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The Problem:
In Colombia’s Sucre Department, about 11 kms. from Sincelejo City, is located the village of Panseñor. The village and its surrounding area are populated by Zenú indigenous (about 80 families) that live on daily incomes of between 1-3 US dollars per day. Most men work sporadically on agricultural crops with no social security or fair wages (in most cases). The women dye and braid “caña flecha”, the processed palm leaves needed to assemble a traditional Colombian hat.
Panseñor belongs to the Municipality of Sampués, and despite demands for clean water and electricity, the municipality has not provided Panseñor with either resource. The indigenous recognize that water and electricity are the most urgent needs of the community, but feel hopeless. Unfortunately, the lack of water and electricity, as well as the low levels of literacy of the community, maliciously combine to leave the Zenú people, generation after generation, in extreme poverty.
The lack of clean water has led to widespread disease, and the lack of electricity leaves no prospects for some sort of sustainable income to ever appear in the community. The lack of these has doomed the community to be in poverty for decades. Water and electricity, particularly the later, will enable the realization of a micro-credit project that will empower the community to make and sell the traditional hats and other crafts directly in the market. With electricity, the Zenú women will also be able to utilize sewing machines that we hope to provide to them through a future micro credit project.
In brief, what will we do with this money?
We will:
1) Work with a volunteer engineer to assess the best way to bring water to the village of Panseñor from Sampués, which possess the central water systems in the area.
2) Hire a small local company capable of setting up the central infrastructure for a water system. We plan to place one water valve per 3 or 4 families (as each house is separated from each other by a considerable distance)
3) Hire a small scale local company to set up electrical connections for every household and, most importantly, for an outdoor church that has served as a community center for the past years.
4) Ensure that all the connections made are compatible with the standard equipment used by the Municipality of Sampués.
