LACA in Mexico

For six years LACA has worked with the Tarahumara Indians-the native people of the Copper Canyon region in the State of Chihuahua. The Tarahumara, who number about 60,000, are the Indians least touched by modern society. They live in caves or small wood and stone huts with out benefit of running water of electricity. They are currently in the midst of an 11-year drought. LACA has provided funds for a unique rooftop drainage system for the collection and storage of rainwater. Every year, LACA volunteers visit the Tarahumara to deliver food, clothing and blankets. We are also currently supporting three college students on scholarship.

Donor Member Spotlight - Spring 2009

s09_7_2While other seven-year-olds were playing their video games, Raiden Grady unselfishly picks up coins off the street that he calls “Angel Money” to buy warm clothes for the indigenous Tarahumara children who live in the cold Sierra of the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. He collected a total of $60.30 and his grandmother Rita Aquino was so moved that she added to his gift to make a donation of $100 to LACA. You can see the Tarahumara children championed by Raiden in the LACA Youtube video (LACA Foundation’s week with the Tarahumara Indians) at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uL62C-p7pA



Updates

NICARAGUA

patient_thanksDr. Richard “Sid” Moore, a physician for the U.S. Indian Service and a LACA advisory committee member, joined the LACA medical team in Nicaragua. Early during the clinic, Sid was deeply touched when an elderly woman who was short and stout, shuffled into his exam room and said in Spanish “I prayed to God that you would come and that God would work through your hands to help me and my people.” This woman’s faith inspired and motivated Sid throughout his clinic services.

Sid remained in Nicaragua after the LACA clinic for three more weeks to spend time with the local medical staff. He observed that the native personnel were dedicated and overworked. They also lacked necessary supplies. Consequently many patients were not seen and many that were seen did not receive the medications they needed.

LACA is fortunate to have Sid a giving, caring physician, on the staff of many of its clinics.

MEXICO: TARAHUMARA

Martha Duarte, LACA’s loyal representative to the Tarahumara Indians, made her annual trip in September 2006. She distributed 160 sacks of food, including beans, rice, powdered milk, oil, coffee, sardines, corn meal, and salt to two villages of 150 families. Each year LACA supports the needs of different communities. Besides the food, she also presented 60 rolls of material for women’s traditional clothing, 45 children’s winter jackets and school supplies.

In 2006 the fall rains came early so the truck with supplies could travel only so far into the canyons. So the Tarahumara came on foot to meet the vehicle. Despite obstacles the Indians received the much-needed aid. �



Brief Updates

f06josue.jpeg f06tania.jpeg
f06dayana.jpeg f06jefferson.jpegEL SALVADOR
In the Spring of 2006, several members of the LACA team visited Niña Carolina Daycare Center in El Salvador. As always, they were greeted with shouts of joy and expressions of gratitude. Many of the children at Niña Carolina have sponsors who contribute to their attendance at the Center where they are provided with nourishing meals, warm baths andtutoring.Unfortunately, there are still some children in need of sponsorship. LACAhopes the Friends of LACA will be touched by the needs of these littleones and become sponsors. The cost of sponsoring a child for one year is $300.

HAITI
We received this word of thanks from our Haitian students:
We are truly happy to be beneficiaries of your assistance money. We would not be able to attend high school because our parents do not have the tuition. We thank you and we pray for you. May God send his blessings on you every day.

MEXICO
As regular readers of this newsletter know, the Tarahumara Indians in the State of Chihuahua, Mexico, have become a special project for LACA. At the end of September, Board member Martha Duarte made her sixth visit to the Tarahumara, this time traveling to the remote village of Samachique in the Sierra Madre Mountains. Samachique, four hours from the city of Creel, is home to some of the poorest of the Tarahumara. Martha brought them food supplies, materials for the women to make their traditional dresses, and winter jackets for the children. Martha was accompanied by Luis Gris and his wife, Francisca. Luis is a journalist for El Heraldo Católico newspaper.

NICARAGUA
In January, 2007, LACA will send a medical brigade to San Juan del Sur on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua – now ranked as the poorest country in Latin America. The team will be sponsored by Dr. Rosa Elena Bello, Founder of the Free School for Adults which
LACA supports. Funds are desperately needed to purchase the medications the team will dispense.

LETTER TO LACA
I just want to applaud all of your efforts and help which contribute to making the world a better place. Thanks for giving me some place to donate money so that I can feel absolutely sure that the money is not being wasted.

Sincerely,
Judy Strebel
San Francisco



LACA’s Best Fundraiser

Nearly 300 people attended “A Night in Tarahumara” - the dinner concert fundraiser held last November at St. Joachim’s parish hall in Hayward. Ticket sales combined with a silent auction, a raffle and donations amounted to over $9,000, making the event the most successful fundraiser in LACA’s history.

“A Night in Tarahumara” featured the music of Father Javier Avila, S.J. who sang a variety of spirited songs of his own and accompanied himself on the guitar. Father Avila is a Jesuit missionary who has worked for 30 years among the Tarahumara Indians in the remote region of the Sierra Madre mountains in Chihuahua State, Mexico. Inspired by Board member Martha Duarte, who was born in Chihuahua, LACA has sponsored annual relief missions to the Tarahumara for the past five years. The income realized from this fundraiser will allow LACA to continue this work as well as support several other programs.

The evening opened with a heartwarming performance of folkloric dancing performed by a beautifully costumed group of young dancers from St. Joachim’s parish and directed by Armando Casada. The dinner portion of the evening consisted of a Mexican meal prepared by Graciella Paniagua and her husband Antonio, ably assisted by Carolina de la Torre, Antonia de la Torre, Isabel Vastag, Estela Brown, Josefina Morfin, Rosa Martinez, Esperanza Alarcon. Helping to serve were Dorothy Tino, Doris de la Torre, Bertha Plate and Nina Leon. (By sheer coincidence, Nina Leon won the raffle for two free frequent flyer tickets on United Airlines.)

Alfonso and Beto de la Torre, Baltazar and Alfonso Morfin, Jorge and Jose Duarte, and Cheli Martinez did the set-up and cleaning of the hall. In addition to these wonderful volunteers, LACA is deeply indebted to the pastor of St. Joachim’s, Father Sergio Mora, and his staff, especially the youth group which assisted with the sound and video production. The video presentation featured film of the Tarahumara taken by Director Jesse Canchola and Luis Gris of “El Heraldo Catolico” newspaper.

While in the Bay Area, Father Javier celebrated masses in Spanish and performed concerts at St. Cornelius parish in Richmond and St. Francis of Assisi parish in Concord. Ticket sales and donations from these concerts totaled approximately $3,000, which will go toward Father’s work with a residential school in Bawinacachi. The lyrics from one of the songs written by Father Avila typifies the message of that evening and LACA’s mission: “Thanks to Life” (”Gracias a la Vida”)

Thanks to life that has given me so much.
It has given me laughter and also tears
So I see happiness and sadness, two subjects
That form my song and everyone’s song.
And everyone’s song is my own song.

Father Avila’s first CD will be available for $15. To order, please call Martha Duarte: (510)-581-0716.



LACA Returns to the Tarahumara Indians

2tarahumaragirls.jpegFor the past five years, LACA Board member, Martha Duarte has championed the cause of the Tarahumara Indians–the native people of the Copper Canyon region in the State of Chihuahua, Mexico. The Tarahumara, who number about 60,000, are the most primitive of all Indian tribes in North America, and are the least touched by modern society. They live in caves or small wood and stone huts without the benefit of running water or electricity. With support from LACA, Martha has visited the region at least once a year, bringing clothing, blankets and food to the Tarahumara families. LACA has also provided funds for a unique rooftop drainage system for the collection and storage of rainwater.

palmiri.jpegIn September, two intrepid Board members, Linda Palmeri and Jesse Canchola, accompanied Martha on another expedition to the land of the Tarahumara. Linda, who in her other life is a CPA with Benson & Neff in San Francisco, commented, “It was a very humbling experience to meet the children and volunteers at the elementary school. My goal is to return next year with even more donations. My second goal is to learn Spanish!”

Jesse Canchola is LACA’s newest Board member. His family comes from Mexico. Jesse is a medical statistician at the University of California, San Francisco, and a dedicated photographer. He took over 600 still pictures as well as several hours of video. LACA will make use of these dramatic pictures as educational aids. Journalist Luis Gris Elizarraras and his wife Francisca also joined the group. Luis has written a moving account of the trip in the November issue of the Spanish language monthly, El Heraldo Catolico.

The first stop on the group’s adventure was an elementary school staffed by young volunteers from Guadalajara, and overseen by Father Javier Avila, S.J. (Editor’s note: LACA will sponsor Father Avila’s visit in the East Bay this month to give concerts to benefit his many projects.) Because of the great distance they have to travel, the majority of the student board at the school during the week. The school boasts a dental clinic and a small herb garden, but has no running water. The entire region is suffering from an eleven-year drought. The LACA group delivered school supplies and large food baskets for the students.tarahumara-schoolgirls.jpeg

On another day, our representatives traveled for three hours over tortuous dirt roads to visit a gathering of Tarahumarans who themselves had journeyed many hours to meet them. Martha and her cohorts delivered food baskets and blankets for 130 families. The team also provided LACA subsidized sweat suits for children and baby blankets for new borns. East Bay mothers supplied other baby clothes. Although the Tarahumara are renowned for being shy and private, Linda Palmeri marveled at their strength, noting that she saw one barefoot woman strap a 40 lb. bag to her back and then lift another bag of perhaps 20 lbs. in her arms to carry to her home, a two hour climb up the mountain.

tarahumara.jpegToward the end of their travels, the team met with three students currently on LACA scholarships: Cristina Gardea Espino who is in her second year of nursing studies in Chihuahua and hopes to serve her Tarahumara people on graduation; Aldo Munoz, a graduate in psychology, who is now in an internship as he prepares for his counseling certification; and Rosa Lechuga, who is in the third year of a secretarial program while also enrolled in a teachers’ college in Chihuahua.

In looking forward to her next visit, Martha observed, “We couldn’t accomplish all this without the support of our friends in the U.S. together with the new friends we are making in Chihuahua.”



LACA Awards Scholarship to First Tarahumara Student

Maria Cristina Gardea EspinoMaria Cristina Gardea Espino wrote a biographical sketch in her request for a LACA scholarship. She makes reference to her boarding school experiences. Apparently these long periods away from home did not lessen her love, affection and appreciation for her parents.

“My name is Maria Cristina Gardea Espino. I was born on 28 April 1986. At age five I left my parents to attend school. I have always spent my scholastic years living in boarding schools.

I attended primary school in the village of Norogachi in the Sierra Tarahumara of Mexico. To attend secondary school I moved to Carichi. My college preparatory was received in the city of Creel.

In August 2004, with a sense of courage, valor and determination, I decided to go to the city of Chihuahua with a single goal in mind—to study nursing at the university. I plan to return to Norogachi, my village, to serve my people as a professional nurse.

With the support of my parents, Juan Gardea and Cristina Espino, I have struggled to succeed, as have my siblings–Isabel, who is in the fifth semester of the university majoring in nutrition, Genara who is studying at the secondary level and Luis Raul who is in the sixth grade.

We owe it all to our parents who have been our strongest moral support. Because of their steadfast support we will succeed.”

This report is not only a tribute of Maria Cristina and her parents, but it also stands as a proof of the effectiveness of the boarding schools that educate these students in the remote, desolate and poverty stricken Sierra Tarahumara Mountains.

In memory of their deceased classmates, St. Joseph’s Nursing School graduates Jessie (Nodson) Dunn, Marie Muller, Naddie Sandstrom, Lillian Trillo and Annette Van Derslice are financing Maria Cristina’s scholarship. Hats off to them!



Water, water, everywhere

“Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.”

So go the lines school children memorize from Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” If LACA could have its way, we would recast these verses to read, “Water, water, everywhere, For all the world to drink.”

Install tank and filterIn the developed world, we take safe drinking water for granted. But in the less developed world, it is a precious, often scarce commodity. Because water is essential to the health and the livelihood of the rural people of Latin America, LACA has made it a mission priority. The very first water project was a small well with a manual hand pump in Honduras. You can see a picture of it on the LACA web site: www.lacafoundation.org

All told, LACA has contributed thousands of dollars to 26 water projects including wells, pumps, pipes, water tanks, reservoirs and latrines. Our latest project is now underway among the Rarámuri Indians (or the “Tarahumara” in Spanish) in the village of Raramuchi, Chihuahua State, Mexico. Before this undertaking, the people of Raramuchi had to walk up to two miles to collect dirty water from a hole in the ground. Not everyone took the precaution of boiling the water before drinking it.

Raramuch water worksThe very hard soil in the region frustrated six early attempts to dig a well. The only option left was to harvest rainwater from the rooftops, the most expensive alternative, but one that has proven successful in other regions of the Sierra Madre. Tin roofs were installed on houses to expedite a clean water runoff. The water then flowed into a drainpipe, through a filter and into storage tanks with a 1000 gallon capacity to hold enough for the eight month dry season.

To date, seven families have had water tanks installed and three more are to be completed. The night after the seventh collection system was finished, it rained, and the rain continued on and off for the next two days.

Water, water, everywhere…!