Site visit to Tlahuac One of the poorest parts of Mexico City

Stan and I were up early again to meet Ulises, Lino Marquez (Centro Historico Rotary), and Ofelia A Hernandez from MexFam (like planned parenthood) to go to the community where they are working in collaboration with the Ballard and University (Seattle) Rotary Clubs. This part of the city is considered to be one of the poorest urban regions of Metro D.F.

This community is only about 12 miles from our hotel but seems like light years away in economic terms. MexFam has been working in the community for about 5 years now and a few years ago they realized they needed to take a more systems approach to improving the community.With the help of the the Ballard and University Rotary Clubs in Seattle and Rotary International, the Centro Historico Rotario is building a new community center (85 X 40 ft).

The community is very unique as there is a guard who controls access in and out of the community and there is NO drinking or drugs allowed.  Most of the houses are built in a connected row fashion. they are only about 6′ high and only 15 x 15 ft in floor area!.  These houses are not “legal” in the sense that they do not have formal “rights” to the land.

However, with the newer housing (under construction) the owners have land rights.  There is no running water and all the water is delivered by water trucks into open top 55 gal plastic barrels. Each barrel is numbered with the family’s house #.

We were invited specifically to look at the opportunities and challenges to provide rain water harvesting and dry latrine solutions.  In addition, they are interested in a community garden.

Like all opportunities this one presents its unique challenges and opportunities.  We look forward to collaborating with these Rotary Clubs to help provide innovative solutions.