COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS

September 19, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Volunteer, support and get involved with San Miguel’s nongovernmental organizations. Does your nonprofit need some extra help? Send your short requests to edit@atencionsanmiguel.org  with “Volunteer Opportunities” in the subject line. Maybe you have an event coming up and some extra support would be appreciated.


ALMA 152-7210

Calle Jacaranda 148, four blocks from Mega, Robin MacKenzie, 154-4858

PO Box 981, San Miguel, GTO 37700

ALMA (Asilo de Ancianos) is a residence in Colonia La Lejona where seniors are lovingly cared for regardless of their ability to pay. ALMA was started in 1996 by Margaret Galloway and Carmina Casas and houses 34 people at a time. ALMA means soul in Spanish, and that is what ALMA brings to its residents, soul. ALMA provides residents with shelter, food, medicine and care. Contributing is a wonderful way to give back to your community and to help a worthy and often forgotten cause. You can make a huge difference in someone else’s life. In addition you may want to consider Alma for your own senior residence care. For the monthly sale: for pick up, call Rosalie at 154-0186. Free shuttle van from Espinos every half hour, 



Amigos de Animales http://amigosdeanimales.blogspot.com/ 

We are dedicated to improving the lives of dogs and cats in San Miguel by curbing overpopulation via the spaying and neutering of pets whose owners cannot afford to pay; educating children and adults about the care of and respect for animals; and working with the San Miguel Municipality to end the suffering of street animals and lost pets.

Amigos recognizes the value of animals and is committed to serve them because they lack the ability to speak for or defend themselves in the face of abuse, abandonment and neglect.

President: Arno K. Naumann,, info@amigos-sma.org 



Atención edit@atencionsanmiguel.org

Biblioteca Pública, Insurgentes 25, 152-3770

Open Mon–Fri, 10am–4pm

The purpose of Atención San Miguel is to create and reinforce community among San Miguel residents and visitors, and to bridge the cultural gap between town’s foreign-born and Mexican national residents. The Biblioteca Pública has published Atención since May 30, 1975, as an English-language newspaper with key sections in Spanish. Advertising revenues support the library.



“I have never seen such a rich-looking weekly, so crammed with handsome full-page color advertisements, as Atención San Miguel, the 116-page expat newspaper I came across this weekend.” Matt Welch, LA Times, Feb 20, 2007. 

Editor in Chief: Suzanne Ludekens



Audubon http://www.audubonmex.org/

The Audubon mission is to experience, enjoy and protect the birds of the region and thereby enhance and promote our understanding of the local ecosystems; to educate and enlist the people of the community to restore and maintain the quality of our natural environment. Audubon, partnering with other NGOs and the ecology departments of the city and state, will work together to restore the Upper Rio Laja Watershed; develop and maintain a birding sanctuary and research center in Parque Landeta for the purpose of education and recreation, and in the future, assist in any other related ecological enhancement and protective projects.

President: Linda Whynman, vellum1@mac.com 



Authors’ Sala www.authorssalasanmiguel.com

The mission of the San Miguel Authors’ Sala is to provide visibility, community and education for writers and readers in both English and Spanish.

The Authors’ Sala presents works by writers of novels, poetry, memoirs, short stories, and nonfiction, as well as agents and editors. Additionally, it presents readings and workshops for writers and aspiring writers. Look for books by local authors in a special section in La Tienda in the Biblioteca. Most events are held in the Posada de San Francisco, Plaza Principal 2, at the corner with calle Hidalgo, across from the Jardín. Events are 5–7pm and are usually 50 pesos. 




Best of Burros See Leading with English


Biblioteca Pública www.bibliotecasma.com See also Atención, Café Santa Ana, House & Garden Tour, Teatro Santa Ana 

Insurgentes 25 and Reloj 50A CP 37700 

Open Mon–Fri, 10am–7pm, Sat 10am–2pm 

The library of the future and the education/cultural/community center of San Miguel is home to the second largest collection of English-language books in Mexico, the bilingual newspaper Atención, the House & Garden Tour and Teatro & Café Santa Ana. Provides secondary & tertiary scholarships, art classes and many other activities for sanmiguelenses.

President Gregory Diamant

General Manager: Miguel Kegel: gm@bibliotecasma.com 



Café Santa Ana helps support the Biblioteca’s activities and is a popular gathering place before and after movies, plays and lectures. Local artists exhibit at the Café and musicians make Wednesday nights lively.



CASA (Centro para los Adolescentes de San Miguel de Allende) http://www.casa.org.mx/sanmiguel.html  

Monday through Friday from 9am to 4pm, 154-6060 

CASA is a nonprofit organization that has been serving the poor, particularly adolescents, rural women and their families, through health, social service, education, and environmental outreach programs since 1981. It has created Mexico’s first government approved Midwifery School, which has been cited as meeting international criteria for effective replication in countries worldwide. It teaches others to teach, a pedagogy that has enabled hundreds who, in turn, have affected the lives of thousands. Its focus on advocacy, from community initiatives for health and environmental issues to sounding the clarion call against family violence, has inspired, empowered and benefited thousands.



Casita Linda www.casitalinda.org 

Casita Linda is a Mexican nonprofit organization founded in 2001. Their primary goal is to provide simple decent housing to the most disadvantaged who are living in shacks. We are focusing on helping those with such limited resources they cannot apply for government housing programs. For the families we help, even organizations such as Habitat for Humanity are beyond their reach.

Executive Director: Jean Gerber jean@casitalinda.org



The Center for Global Justice

(Cliff DuRand or Betsy Bowman) 

Calzada de la Luz 42

Tel. 150-0025



Centro de Crecimiento www.centrodecrecimiento.org  

Centro de Crecimiento is a therapy center for disabled children 

Tel. 01 (415) 152-0318 

Zamora Ríos. Col 6. Allende

Centro de Crecimiento organizes the Saturday Adventure Tours as a primary fundraiser. Tickets are 150 pesos at El Pegaso, Casa Maxwell and in the Jardín on Fridays, 10:30am–12:30pm. Tours depart from the Jardín every Saturday at 10:30am.



Chamber Music Festival

The “Summer” Chamber Music Festival (30th Annual) needs volunteers for various assignments in housing and transportation, event planning/support, student program help, “asking” and some office assistance for the festival scheduled July 31–August 17. Contact Gloria G. at promocion@festivalsanmiguel.com, or call 154-8722. Festival offices are in Bellas Artes.



El Charco del Ingenio http://www.laneta.apc.org/charco/ 

Open daily from sunrise to sunset. Conservatory of Mexican Plants: open 9am–4pm. 

Information, memberships and guided visits: Tel/fax (415) 154-4715, (415) 154-8838 

e-mail: charcodelingenio@gmail.com. 

Admission 30 pesos, children under 10 free. Discounts for students and groups. Annual membership: 500 pesos.

El Charco del Ingenio is an extraordinary natural monument. Its name comes from a natural pool, nestled in an impressive canyon, which popular legend has interwoven with myths and stories since the Spanish conquest. Among the rocks and scrub lie vestiges of aqueducts and waterworks from the past. A historic reservoir receives the water draining from the nearby mountains, forming permanent wetlands where birds and other wildlife abound. During the rainy season, water overflows the dam, cascading into to pools in the wooded depths of the canyon. The high canyon walls open towards the west, with a magnificent view of San Miguel at the foot of the hills, the wide valley of the Laja River and on the far horizon, the Guanajuato Mountains.

Information: Naomi Zerriffi, nzerriffi@yahoo.com 



Colegio Los Charcos

Colegio Los Charcos is a bilingual Waldorf School that offers full and partial scholarships to local Mexican children. An independent school rooted in the international movement and philosophy of Waldorf education, we provide an environment that inspires students to reach high levels of intellectual, spiritual, artistic and physical achievement. Faculty and staff work in partnership with the larger school community to keep this environment vital, dynamic and diverse. By integrating academic and artistic pursuits, we honor the potential within children to fully develop their unique abilities. Our students acquire a lifelong love of learning and a sense of compassion and joy that benefits them, their community and their world at large.



Expresión en Corto International Film Festival in July in San Miguel and Guanajuato.



FAI (Fundación Apoyo Infantil) Save the Children has a store on calle Hidalgo, just down from the Jardín.



Feed the Hungry www.feedthehungrysma.org 

Feed the Hungry is an independent nonprofit corporation in the US and Mexico providing hot, nutritious meals to 4,000 school children a day. The high-protein vegetarian diet includes fresh vegetables, legumes, soy, rice, fortified tortillas and fruit.

Our 32 kitchens are attached to elementary schools in the San Miguel rural area and now employ 45 local women to cook the food. They receive year-round pay, medical benefits and a pension. 

Every week volunteers at a central warehouse pack dry food for each kitchen. Bulk purchasing, inventory control and dedicated volunteers allow us to feed a child for $65 a year. A donor also can feed a village’s children for a year by sponsoring a Feed the Hungry kitchen for US$7,500. Contributions are tax deductible.

Volunteers: Feed the Hungry is looking for volunteers to help with the preventive medical screening of our school children. We are looking for bilingual persons, computer data input operators and drivers with access to a vehicle with high ground clearance willing to drive out to the ranchos. This medical work is being conducted in cooperation with Patronato Pro Niños. For more information, call 152-2402 or contact@feedthehungrysma.org. 



Festival de Música de Cámara See Chamber Music Festival



FINO (Fundación Internaciónal de Niños Olvidados, A.C.) See Leading with English



Garden Club of San Miguel de Allende

The Garden Club’s purpose is to join together with like-minded people to learn, discuss, enjoy and promote interest in flowers, plants, gardens, gardening and floral arrangements. The club promotes projects to benefit the city and surrounding areas, such as Campaign for a Clean City; maintenance of the Biblioteca’s many trees and plants; building three new greenhouses, a windmill and a tree barrier El Charco del Ingenio; funding a drinking fountain in Parque Benito Juárez; and a vegetable garden for Alma. The club presents a bi-annual flower show and publishes a calendar whose sales proceeds fund many of the above programs. 



Hospice San Miguel is looking for volunteers with experience in fundraising and publicity. Please call 154-4287 or email markb@hospicesma.org. 



House & Garden Tour is a long-running Biblioteca program on Sundays that provides US$75,000 a year in scholarships to local students. About 125–175 people meet at the Biblioteca in the late morning to wait for buses, enjoying an atmosphere made festive by artists, musicians and Café snacks. Descriptions of the houses are in that Friday’s Atención. 



Instituto Allende

Instituto Allende field trips are all-inclusive; (transportation, hotel, museum fees and restaurant meals) and bilingual guides provide valuable insights.

On Wednesdays at 4pm, the Instituto presents a free lecture which previews and provides background for upcoming field trips.

Jóvenes Adelante http://jovenesadelante.org/ 

Jóvenes Adelante (Youth Go Forward!) was founded in 2001 by a small group of volunteers in San Miguel to provide five-year university scholarships to outstanding Mexican high school graduates without sufficient resources to continue their education.

Applications are accepted and reviewed in the spring for scholarships commencing in August. Applicants must show a determination to succeed, have superior grades in their preparatorias and demonstrate the need for financial assistance. Following initial interviews, the most promising applicants are visited in their homes where the level of economic need and family support is evaluated.

Students selected for scholarships receive a monthly stipend, support and encouragement; a mentor with whom they meet monthly; and the opportunity to study English in small classes with fellow students. 

Thirty-nine scholarship recipients currently study law, medicine, dentistry, engineering and accounting in 16 universities throughout Mexico. Ten graduates are professionally employed.

New scholarships awarded yearly are determined by donations from individuals and foundations and the success of ongoing fundraising events. 



Leading with English http://www.forgottenchild.org 

Leading with English is a program of Forgotten Child International and Fundación Internaciónal de Ninos Olvidados. Leading with English helps identify leaders and inspire leadership skills through English language acquisition among Mexican rural children. We work with the local school teachers and community leaders to expose children to English language skills which can create potential alternative paths for future employment and/or educational opportunities within Mexico. Leading with English uses a unique combination of interdisciplinary, experiential approaches and resources, reinforced by teams of English-speaking volunteers. Currently, we are working in the village of Jalpa on Wednesdays noon–3pm starting October 1. Volunteers should serve once a week for a minimum of four to six weeks. Transportation provided. Contact Elizabeth at www.finoacmex.com. 

An annual fundraiser is the Best of Burros Festival in Jalpa in March.



Mujeres en Cambio

Mujeres en Cambio helps young rural Mexican women gain an education and thus foster their self-sufficiency, self-esteem and self-respect. We currently support 160 scholarships students, promising young women recommended by their school’s principal and teachers. Continued receipt of a scholarship is dependent upon maintaining good grades. Annual high school scholarships are US$275. College students receive US$1,000 annually. We raise and pay out approximately US$75,000 per year. Administrative costs are nearly zero since most are funded by members. Exceptions include our legally required accounting and legal fees. Membership is entirely composed of volunteers who plan and organize fundraising events. We are a legally established nonprofit organization under Mexican law. US tax-deductible donations may be made through San Miguel Community Foundation.



Patronato Pro Niños annmauze@msn.com 

Contact: Ann Mauzé, 150-0138

PPN, one of the oldest and most vibrant charities in SMA, is looking for a selective group of volunteers who would be willing to dedicate two or more mornings per month to go out to the outlying areas of the municipality of San Miguel de Allende to visit schools, talk about the work that PPN is doing to assist children with medical and dental problems, and to invite those children who need medical attention to the office of PPN for evaluation and assistance at little or no cost to the family. The volunteers ideally would either be reasonably fluent in Spanish and/or have a car/truck/SUV which can withstand the back (mostly unpaved) roads of the municipality. If interested, please contact Steve Livingston at steve@stevelivingston.com with your name and contact information.

For PPN’s Building Campaign, call the Development office at 152-7796 and ask for either Floyd Edwards, Project Leader or Isobella Couperthwaite Kreizel, President. 



PEASMA (Proyecto de Educación Ambiental San Miguel Allende) Environmental Education Project San Miguel de Allende



Pro Musica

Pro Musica de San Miguel AC puts on more than 30 classical music concerts throughout the year in the city. We are looking for volunteers to fulfill various roles. These include helping out as ushers at St Paul’s church and other venues during concerts, selling tickets prior to the House and Garden Tour at the Biblioteca on Sunday mornings, helping to organize suppers in private homes after concerts for our musicians and patrons, and assisting with publicity, marketing and fundraising. We are a fun group of people to work with and the music is fantastic! Contact Pro Musica’s President, Michael Pearl, at 152-2688 or email him at mpearl5493@aol.com. 



Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende- Midday www.rotarysma.org 


Meets: Hotel Real de Minas, Tuesdays, 12:30pm 

A multicultural English-speaking Rotary Club was chartered June 30, 2005, in San Miguel de Allende Their mission is to work on projects to help the residents in the greater San Miguel community. 

President David Bossman



Sala Quetzal See Teatro Santa Ana



San Miguel Community Foundation (formerly San Miguel Educational Foundation) founded in 1976.

San Miguel Meditation Center
Callejon Blanco 4, near Quebrada

San Miguel School of English teaches 250 Mexican adults in six levels from late August through April each year. Students pay a very low fee to make classes accessible. Volunteer teachers are needed for all levels and may or co-teach or have their own classes. No teaching experience is necessary as the school provides materials, including excellent teacher’s guides. The evening classes begin August 25—Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, 6–7:30pm. It is not necessary to be available the entire year; volunteers for shorter periods also are needed, as are teachers willing to substitute. For more information, call Carole Whitney at 152-3050 or Jean Yeager at 152-0916.

Saturday Adventurers See Centro de Crecimiento.

Save a Mexican Mutt (SAMM) is a charitable organization that rescues, spays/neuters, provides veterinary care, socializes, and transports highly adoptable Mexican street dogs to the United States for adoption. We need volunteers to foster dogs for up to six weeks and to transport dogs to the United States. If you live here full or part-time and can provide a temporary loving home for one of the many dogs in line to be transported to their forever homes or are traveling to Texas, New Mexico or Colorado by car and can transport one or more dogs with you, please contact Kelly Karger at info@saveamexicanmutt.org and see our website at www.saveamexicanmutt.org. (Save A Mexican Mutt is a US 501c3 charitable organization. Donations to SAMM are tax-deductible on your US federal tax return.)



Save the Children See FAI.



So Others May Eat

Antonette and Joe Lim, The Spa at Recreo 38, 152-8666 

SOME has provided hot meals for nearly 20 years to San Miguel’s elderly Mexican residents. Each Wednesday, 130 participants break bread communally at a sit-down comida served restaurant-style by volunteer waiters and waitresses, many of them foreign residents.

Antonette and Joe Lim started SOME in 1989 and have orchestrated it ever since. They donate 20 percent of The Spa proceeds for to help “the old folks overcome their feelings of isolation, loneliness and neglect, both physically and spiritually.”

The Spa also hands out weekly food boxes and at Christmas volunteers distribute donated sweaters, socks, mittens and blankets. On Mother’s Day, women receive aprons; on Father’s Day, men are given hats. On August 29, Día de los Ancianos, those who need help walking receive canes. A group fiesta celebrates those birthdays which fall within that month. The Lims or their volunteers also visit ill people to bring fellowship and strengthen family ties during the patient’s final days. 



SPA (Sociedad Protectora de Animales) http://www.spasanmiguel.org/ 

Los Pinos 7, colonia Lindavista, (CP 37736) a right turn off Calzada de la Estación, just before the bus station. Mail: La Conexión, Aldama 3 (mark envelope SPA).Weekdays: office hours 10am–2pm; volunteers 11am–2pm. Information: Tel: 011 52 (415) 152 6124, Para información en español, por favor llamas 152-6124. The Sociedad Protectora de Animales has been leading the charge in animal welfarefor over 20 years. It is the only animal shelter for dogs and cats in San Miguel and environs.We have a 24/7 operation which houses up to 100 animals. For this, our annual budget is high and so are our spirits as we register our major makeover in the last two years.

Adoption donations range between 250 and 300 pesos, including sterilization. If you can’t adopt, please consider sponsoring an animal for 150 pesos a month, to provide extra care and medication until the animal finds a home. We fund an on-premises clinic which offers low-cost veterinary care, vaccinations and spay/neuter Services to needy resident animal owners. Our adoption numbers are constantly increasing as the accumulative effect of an ever-more professional operation plays out. Recently, we have instituted a community outreach sponsorship program which trains young Mexicans to work with animal obedience and care. This provides the youth potential employment in animal sitting and care, which is much in demand among San Miguel’s foreign and traveling residents.Volunteers work with the animals and help find welcoming homes for them. We’re always seeking more hands, hearts and minds—with organizational skills, time to help with fundraising, and always, to touch and play with our animals.Director: Natalie Hardy, natalie@spasanmiguel.org. 

Summer Literary Festival See also Authors’ Sala

Teatro Santa Ana and Sala Quetzal are the main venues at the Biblioteca Pública for music, movies, plays, lectures, choir practice and workshops. Revenues support the Biblioteca.



Acronyms



CASA = Centro para los Adolescentes de San Miguel de Allende



CFE = Comisión Federal de Electricidad (electricity)



DIF = Family Services Agency



IMSS = Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (Mexican Institute of Social Security) 



IREE = Instituto de Rehabilitación y Enseñanza Especial



SMEF = San Miguel Educational Fund



SAPASMA = Sistema de Agua Potable y Alcantarillado de San Miguel (San Miguel water company)



SEDMA= Federal National Defense Secretariat.