Hello Wonderful Readers,
Steve reporting here: My week was full of integrating and learning. It included meeting IMDEC folks, going to Juanacátlan to facilitate social media workshops, and eating bacon. Juanacátlan is my focus. I’ve met wonderful people there, including lifelong residents who told me of the glorious history of this laid-back, lovely pueblito.
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Yes, this week we enjoyed a full social calendar of meeting and greeting a gaggle of wonderful people. It’s been a true pleasure. First off, we’ve gotten to know the fine people of IMDEC. The experience and collective knowledge of their staff is impressive and the familial atmosphere of their workspace is rather inviting.
IMDEC began as a popular education organization, with theoretical roots in the work of Paulo Frere. They have since expanded their scope of expertise to include sustainable development and human rights advocacy. In two weeks we’ll help them document a Latin American wide popular education conference, marking their 45th year anniversary as an organization.
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We finally sat down and hammered out the official mission for Adapting to Scarcity. It’s been guiding us since the beginning – it just took us some time to put into words.
Our mission is to empower and connect communities adapting to water scarcity. By providing technical infrastructure to leverage social media, we facilitate participatory, grassroots organizing within and between local communities on a global scale.
Our mission is to empower and connect communities adapting to water scarcity. With digital and internet-based social media tools, we aim to help these communities share their knowledge and experiences. We believe that this global grassroots information sharing will help strengthen and build movements adapting to water scarcity worldwide. [Updated 21 November, 2009]
Furthermore, we’ve laid out our objectives for the next 6-9 months in Gudalajara, Mexico:
1. Make a documentary for IMDEC (Instituto Mexicano para el Desarrollo Comunitario) to strengthen the local movements struggling to adapt to water scarcity. Using 6 (or more!) FlipVideo cameras as well as a high definition video camera, the documentary will be filmed in part by participants in these local movements as well as ourselves. Topics to be covered/goals include:
- Popular education efforts by IMDEC (eg environmental education and photography project by children)
- Efforts by IMDEC to facilitate the organizing capacity of local communities
- Raise awareness about contamination levels in the local watershed
- Rio Santiago, which flows through the greater Guadalajara area, is one of the most polluted rivers in the world
- All of Guadalajara’s untreated effluent (human and industrial) flows into this river.
- Factories, under the protection of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), are dumping their waste into the river.
- Raise awareness about and share solutions and alternatives
2. Create a web-based media library to connect local movements adapting to water scarcity around the world and to facilitate global knowledge sharing.
- The initial media for the site will be generated by those participating in filming the documentary as well as footage from our friends in GroundwaterUp project in New Delhi, India
- People from around the world will be able to easily upload, edit and share their own media clips through the site using already existing, open source software/technology
- Users and communities will be able to organize locally and globally through the site (specifics TBD)
- Ideally, media uploaded to the site will focus on strategies, solutions and failures movements worldwide. This will help prevent communities from reinventing the wheel and allow relevant solutions to be implemented where they’re needed most.
As an organization with the intent of serving local communities, we expect these objectives to be as dynamic as the communities we’ll be working with in and around Guadalajara. And of course, we are open to your thoughts, comments and questions!
We are very pleased to report that Adapting to Scarcity is now a Flip Spotlight Partner! Flip provides one free Ultra 60 minute camcorder for every camera purchased by our organization. Along with that excellent deal, the Spotlight program has a channel on Youtube which will increase our visibility on the internet. The next step is to apply for non profit partnership on Youtube, because that will provide many more online tools and resources for posting video online. With rapidly evolving technology, the face of media is following suit. We look forward to working with IMDEC and the communities in Guadalajara to make our contribution to the new wave of grassroots reporting.
Uncertainty dominated my planning and preparations this past week, and flexibility emerged as the only answer. I let go of my sense of order while confronting changes in trip plans, research methods, and expectations of myself before the departure. Swine flu and the looming threat of an uncontrollable pandemic frightened and surprised me. My commitment didn’t falter, but the barriers to my trip to Mexico became intimidating. The situation is certainly looking more hopeful and less dire, however it is still early to tell the lasting effects of swine flu.
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Last night I attended a screening of Liz Miller’s documentary film The Water Front at the Food and Water Watch (FWW) office in San Francisco. FWW wrote the documentary “offers a sharp look at the possible risks ahead for communities looking to privatize their water supply.” The movie highlighted a community’s struggle to maintain their right to affordable water amidst a privatization scheme pushed forward by outside consultants hired to balance the city’s budget. The citizens of Highland Park, Michigan, right outside of Detroit, successfully organized a grassroots campaign to maintain control of the public water supply, however lost a million dollars by employing the consultants.
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Tags: campaign, El Salto, Food and Water Watch, grassroots, Highland Park, IMDEC, infrastructure, La Red Vida, Liz Miller, public private partnership, public water, The Water Front
Literature, Relationships | sarah | 
28 April 2009 18:31 | 
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Hello friends and visitors,
After much hemming and hawing, I’ve decided to start a blog for my project! Hopefully the blog will help me remain focused on my mission while sharing the steps I take with you all. Today I post my first weekly (at least) update on my work: what I’ve accomplished and aspire to achieve in the coming weeks. Preparing for a multifaceted research project and moving to Mexico is a really intimidating task, and I am taking it bit by bit.
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