Agriculture in Media Luna

The residents of Media Luna primarily rely on agriculture as a source of food and income. Through the results of the survey, it is becoming apparent that the problems with crops have a serious affect on the well being and livelihood of the families living in Media Luna. The two principal factors that affect the production of crops are the availability of water and fertilizer.

The irrigation system of Media Luna is based on taking turns. There are several irrigation streams that run throughout the community with smaller canals leading to different fields. The smaller canals' access to the stream water is shut off on certain days by blocking the water flow with a metal panel. One day certain community members irrigate their fields; the next day another group of community members irrigate their fields. While the system is the best that can be done at this time, the overall lack of water consensus is that no one receives enough water to satisfy the needs of the crops.

The fertilizer or abono as it's called here, is relatively expensive (90-95 soles, around $30, for 50 kg); therefore, the individual families aren't able to buy a sufficient amount of it. Our idea is to determine a simple and inexpensive (possibly organic) way for the community members to create their own fertilizer. We hope that in addition to the homemade fertilizer being cheaper, that it will also have less of a negative impact on the environment. As the fertilizers currently used are mainly chemically based, an organic alternative will not only last longer but will be better for the fields and the surrounding environment overall.

In order to make sure that the needs of the soil and crops will be met, I've been working to establish contact with someone who specializes in this field. The University of Cusco has a department devoted to Agriculture and Zoology (Agonomia y Zootecnia) and seems like a good source to explore. However, unlike many U.S. university websites (the websites I'm used to searching) the emails of most professors are not listed on the Peruvian university websites. So the two that are listed will receive an email from me and hopefully will be able to provide information or direct me to someone who can.

The idea of teaching the Media Luna residents how to make their own fertilizer seems to be a sustainable plan. They should have a great interest in this project, as a major complaint we've heard is that the fertilizer from the stores is too expensive. We just need to make sure that the fertilizer will be as effective if not more effective than the products they currently use.

Healthcare in Urubamba & the Possibility of Healthcare in Media Luna

Today Conny accompanied Daniel and I to visit the directors of the private hospital and the public health center in Urubamba. We went with the intentions of learning about the health care system of Urubamba and to find out what the directors thought about creating a small healthcare post in Media Luna.

The private hospital is for people who are well insured and typically work in the professional sector. MINSA, the public health option, serves the lower-income sector that works in the manual labor sector, i.e. agriculture, construction, etc. This low-income section of the population is able to enroll in a public insurance option for one sol (approximately $0.30 US). Anyone who resides in the communities outside of Urubamba proper most likely goes to MINSA for their medical concerns, although the payment is small not everyone is insured. However, schools are working to make sure that the students are insured and sometimes able to talk with the entire families about the importance of the medical insurance.

The consensus regarding the idea to create some sort of outlet for medical attention in Media Luna is that it would be a waste of human and economic resources.

Dr. Martin, the director of the private hospital, reasoned that there are prerequisites for constructing medical centers, dependent on several factors but predominantly the population size of a community. He argued that the hospitals in Urubamba are close enough to Media Luna and maybe the problem lies in the availability of transportation.

Dr. Fredy, the director of MINSA, gave our proposition to create a small medical outlet some thought but still contended that it would be a waste of resources. Like many public health options, MINSA is lacking in personnel and technological resources. For example, he shared that the health center has been waiting three years for new scales. Dr. Freddy discussed two options that Nexos Voluntarios can contemplate in regards to addressing health issues in Media Luna. We can take a curative approach that would require the availability of a doctor and a nurse to the community and would only solve problems after they arise. Or we can pursue a preventative approach that would require either a nurse or a nursing technician and would aim to avoid most health problems before they occur.

Overall, the morning was slightly discouraging but absolutely necessary in the development of our plans for Media Luna. So many well-intentioned plans of development are never completed because they are not properly researched. While we need to start over with our thought process it is better to do so before any real actions were taken or funds were spent.

Healthy Communities-USAID

Wednesday evening Daniel and I met with Dr. Victor from USAID. He has been working with USAID on a program called Municipios y Comunidades Saludables (Healthy Municipalities and Communities) for the past few years. The program is based on a self-diagnosis of the problems of the community that leads to a plan of action to solve such problems. The primary tool for identifying the problems of the community and of the families involved is a diagnostic questionnaire that asks details about different aspects of daily life. The most important characteristic of this program is that the families and communities are responsible for completing their own diagnostic and forming their own plans of action. This method should result in the most honest answers and the most promising plans for change. As outside organizations, USAID and Nexos Voluntarios (NeVo), cannot know what the most serious problems of the community are or how to solve them without the support of the community.

The survey that is being used for NeVo's purposes asks questions that are similar to those in the USAID diagnostic, but it is not as specific in some areas. While community development needs to be thought about as being a long-term project, it is also a multi-dimensional project. At this time Nexos is not only focusing on health, we are still trying to grasp what the people of Media Luna perceive as their most pressing issues. From the results of the survey so far, there is no consensus on which problems need immediate attention. We have decided not to incorporate any of the diagnostic's questions into our survey at this time and to continue with the questions as they are.

Even though a self-diagnostic seems like a great option to gather information about a community, in the rural areas (the focal points of this program) organizations need to anticipate people who are illiterate or non-Spanish speakers.

More information on USAID and the Healthy Municipalities and Communities program is available at the following website: www.comunidadsaludable.org

First Rounds of Surveys

Yesterday I went to Media Luna accompanied by Daniel, the new projects coordinator at Nexos. We went to meet with Zenobio with the intention to write down some goals and to ask when he would be able to help us navigate the community to complete the survey that was started a few months ago. Daniel and I found Zenobio in the same rushed state as the previous visit and he told us to come early this morning so that he could guide us through the community. So we left Zenobio to his fields and wandered around the community for a little while to gain some sense of direction.

We returned to Media Luna this morning a little before 7AM to meet Zenobio with our map and list of community members in hand. He went through the list and told us who had been surveyed before, and who no longer lived in the community. The extensiveness of the community became clear as Zenobio pointed in any and all directions when describing which houses we had to visit. Zenobio was not able to go with us due to his obligations to work on his chacra (field).

After easily finding a few families who were not interviewed we had to go farther to find more houses. Once we were in the highest part of the community we encountered families with different problems than those who lived closer to the main road. While almost everyone in Media Luna relies on agriculture for their livelihood, some people have more opportunities to obtain work outside of their agricultural practices. This may be caused by the size of each family's field which affects how much they are able to produce and therefore how much they are able to sell. Most of the households that were farther away from the main road that we interviewed had smaller plots of land and therefore were more dependent on that land to produce the necessary alimentation for their families and usually did not produce and excess that they could sell.

As these households earn less money, they discussed certain social problems that the other families did not. We asked about the children’s attendance to school but also asked if the interviewee was aware of any children in the community who did not go to school, in addition to asking if their children go to school. We expect that by asking some questions in an indirect way that we will be able to secure honest answers. This is extremely necessary if we are to know the reality of the community and not have to waft through answers that may be what they think we want to hear.

We completed seven surveys this morning over the span of four hours. The following days will most likely be the same as the community is very spread out and half of the families have already been interviewed.

This afternoon Daniel and I are going to Cusco to meet with a doctor from USAID to discuss the possibility of using a diagnostic survey he’s created. This survey has more to do with determining malnutrition and other health issues. If we are able to acquire this diagnostic survey we may have to start over again with the community but it will be very valuable in determining their medical needs. Medical care was determined to be the principal need of the community after the first half of the survey was completed by Mariajosé and Igor.

Introduction to Nexos Voluntarios and Media Luna

Nexos Voluntarios is a Peru-based, non-profit organization with a mission to promote social development in a variety of areas through volunteer projects. The organization began a community development program in Media Luna in May 2009. Media Luna is a small community of about 100 families just 3 kilometers from Urubamba in the Sacred Valley of Peru. Two volunteers from McGill University, Mariajosé Aguilera and Igor Kozulovic created a survey to gather basic information about the population and to identify the major problems of the community. During the 3 months that they volunteered, they were able to interview about half of the community and also sponsored several projects including an Environment Awareness Week.

I am picking up around where they left off before they headed back to school. I arrived in Urubamba on Tuesday and visited Media Luna for the first time this morning. Accompanied by Conny, a Nexos coordinator, I met with the president of the community Sr. Zenobio. He showed me a few areas of the community, which is much more extensive than I anticipated, and explained the recent addition of potable water to the community and the plans to establish a sewage system. Both projects are implemented with the assistance of JASS (Juntas Administradoras de Servicios de Saneamiento / Administrative Board of Sanitation Services), an organization created to help rural communities gain access to potable water and sewage systems. As we started to walk back to the main road we came across a few other prominent community members, Sr. Alejandro, Sr. Juquisidor and another gentleman. They made it clear that September would be a difficult month for the community to participate in many meetings because they will be busy sowing their fields, as spring is upon us in the southern hemisphere. We were able to agree on meeting for a short time on Tuesday morning to discuss what the goals of the community are and who will take on which roles as we work to achieve those objectives.