Potable water for 400 in rural Mexico

Dear Global Giving Supporters, 

We have big news to kick off our first report of 2016.  Our organization, CATIS Mexico, recently changed its name to Caminos de Agua to better suit our mission and vision moving forward! Our dedication to providing clean and safe water for communities in rural Mexico has not changed in the slightest.  Now we just have a name that better promotes the work we do.  While CATIS Mexico is still one of our legal names, we will be using Caminos de Agua as our official name moving forward. 

We are floored by the excitement and support we have received down here in Mexico regarding the new name, and we hope all of you are excited by it as well! 

Now…on to the updates.

Closing out 2015, we were able to do so much more with the funds raised through Global Giving than we thought possible.  That is due in great part to the amazing communities we work with who provided all of the labor, sand, gravel, tools, and other materials for free. 

That said, since our last update, we have not brought in enough funds through Global Giving to do another rainwater system just yet.  However, that does not mean we are closing out this project!  The funds we do have will be added to a small grant received through our partner coalition – the Coalition in Defense of the Independence Watershed.  In our last coalition meeting, our community partners proposed cisterns in four communities: Los Platanos, Pozo Hondo, Rancho Nuevo, and San Antonio de la Lourdes.  Those last two names may sound familiar.  Both Ranch Nuevo and San Antonio were part of earlier rainwater projects through this Global Giving campaign.   There is so much need in these two communities and their dedication is awe-inspiring.  Thus, we are going back to start a new phase for these two communities, and we are planning on starting all four (4) of these new rainwater systems in March.

We need your help to get keep this moving!  The rainy season is right around the corner, and we need to take advantage now! There are hundreds of thousands of people – in more than 2,000 rural communities - in this region alone still suffering from water access and contamination concerns, and we are committed to getting them clean and safe drinking water through our proven system.  We are now looking for new sources of funding to continue this important work, but we hope all of our Global Giving donors will continue to have a loud voice in this project.  We want you to continue being part of this, and we have shown what we can accomplish with your support.  So, please, consider donating to this project, and/or telling your friends about this work.

I would like to end with a quick summary of what we have accomplished so far through this campaign:

1)    Increased our estimated impact by 30% of the original proposal due to the efforts of local communities themselves,

2)    Installed 14 rainwater-harvesting cisterns and 32 ceramic water filtration systems,

3)    These systems were installed in 24 community homes and 6 rural schools,

4)    Providing direct access to clean and safe drinking water to more than 300 people in 7 different communities.

We are continuing to increase our impact through any means possible, and we hope you will continue to help making that happen.  As always, thank you so much for your support in making this work happen.

Saludos,

Dylan