Grow Clean Food & Harvest Water in Rural Oaxaca

Thanks to donor contributions and many volunteer hands, we have completed the construction of a second 10,000 liter rainwater storage tank, just in time for the cistern to fill up with this season’s bountiful rain. Jorge and his family now have access to clean water on a regular basis. Volunteers, community members, and particularly women, participated in the construction process and learned the “ferrocement” construction technique along the way. Thank you for contributing to bringing back water in a dry landscape!

Also in recent news, last month we celebrated the first round for distributing solar energy cookers to rural families in Oaxaca. Over 40 women and their families gathered at the Instituto Tonantzin Tlalli (ITT), our education center in Oaxaca, to participate in a training session on how to use the solar energy cookers. Each family was given one solar energy cooker to take back to their rural communities. This solar energy project is designed to reduce the devastating deforestation rates in Oaxaca, where wood provides the most common cooking fuel, and to improve family diets by also incorporating healthy cooking habits into the training sessions. Our goal is to distribute 200 solar ovens, hosting at least one solar cooking training workshop at the ITT each month. Your contributions have helped bring solar energy and healthy cooking alternatives to a landscape where sun is plentiful, but environmental degradation and malnutrition are also in abundance. Gracias!

This past February, we finished the construction of a rainwater storage tank for a small farmer in rural Oaxaca thanks to the generous support of donors.

The donations were used to build a cistern (rainwater storage tank) for Justino Cruz González. Don Tino, as he is respectfully known, has shared a relationship with the Instiuto Tonantzin Tlalli (ITT), our education center in Oaxaca, for close to 5 years. This 65 year old man lives off the land adjacent to the ITT, however he has no access to running water, nor electricity. He relies on seasonal rains to water his corn crop and lives off of a daily income of $6.00 dollars.

Last year we organized a workshop to build an earthen wood-saving stove in his home and celebrated by eating fresh tortillas warmed on the stove, tortillas from the native corn Don Tino recently harvested.

We believe in supporting individuals like Don Tino by building a relationship with them and transmitting practical knowledge that has the real ability to improve their quality of life.

The 10,000 liter cistern was built out of a technique known as "ferrocement". It is a very easy to learn, practical, flexible, and cheap building technology ideal for constructing water storage tanks. The cistern is connected to a simple rainwater harvesting system installed on the small tin roof that covers Don Tino's living quarters. A workshop was organized with local community members to collectively build the cistern, and they in turn received training in the building technique.

By this year's rainy season which begins in May, the cistern will be equipped to catch rainwater and for the first time, satisfy Don Tino's basic need and access to fresh water.