Posted on Aug 18, 2021
Dave Stewart is currently leading a District Rotary Grant for the benefit of the Santa Maria Home and School for at-risk children and seniors in Colon, Queretaro, Mexico. In August, Dave Stewart and Father Dan Estes gave us an overview of the history and current status of our club’s involvement.
Dave was first introduced to the Santa Maria Home and School for at-risk children and seniors in 2005 through some contacts he had through another water project in which he was involved in Colombia.  In 2006, he brought in the Rotary Club of Fort Collins to support work on repairing/replacing the waste-water treatment facility for the orphanage.  This evolved into an attempt to create a water re-use project with the intention of raising tilapia fish and, ultimately, rabbits as a source of protein for the children at the orphanage.  Although both fish and rabbits were ultimately unsuccessful, (as was a project to raise spices for the international market) the project evolved into a more general agricultural effort that has been more successful in raising a wider range of crops and livestock, including a cow milking barn.  Part of this effort has involved installation of a security wall.  Plans for the immediate future include expanding and improving the water reservoir for the facility.  Over the years, this ever-expanding project has involved partnering with Engineers Without Borders, the Carroll College chapter of Engineers Without Borders, and Catholic Relief Services.  This ongoing project was recently given the District 5440 Project of the Year award. 
 
One of the learnings from the ongoing involvement with the orphanage is that there is a need for more long-term planning.  For example, the fish project was a good idea that suffered from a lack of intimate knowledge of the needs of the fish.  On the plus side, there was a lot of community involvement with local farmers working on the project and there has been significant support from the local Rotary club, especially in the form of contributed time by doctors and other professionals.  The young people at the orphanage are learning trade skills, for example welding for the men and marketable sewing skills for the women. 
 
With the emphasis on education, some of the young people are going on to post-high-school education, with the hope that some of these individuals might someday return to the orphanage as instructors.  Education has been supported by donation of some 500 books from RCFC and by a group of four teachers from the Poudre School District who went to the orphanage to assist and train the local teachers and nuns at the orphanage. 
 
The goals for the project remain establishing clean water and good sanitation, improving literacy with an emphasis on basic education (“Road to Reading”), and fostering economic and community development, building a community of trust. 
 
Father Dan Estes, the head of the orphanage for the past five years, followed first by thanking our club for our help over the years.  He then emphasized that one of the ongoing efforts of the organization is to prepare the kids for sustaining themselves after they turn 18 years old.  The organization now provides workshops so that those late teens who don’t go on to the university have the skills to work with others or to start their own businesses.  He also emphasized the effort to provide clean drinking water, currently from a reliable spring on the property but ultimately to be supported by a drilled well.  The emphasis on water includes an effort in the near future to expand irrigation, including expanding the nearby ponds for water storage in the dry months so that the land available for crops and livestock will be expanded.  One of the overarching goals is to plan for more sustainability and to set the kids up to contribute to the local society. 
 
In response to questions: 
 
How secure is the water supply?  They have dams on the property to collect rain water during the rainy season and they have a request in process for drilling a water well but the water supply is very precarious. 
 
What is the nature of contact with local Rotarians?  They get great help from the local club, including both help with the ponds and other small projects and also some special skills (for example, medical doctors) are provided rather than actual monetary contributions.  
 
Are the local residents involved in planning?  Although they can express what they would like to do, they can’t contribute much with respect to actual planning.  However, they do contribute significantly to implementation on the ground. 
 
What arrangements might be possible for a Rotary trip to the orphanage?  Once a group is on the ground in Colon, the orphanage can provide the necessary arrangements, but getting from Fort Collins to Colon is entirely our responsibility. 
 
Dave concluded the presentation by emphasizing that little if any of the project(s) would have been possible without the support of the Rotary Foundation.