, all focused on water.

Arghyam´s history of developing water management programs, trainings and solutions is impressive. Check out its other comprehensive Websites, India Water Portal and India Sanitation Portal.