Indigenous families harvest rainwater to have clean water for the first time at home, while producing more food for better nutrition

Twenty Tsotsil families from two communities built ten rainwater harvesting cisterns so they and their families could drink clean water. The families share responsibility for these cisterns according to agreements they have made for common use. Another 20 families built gardens and chicken coops to grow and raise more food and improve their families' health and nutrition.

In this video, Rosa and Bernardino Santis tell us about the importance of water and gardens for their family and community.

*The video is in Tsotsil with Spanish subtitles but you can read the transcript below.

Transcription in English:

“My name is Rosa Santiz Lopez, and I want to tell you about our poultry and netting Project. Before the Project, predatory animals ate a lot of our chickens, so much that we didn’t really get any benefit from keeping them. Thanks to the netting and poultry house management techniques we learned, now our poultry birds grow well and are no longer eaten by wild animals. They no longer die. Now we have the full benefit of our efforts because we not only chicken and eggs, but we eat them too.

Our family is happy. We want to keep learning. Just as we learned how to put up the netting and how to house our chickens, we want to continue learning about how to take better care of them. So far, we are very happy in the group; we’re happy to be participating.”

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“My name is Bernardino López Santiz. I am from the town of Bachen, municipality of Mitontic.

Before, to fetch water, we would have to wake up at two or three in the morning and walk for about an hour and a half, carrying a large jug. Thanks to the support of this Project, we have water now, and we have our own tank. We share this water with more than one family, about ten people. There is enough water so we can plant vegetables, corn, beans, everything. Our group is united in this work, and we are happy.”