Building resilience with communities of Guerrero

The project to reduce vulnerability through environmental management and increasing constructive capacities in reinforced adobe, developed in communities of the Mountain region of Guerrero continues.

Center for Indigenous Education in La Ciénega

On March 16th the Supervision Center for Preschool Indigenous Education was inaugurated in the community of La Ciénega, municipality of Malinaltepec. The event was attended by municipal authorities of this community, and from others nearby, as well as authorities of the Intercultural University of the State of Guerrero, pre-school teachers of indigenous education, and representatives of Cooperación Comunitaria AC, who signed the certificate of delivery.

In the same community, we also developed a workshop about the maintenance of reinforced adobe construction to people from different communities in the Mountain region of Guerrero, such as Ojo de Agua, Paraje Montero, La Ciénega, Malinaltepec, Laguna Seca, Llano Pantanoso, San Luis Acatlán, Llano de Heno, La Taberna, and La Soledad.

Center for Indigenous Education in Ojo de Agua

The last details of the Supervision Center for Indigenous Education in the community of Ojo de Agua are almost finished, and it is expected to be inaugurated in June this year. Currently, we are building a dry toilet that contributes to reduce the contamination of groundwater systems and rivers in the region.

The technique of earth plastering over adobe walls has been well received by the people who have visited the center. This contributes to reduce a common practice in the region that consists on plastering adobe constructions with cement, which weakens the building because the cement prevents humidity of adobe walls from being released.

Considering the right to adequate housing a cultural right, the visual artist Mariana Castillo proposed to develop a series of earth stamps to plaster the Center inspired by an ancient codex called “Códice Azoyú”, a pictographic testimony made during the second half of the 16th century that tells a part of the history of the region, very important for the culture of the indigenous group called Me’phaa.

Environmental Classroom in the Intercultural University

The Self-Construction of the Environmental Classroom Project in the Intercultural University of the State of Guerrero (UIEG, in Spanish) had to be rescheduled due to the raining temporary coming soon, so it was not possible to start the constructive process this year. Nonetheless, we decided to advance in the formative process of the students and the production of all the adobes that will be used for the classroom is already finished.

We implemented workshops about safe housing and risk management, as well as a hands-on workshop to make adobes with students from 2nd and 6th semesters that are studying the careers of Sustainable Development and Alternative Tourism, whose subjects converge with the themes addressed in the project proposed by Cooperación Comunitaria to the UIEG.

In this context, the students also visited the Centers for Indigenous Education in La Ciénega and Ojo de Agua, so they could identify the reinforcement and habitability components in the constructive system proposed by Cooperación Comunitaria.

The third phase of the Comprehensive Reconstruction of Habitat project continues in communities of the Mountain region of Guerrero, affected by the hurricanes Ingrid and Manuel in 2013.

Indigenous Education Supervision Center in Ojo de Agua

From December 2018 until now, we concluded the construction of the Indigenous Education Supervision Center in the community of Ojo de Agua, in charge of the me’phaa school teacher Concepción Maldonado, who has been managing local resources and labor support from the teachers in her zone. They collaborated thru a mutual support activity to produce slip straw (a mixture of clay, straw and water placed in the roof to provide acoustic and thermal insulation).

Inside the building, the walls were plastered with mud to contribute to the modification of a common practice in the region, consisting on flattening adobe walls with cement, which weakens the structure by allowing humidity into it. We will gather the opinions on this matter from the inhabitants in the region that visit the Supervision Center.

Besides, the constructive process of the Center of Ojo de Agua has served to continue training young people in the region. Five inhabitants collaborated and were trained by the communitary promoter Grabiel Cantú, who has showed an increase in his constructive abilities and has improved the model of reinforced adobe, proposed by Cooperación Comunitaria since he got involved into the project when it started five years ago.

Indigenous Education Supervision Center in La Ciénega

Next March 16, the other Indigenous Education Supervision Center will be inaugurated, which was built in the community of La Ciénega last year with the advice of Cooperación Comunitaria. It is located in the same region as the other one, at the municipality of Malinaltepec.

The design and architectural program for both Centers are different from each other and compared to the ones we have built before in other communities. During the last five years we have developed different models with the purpose of resulting with a diversity of architectural proposals for the housing that are foreseen to be built further on, so this way they adapt to the different family needs.

Sustainable Classroom at the Intercultural University

During December we participated in the Week of Involvement of the Intercultural University of Guerrero State, where we continued the conversations with students and other academic members about the project to Self-build a Sustainable Classroom to discuss the types of participation during the constructive process and, once it is finished, to continue with the workshops of social production of habitat, as part of the formative process agreed with the institution in 2017.

At the end of February, we will develop a workshop of participative design with students and teachers of the university, based on the architectural and structural proposal projected by Cooperación Comunitaria’s team of architects and engineer. Later, the constructive and formative process will start, the last one will include workshops about reinforced adobe housing and risk management.

Our work extends to other communities

Last month we did a walk/trajectory through the community of Zilacayota —municipality of Acatepec— whose authorities called us to begin a formative process on risk management, due to the growth of landslides during the recent rainy temporary. Previously, we had linked to this community when Cooperación Comunitaria brought the first donation after the devastation caused by the hurricanes Ingrid and Manuel on september 2013.

The authorities of the community will participate in the process, as well as a Committee elected during an informative assembly developed to attend the problem.

The project thru the community radios

Finally, the transmission of clips in different community radio stations has started, that reaches the populations of Metlatónoc, Tlatlauqui, Iliatenco, San Luis Acatlán, San Miguel del Progreso and Espino Blanco. The purpose of this production is to sensitize and inform about issues related to social production of habitat, such as cornfield recovery, prevention of risks caused by landslides, secure settlement thru reinforced adobe housing, and defense of the territory.