Invitation received by Isla Urbana to serve together with the Indigenous Mexican Huitchol - a group living high in the mountains with little resource.
After a successful project in Puerto Rico with Isla Urbana, Mexico's rainwater harvesting nonprofit, Sat Nam Foundation was invited to collaborate with the project Ha Ta Tukari. The Huitchol are a indigenous group of Mexicans that fled the conquest of Spain. They hid in the remote mountains where life was tough. Water and food are scarce. People were living off of 4 liters of water per day (including bathing, washing, cooking, and growing food!). As a result, child mortality rates were high.
The members of Ha Ta Tukari have been working with the Huitchol since 2014 and have successfully installed over 200 rainwater harvesting systems. Community systems have the capacity to hold 30,000 liters of water, while individual homes are equipped with 15,000 liter cisterns. The way of life for the Huitchol has dramatically changed.
Illness has reduced by over 60% in the communities that Ha Ta Tukari has worked with. The people have more time to focus on art, spirituality, growing gardens, and living a healthy lifestyle. A new sense of abundance was introduced into the community.
During the week Sat Nam Foundation joined Ha Ta Tukari, we brought material to install 50 stoves with chimneys in 50 homes. Previously, many families cooked on open fires in the house - blackening the walls and their lungs.
We trained members of the community to install the stoves, and used grant money to pay them to install the remainder of the stoves throughout the communities. This is an incredible use of grant money.
The Huitchol annual average income per family is $1,000.
As modern society creeps in, the teenagers are interested in the outside world. Though they need money to participate. Meanwhile, the narcos have also encroached on their communities and are growing poppy for drug production throughout the valleys. As there is little work with the Huitchol community, many teenagers get gobbled up by the narcos. Many die or go on to live a dangerous life full of crime. Providing positive work for them is a service Ha Ta Tukari provides.
On top of the stoves, we also troubleshot a few rainwater harvesting systems (like in the video below). This is an ongoing project, and Sat Nam Foundation is welcome to collaborate. If you are interested in supporting this project, contact seva@satnamfoundation.org