A universal problem demands universal cooperation
By Eugenia Velasco Vergara

The problems that we face as a result of environmental deterioration are grave. In Mexico, and more specifically in Guanajuato, several projects and programs have arisen dedicated to finding solutions to these predicaments. This is encouraging. Hopefully, these efforts will help to curb overpopulation, counteract the accelerated process of industrialization, decrease pollution, reduce the excessive garbage production and arrest devastation of natural resources, among others. As our environmental conditions worsen, significant effort is required to develop better projects and provide new alternatives. It is our responsibility as humans to prevent further damage to the earth and its inhabitants.

It is crucial that we enhance our relationship with nature, and develop different actions, behavior, knowledge and moral values with regard to the environment.

Planning and implementing environmental projects is not an exclusive task of the government, the private sector or NGOs. All three areas need to act jointly in order to develop high-quality projects, impacting every level of society. But success depends on everyone’s contributions. All should, to the best of their abilities, donate time, knowledge and resources to this worthy cause.

The Fundación de Apoyo Infantil, Gto AC (Save The Children, Mexico Región Guanajuato), or FAI, has worked for 16 years in coordination with the federal, state and local government as well as with the private sector and civic organizations.

Today we can share a successful joint venture, PEASMA (Environmental Education Project in San Miguel de Allende). In past articles we have provided details of this important project and now we would like to share more information regarding FAI, which is leading the network of institutions implementing this initiative.

In 1973, FAI was established in Mexico as a member of the International Alliance of Save the Children, an organization represented in 124 countries. The mission of FAI is to generate and promote a movement of cultural transformation for the benefit, and with the active participation, of Mexican children. Its vision is to create a world that respects and values every child and provides each with hope and opportunity.Currently, FAI Guanajuato works in several municipalities of the state implementing initiatives on nutrition, reproduction and sexual health, environmental education, children’s recreation centers and microcredits.

The FAI owes its success to the close collaboration among the three levels of government, NGOs and the private sector. As is widely known, the private sector has been practicing and developing corporate social responsibility. This implies that, in addition to offering quality products and services, generating profits, employment and contributing through taxes, they also take an active part in solving community problems.

It is therefore reasonable to ask ourselves the following question: Why would a private enterprise be interested in supporting an environmental education initiative such as PEASMA? We find that when the private sector understands and participates in environmental education, the quality of life of the citizens improves. The citizens appreciate the contribution of all parties in solving local environmental problems, including the private sector. We also find improved relationships between the managers, employers and, most importantly, the customers who live in the community.

FAI and the real estate company, Go Housing, have reached an agreement to work jointly to support PEASMA in 2008.

Go Housing is composed primarily of young people from San Miguel de Allende. It began operations in 2007 in San Miguel with a business model focused on prestigious real estate developers working at the local level, offering both land and residences. The business model affords clients access to new national and international markets and is based in four core values—being a socially responsible company, enhancing the growth of local enterprises, practicing honesty and integrity in its information to the public and having a positive service culture.

Most developers in San Miguel are related to at least one of the three divisions of Go Housing which include: Go Housing (Real Estate marketing), Juarde (the directory of business and households published annually) and Unirse (the corporate social responsibility division).

Unirse has committed to support FAI, in the pursuit of its environmental education project, exemplifying how corporate social responsibility can generate positive impacts on the community.

We invite everyone to learn more about FAI, PEASMA and Go Housing, as well as the launch of the new Juarde directory at a cocktail reception this Friday January 18 at 7pm in Bellas Artes.

Eugenia Velasco Vergara, along with Natalia Ortega, founded PEASMA in 2005, www.peasma.com. 

Actress Lindsay Wagner brings family workshops to San Miguel
By Irina Posner

Workshops
Peacemaker’s Community program
Fri, Jan 18, 3–5pm (English): Introduction
Sat, Jan 19, 1–5pm (English)
Sun, Jan 20, 11am–2pm (translated into Spanish)

Hotel Refugio de Molino
Salida a Queretero 1
English 1,300 pesos (US$125)
Spanish 500 pesos

Lindsay Wagner will bring her Peacemaker’s Community program to San Miguel on Friday, January 18, in support of the cancer prevention program, Una Mamografia Para Cada Mujer.

From Friday through Sunday, January 20, she will lead three days of workshops, two in English and a third in Spanish translation.

Growing up, Lindsay wanted to be “a psychologist. But I was dyslexic and I barely got through high school. Acting came into my life, actually, as a form of therapy.”

Today she’s been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. However, after making 30 TV movies, four feature films and a TV miniseries, she is still best known and admired for her role as Jaime Sommers in The Bionic Woman. The essence of the television show was espionage and adversity, and it won Lindsay an Emmy and two Golden Globe nominations.

There is, however, more to Lindsay Wagner. She has returned to her first goal, supporting charities aimed at family healing and health. Her journey of work and learning have taken her from India to California’s penal system. A number of years ago she began her own charity, Peacemaker’s Community, a nonprofit aimed at men jailed for domestic violence.

“When they came out, there was no place for them to continue working on themselves and that was my goal in starting Peace Maker’s. The women would come as well, and the children and the parents. 

“To me the issues that the families are fighting about are no different from what everybody fights about—money, jealousy, co-dependent parts of our relationships where we’re so desperate, we’re trying to control the other person so that we can feel better,” said Wagner. 

For the last six years she’s been broadening her program’s outreach to people in all walks of life. 

“I think it’s safe to say that each of us have at least one issue we are passionate about and struggle with, issues that rob us of our peace, our joy and our ability to experience love. A lot of people say they want to get out of pain, and I’m sure that’s true, but they aren’t willing to make healing a high priority. They aren’t willing to look inside to see the source of their pain in order to deal with it. Once you go inside and weed through the muck, you will find the real beauty, the truth about yourself,” she said.

Workshop participants should wear comfortable clothes and bring with them a yoga mat and/or a blanket to lie on.

Friday, January 18, 3–5pm: Introduction

Discussion of how over-active thinking is the source of more of our suffering than the circumstance itself. Through music and meditation leading to an opening of the mind, this workshop is an exploration of how our limited concepts of self mask a natural state of well-being.

Saturday, January 19, 1–5pm

How to recognize that our limited perspective creates false realities about many parts of our lives. The workshop offers an opportunity to make an internal shift regarding the family nucleus—and an opening of the heart.

Sunday, January 20, 11am–2pm

An examination into why we constantly seek love and joy from others when what we need is already within us. Using “a quieting of the mind,” the workshop offers the opportunity to make an internal shift, bringing more love and acceptance into the nuclear family.

Irina Posner, a longtime San Miguel resident, previously worked as a journalist for CBS News and other national media.


Breast Cancer Awareness Week

Many low-income women around the world have little access to mammography screening, and have breast cancer without knowing it. In Mexico, the State of Guanajuato ranks fifth in breast cancer deaths, with only four state mammogram machines in the entire region for six million people.

In the whole San Miguel area, the state provides no preventative screening, not even at the new Hospital General. Most local women ignore their risk and are added to soaring Mexican cancer fatalities. The “Catch 22” here is that once cancer is detected, government cancer services are available.

This lethal loophole in service has spurred the formation of a program, “Una Mamografía para cada Mujer.” The goal is to raise money for San Miguel’s Instituto Municipal de la Mujer to underwrite mammography screening at the best price with the best service for local women.

“A Mammogram for Every Woman” launches its fundraising in January with a weekend of events focusing on body and soul. 

The weekend’s fundraising events continue on Sunday, January 20 with a bridge tournament held at The Bridge Studio in Hotel Real de Minas. Closing the weekend with a gasp on Sunday, January 20, will be a runner’s race up the Picachos. The fittest eight women and men will receive prizes from Lindsay Wagner at the closing ceremony in the Jardín.

For information, call the Instituto de la Mujer at 120-4634 (Spanish) or Patricia Gonzalez at 152-6336 (English).

A quilters’ ¡Viva San Miguel!
By Joan Strouse and Roger Hind

Luncheon
Mujeres en Cambio’s 13th Birthday
Thurs, Jan 24, 2pm
Hacienda de las Flores
Hospicio 16
Entry by ticket only, 120 pesos at Casa de Papel

Photo Credit Chuck Jones

Guest chef Donato Ciaraulo from Vivoli Restaurant will prepare an elegant rendition of eggplant parmesan called Involtini de Melanzane, which is sure to satisfy. The Italian lunch will be supplemented by salads, side dishes and, of course, a celebratory birthday cake! The luncheon is limited to 50 people and tickets sell out quickly; on sale now at Casa de Papel, Mesones 57A (the China Palace building).

Thirteen years ago several expat women began meeting for potluck lunches and brainstorming sessions on how they could help low-income women from the ranchos around San Miguel. Mujeres in Cambio grew out of those early meetings. The group’s mission is to sponsor projects to aid women from the campo and to provide educational scholarships to outstanding girls. Early projects included teaching embroidery and rug hooking to women from the campo, who now run their own businesses. Beginning with eight students, the Mujeres now helps 152 women attend high school and university.

Mujeres en Cambio volunteers raise over US$75,000 a year. Members bring food to the monthly fundraisers and also pay for their own tickets. Administrative overhead is nearly zero, since operational costs such as printing, mailing and computer support are all met by members (the only exceptions are legal and accounting fees and occasional event costs).

The group’s success depends on donors. We are grateful for every peso we receive and for the invaluable support of Casa de Papel which sells tickets to our events, and Hacienda de las Flores which donates the venue for most of our lunches.

We are thrilled to announce that we have received a generous donation from a group of women who call themselves the San Miguel Quilters. The purpose of the group, which formed a year and half ago, is to share the love of quilting with others and to use its expertise to raise money for local charities. Members Jean Wood and Pat Donahue live in San Miguel full time; Stephanie Murphy spends time in Minnesota and San Miguel; Raquel Torres is a local quilter; and Suzanne Mir is a part-time San Miguel resident from Vancouver, Canada. The group welcomes others who love quilting.

The group’s latest project is a magnificent wall hanging called ¡Viva San Miguel! Each member made appliqué pieces representing the city, its surroundings and its customs. The pieces, assembled into a glorious 45” x 56” work of art, is valued at US$2,000. A chance to win this amazing work is only 50 pesos—tickets at Casa de Papel or any of our events. You will be able to see it at the luncheon. For more information about the San Miguel Quilters or the wall hanging, please call Pat Donahue at 152-6945.

Our next event, on February 28, is a rustic rancho buffet lunch near Atotonilco. Visit www.mujeresencambio.com  for  more information.