We are six youth (Canadian and Honduran) learning and working together with local organizations on water related issues. We will contribute by creating and sharing educational tools to raise awareness and inspire youth to engage others.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Check out the new materials page!
and our final products uploaded, one by one.
Check out the new Sources-Fuentes materials page
You can be a trillingual, water knowledge sage!
Just a few last minute edits
Then we'll finally be able to roll all the credits.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Success! Exito!
See this newspaper article in the "Coast Reporter": "Digging deep and indulging in the community."
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Sources Update, Canada Side!
Today we launched the Canadian part of the water workshop guide at CWY head office, complete with pictures of the team during the Canadian and Honduran phase.
Want to know more? Check out this bulletin to read more about what Source-Fuentes is up to on the Honduran side of things.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Experiencias de Agua...Experiencias de Vida
Han pasado ya un poco más de 3 meses desde que el programa Sources-Fuentes comenzó, y ahora que se encuentra en su etapa final (para los hondureños), es necesario hablar un poco más sobre lo que ocurrió durante estos meses. Más allá de hablar de los resultados definitivamente tengo que hablar de las experiencias ya que es importante dar a conocer las vivencias de nuestro grupo. Junio-Septiembre han sido meses de mucho trabajo, pero que han valido la pena y han dejado un muy buen sabor de boca.
Comenzamos en Canadá, donde el tiempo limitado de 3 semanas nos hizo correr y hacer el ejercicio físico que quizás muchos de nosotros no habíamos hecho en los últimos 3 meses. Correr de terminal a terminal en el aeropuerto (a tal punto que nuestro compañero Edgard olvido su cámara en el avión), madrugar para hacer las visitas a las organizaciones, e incluso hacer el ejercicio de STEPS en las gradas del hostal en Toronto para poder llegar a tiempo para la cena nos hicieron bajar unas cuantas libritas, pero creo que todo era una estrategia muy bien definida ya que las baleadas y los ticucos en Santa Rosa de Copán nos hicieron recuperar y hasta superar esas libras perdidas.
Las fases del programa fueron distintas pero ambas nos llevaron a alcanzar nuestro objetivo. Durante la fase canadiense tuvimos la oportunidad de visitar diferentes organizaciones que trabajan el tema ambiental con un enfoque sobre el agua y también conocer la problemática del agua en el País, mientras que durante la fase Hondureña pudimos hacer visitas a comunidades del occidente del País para poder conocer sus problemas de agua y las soluciones que ellos mismos están implementado. Fue durante esta fase en la cual trabajamos en la creación de la herramienta o guía metodológica que sirvió para poder dar los talleres sobre “Jóvenes Líderes y Fuentes de Agua”. El haber realizado esta guía nos sirvió de mucho pero si bien es cierto, la mejor manera de aprender es la ya vieja metodología de “APRENDER HACIENDO”.
El grupo de hondureños tuvimos la oportunidad de facilitar 4 talleres:
1. Belén Gualcho: donde contamos con la presencia de jóvenes que forman parte de la Iniciativa de Jóvenes, otros jóvenes de la comunidad y el valioso apoyo de la Municipalidad de la comunidad representada por su Vice-Alcalde y los regidores.
2. Rio Blanco: donde el viaje de 4 horas en un camino un poco “intransitable” hizo que valiera la pena al ver que más de 25 personas (sin contar los más de 10 niños) se interesaron en recibir su primer capacitación en el tema de agua.
3. Camalote: Ni la carretera ni la lluvia pudo impedir que llegáramos a la reunión con el grupo de la Iniciativa de Jóvenes de la comunidad.
4. Gracias: donde tuvimos nuestro primer taller con el grupo de intercambio Perth-Gracias.
Como explique anteriormente es imposible no hablar de las experiencias que tuvimos durante este programa y es por eso que quiero mencionar algunas de ellas:
-Durante los 2 meses en Honduras realizamos 3 visitas a Belén Gualcho y cada una más beneficiosa que la anterior, tanto así, que jóvenes del grupo con el que trabajamos solicitaron la guía lo más pronto posible para poder hacer réplica del taller a otros jóvenes del colegio y la comunidad.
-La municipalidad de Belén Gualcho estuvo involucrada todo el tiempo y el Vice-alcalde y los regidores formaron parte de nuestro “grupo de expedición” a las visitas de los tanques y tomas de agua de la comunidad.
-Al menos 40 personas de la comunidad de Rio Blanco (ancianos, mujeres, hombres, jóvenes, niños y niñas, e incluso mujeres embarazadas) caminaron por más de 1 hora para conocer la fuente de agua de su comunidad, lo cual nos lleno de entusiasmo ya que demostraron el interés que tiene sobre el tema del agua.
-Al final del taller en Rio Blanco se creó la Junta de Jóvenes, para poder involucrase en los temas de importancia de su comunidad. El ser hombre o mujer no hizo ninguna diferencia, ni tampoco el no saber leer. Definitivamente Rio Blanco es una de las comunidades que más crecimiento en el tema de agua pudo tener.
-Los jóvenes de Camalote demostraron porque se les considera jóvenes líderes y tuvieron una excelente participación durante todo el taller.
-El taller en Gracias fue la mejor manera para dar por finalizados nuestros talleres, ya que los jóvenes a pesar de que era su primer día en la comunidad participaron al máximo demostraron su interés durante todo el día. Definitivamente que el idioma no fue una barrera.
Es imposible escribir todas las vivencias que tuvimos durante estos meses pero si tuviera que describirlo en 3 palabras estas tendrían que ser: EXPERIENCIA DE VIDA!!!
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Flying with Air Asonog!
El día Viernes fue nuestro debriefing iniciamos con una evaluación del taller, el equipo canadiense se despidió de Ramiro quien nos ha apoyado durante el proyecto, hicimos nuestras propias evaluaciones en la rueda socrática de la que teníamos al inicio hasta el final luego viajamos hacia Termas del Rio donde nos pudimos relajar y trabajar a la vez. De regreso en Santa Rosa sin energía eléctrica por cierto tuvimos una fiesta de despida a la luz de las velas la cual estuvo muy divertida con muchos sentimientos encontrados de felicidad y tristeza porque los amigos canadienses viajaban el siguiente día hacia San Pedro Sula.
El día Sábado inicio muy temprano haciendo las últimas compras de souvenirs los sentimientos a flor de piel unos más que otros verdad Vanessa Peña, como a las 2 de la tarde fue la despedida del equipo canadiense familias anfitrionas y nosotros dijimos hasta pronto con sentimientos de tristeza.
Esta semana inicio con mucha nostalgia trabajamos en unir la herramienta final y trabajar para los próximos talleres de Rio Blanco, Camalote Lempira.
Por mi parte solo me queda agradecer esta oportunidad a ASONOG, Canadá World Youth y mis amigos Ana María, Vanessa Peña, Emanuele Lucia, Julia Ruiz, Marie-Helene, Daniela Gaetane, Laura Howard y a todos y todas que de una u otra forma nos han apoyado en esta aventura. GRACIAS, THANKS, MERCI.
Peace out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friday, August 26, 2011
Water Workshop #1: Huge Success!
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of taking in the first of our water-themed workshops developed over the course of the Sources-Fuentes adventure. Ana-Marie, Emanuele and Marie-Helene put on a rather polished performance for the all-female Canada World Youth group here in Santa Rosa.
Right from the start they promised this wasn't going to be a day spent sitting infront of a Power Point presentation, eyes-glossed over, willing the breaks and the lunch to come sooner. They were right! With their three main themes of Consumption, Access and Bottled Water, we all enjoyed a fun filled day with games, small group presentations, debate, and even a candy-filled evaluation at the end of the day.
CLICK HERE to view a workshop photo album! |
Following the 5 step "Image Shifting"model, the facilitators incorporated so much of the learning that we've had throughout this project. There wasn't only technical content about water, but also a dynamic presentation style, working in two languages, and ensuring that the day was really participative.
To watch a really interesting 7 minute video we enjoyed and debated go to "The Story of Bottled Water". It just might make you think twice about choosing bottled over tap.
Well, I don't want to give it all away. Stay tuned, because this workhsop will be coming to a "Canadian city near you", this autumn, to be enjoyed by 8 more Canada World Youth groups there.
The Honduran team is cooking up their own workshop too, which will be revealed next week when we venture back to Belen Gualcho, Honduras to share our findings about their water situation in that community, and to inspire more youth to get involved in water issues at the local level. This time I'll try not to crash the truck!
Stay tuned, logged-on, and committed to action! ;)
Monday, August 22, 2011
WTF -> Workshops Totally Finished… or almost…!
2 more weeks and its over??? Seriously !?!? I can’t believe that we have a few more days to work on these workshops and then it all ends… or actually it just STARTS! There many things to do after the program ends but as for now we are just focusing in making a few tweaks on our tool and doing lots of translation. One might think that working in 3 languages is hard but let me tell you that it’s not…. It’s not hard….it’s just a pain in the …. head! We are 1 day away from starting our validation workshops, it’s time to test our “little” experiment and find out if we’ve created a monster BUAHAHA!!!!! Or if we’ll turn into monsters after finding out if we need to remove or add things to our tool.
Life in the office is a bit crazy…meetings here and there between Canadian and Honduras groups (not in exclusive kind of way but in a “let’s get this thing together” kind of way). We all have different responsibilities among the group some are busy going around buying stuff for the validation workshops and others are freaking out a bit about the translating part…lots and lots of information! Some are thinking how can there be so much to do and so little time… but there’s always a way to get things done (Oh yes that’s what I think). So I took some time off from translating and decided to vent by writing a blog :) yay yay!!!
So yes… lot of work but like I said… I’m sure we’ll manage to get everything done and ready ;) !!! Switching subject a bit…it’s only Monday and I can’t wait for Sunday to be here woohoo …. First of all the translation work will be done by then AND…. OLIMPIA the greatest team EVEEEEER (at least in Tegucigalpa…my hometown :P ) will be playing against Deporte Savio, Santa Rosa’s soccer team!!! I guess that will lower my stress level a lot….although… I’m really into FUTBOL (spanish for soccer) especially when my team is playing and I yell a lot during the game…well at least I’ll get to set free my lungs!
I guess that this time there’s no story about any cockroach or milking a cow …its juts me venting about our work this week! I’m not surprised though, I kind of knew that the last weeks were going to be a bit crazy, it’s just that it all seems to be happening so fast… We will be saying goodbye to our Canadian teammates in 12 days!!! Wow… now that I think about it… I better stop whinning about how much work there is to do or how translating isn’t really fun…. And just try to enjoy our last days here! I’ve learned so much during this almost 3 months, worked with great people, milked a cow and had near death experiences (I mean the cockroach experience)… I just have to think about those things and keep in mind the goal of this program and I’m sure that in 2 weeks from now I’ll be blogging about how this was all worth it!!
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Drinking Water, Sea Water and Hot Water
Last week was quite productive as a whole. On Monday we had the opportunity to visit a water treatment facility in Santa Rosa de Copan. We had also previously visited a water treatment facility in Perth, ON. What was incredibly interesting is that both facilities use almost the exact same processes to treat water. The engineer that gave us the tour in Santa Rosa de Copan told us that they guarantee the water that gets to the taps of the homes of the city is safe enough to drink; they run regular tests. What’s shocking is that nobody knows this; people believe that the water isn’t safe enough and the majority of the population of Santa Rosa still purchases bottled water. How is this possible, having access to a safe product for free, but still opting to purchase it instead. After the initial disbelief over the situation, I was reminded of all the people I know in Canada that have access to safe drinking water, but genuinely believe that bottled water is somehow safer and better. Anyways, back to Honduras, I’m sure there’s another side to this story and there is a reason why people still feel the need to drink bottled water. But I do wish there was more energy invested in finding out the truth, and if the water really is safe enough to drink in Santa Rosa, which seems to be the case, create more awareness.
The rest of the week mostly consisted of continuing the development of our workshop. Towards the end of the week though, I definitely felt as though we were all ready for a break and could not get our minds off of the mini-vacation we had planned for this past weekend. Thursday evening finally came, and we could not hide our excitement! After a day of work in San Marcos Ocotepeque, we hurried home to prepare our luggage for our 4 day excursion to the beach!!! Five of the six members of our group left Santa Rosa Friday morning at 4:00 AM, destination Sambo Creek! We finally got there mid-day. After an exhaustive day of travel, we were overcome with energy and could do nothing else but run and jump when we saw the never ending beach that we had access to from our hotel. It felt like paradise. We even had a mango tree right outside our hotel room from which we immediately starting collecting mangos the minute we discovered it. Saturday was spent touring Cayos Cochinos, a group of 16 minuscule islands in the middle of the Caribbean Sea. I am not exaggerating when I say that I have never seen water so clear in my life! We did some Snorkelling and saw some incredible coral reefs, after which we stopped on one of the islands for lunch. Our meal was fried fish which was fished approximately 1 hour before we ate it! After a walk around the island where we had lunch, which took no more than 5.2 minutes, we finally headed back to Sambo Creek. On Sunday, I abandoned the group and went on a little excursion on my own to the hot springs of Sambo Creek. Simon, my tour guide was absolutely incredible. He spent the day with me and we hiked in the forest around the hot springs. The actual going-in-the-hot-spring portion of the tour was preceded by a mud bath; talk about being pampered! I then spent the next couple hours stepping in and out of hot water like a lazy turtle. Like all good things, the excursion had to come to an end. When I returned to our hotel, a few of us walked along the beach for a couple of hours before a nice home-cooked pasta dinner. The day we were dreading, Monday, our last day, arrived. I spent the entire morning on the beach, walked one last time to the community of Sambo Creek, had a quick lunch, and as I was going to take a quick shower right before leaving, I discovered that the main water valve of the hotel had been shut for maintenance purposes. Without any other choice, we all hoped on a bus back to Santa Rosa de Copan around mid-day smelling like salt water.
Tuesday was back to work. I definitely felt invigorated and ready to work after a few days of relaxation. Only three weeks left in Honduras (AHHH!). Will we finish this crazy adventure we’ve embarked on and have a workshop by next Wednesday? I sure hope so!
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
No a las minas!
Monday, August 8, 2011
Cucaracha, leche y Canela: A city girl in the farm
It was Sunday morning…my alarm was set to wake me at 4:00 am but for some reason I had woken up a couple of minutes before it started to beep…something beside my window was making strange noises. The alarm went on and I suddenly felt something walk beside my foot….AGHHHHH!!! Jumped out of bed, turned on the light and started saying CUCARACHAAAAAA oh yes… I had friend in my bed…a cockroach just sitting there looking directly at me just like saying “na na na na you can´t catch me”. Ana Maria and I started looking for something to catch (kill) her with, but when we turned our heads the cockroach had already had its sweet escape! We looked and looked but our little “friend” was nowhere to be found. By that time it was already 4:15 and we were going to be picked up at 4:30, so we rushed to change and get everything together for our day at the finca (Farm). We left the house with this awful feeling of knowing that the cockroach was still out there…or even worse… IN there…, but nothing would mess with our excitement of going to the farm. The reason why we had to go so early was because we were milking cows!!!
I’ve lived for 21 years in a city and never had any kind of farm experiences before, but milking a cow was something that had always impressed me. Nothing in my life had prepared me to the experience I was about to go through, it didn’t matter how many times I had watched Animal Planet´s special on cows or how many times I had “milked” my FARMVILLE cows hahaha nothing was compared to this. We met this cow called Patty which was the first cow that approached us; she was extremely friendly, so of course we decided to use her as our guinea pig in milking cows!! Before we started making our milking attempts Josue tried to teach us the best ways on how to milk, but I’m not sure if we actually succeeded. It took me a couple of times before the milk was finally starting to come out and when it did, nothing in the world could stop me from smiling. Of course the milking feeling was weird and for some moments I felt bad for Patty cause I didn’t know if what we were doing hurt her, but Josue said that I was doing a good job. I carried a (probably dumb) smile in my face for a couple of minutes (maybe 20 minutes), I was extremely proud of what I had just done and couldn’t wait to tell everyone I knew hahaha.
Ok, so, cockroaches CHECK, cows CHECK, how about some HORSES ;) ? Ooh yes, it was horseback riding time! I had ridden horses a few times during my childhood but it was more like 10 minute rides in the park while someone walked beside the horse and it was pulled with a rope (for safety reasons). But this was something different I was doing it all by myself, well kind of… there was still someone walking beside me (again safety reasons) but the horse wasn’t pulled by anyone else but ME!!! I had a 40 minutes ride along the farm on Canela, a really nice and well trained horse. When I finally came back to the main house I was once again wearing my proud smile for many minutes.
This was not a typical Sunday but it was a complete success: cows, horses, a really good Honduran lunch, time to play football, a few attempts on fishing and a nice time with CWY Emilie Maccot, Asonog Staff and the girls from the Hamilton-Santa Rosa exchange. I went back home feeling pretty good about my day and realized I had some blog material. Every day we get to learn different things and have really cool experiences and that’s one of the things I like the most from CWY programs. Whether its water consumption, mining companies and its relation to water, Sanitation issues in small communities or HOW TO MILK A COW…there’s always something new and exciting everyday!
Ps. #1 This blog is dedicated to Patty and Canela for their support on my day at the farm ;)
Ps. #2 Why doesn’t anybody ever mention that the next day after riding a horse for a long time, your legs are killing you and you have a sore bum??? :(
Still, theres nothing like a day at the farm!
Monday, August 1, 2011
Len-agua-je Universal
Empezare mi nota con un, dicen por ahí… que la música es el lenguaje universal. Que quieren decir con esta frase??? A mi parecer la música es una forma/manera/método (como ustedes quieran llamarle) en que todas las personas que habitamos este hermoso planeta podemos unirnos sin tener frontera alguna que nos separe, sin distinción de raza, cultura, idioma, costumbres, religión, etc, etc… Pero hace un tiempo me he dado cuenta que debemos tener otro “lenguaje universal”, imagino que se preguntaran cual puede ser, o según el titulo de esta nota talvez ya lo sepan… así es mis queridos lectores es el AGUA, pero más que simplemente el agua, el punto mas importante que debemos de resaltar es la CONCIENTIZACION acerca de este recurso tan básico y necesario sin olvidarnos de todo lo que esto conlleva (contaminación, fuentes, hábitos, reservas, manejo, acceso, saneamiento, etc.).
También dicen por ahí… que los jóvenes somos el futuro de un país, ciudad, comunidad, familia, pero en realidad los niños/as y jóvenes somos el presente, somos los que estamos viviendo todo tipo de consecuencias por las malas o buenas decisiones que como humanos se han tomado en el pasado y se siguen tomando, lo que si, es que tenemos la obligación (a mi punto de vista personal) de crear conciencia tanto en jóvenes como en adultos y empezar o darle seguimiento a CAMBIOS tan importantes y necesarios para que nuestra existencia no sigua decayendo en cuanto a la salud de nuestro planeta y asusta de verdad que si.
Así que dejando ya tanta palabrería, debo agradecer por la oportunidad de formar parte de este proyecto llamado FUENTES porque tengo la dicha de trabajar con jóvenes y organizaciones muy importantes, asi que les invito a mis queridos lectores a que trabajemos y concienticemos, empezando por nosotros mismos para mejorar nuestras condiciones de vida, en nuestro ambiente, en nuestra sociedad y como dije antes, el recurso más importante para seguir haciendo todo lo que queramos es el AGUA, así que todos hablemos YA! el lenguaje universal: AGUA.