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• Domaine :

  Water

• Région :

  Central America

• Pays :

  Guatemala

The project: 

Drilling a well and installing the fittings and pipework in the village of El Rosario in Guatemala. 
This new system will provide drinking water for 350 students and 12 teachers.   

The request:

Hello Jean and Fatima, 
How are you both? I hope that you and your loved ones are well and that you’re making the most of the lovely winter we’re having this year. 
I’m writing to you on behalf of Solidarité Montérégie Amérique Centrale (SMAC) to request funding once again from the Foundation which you’ve generously created to support development projects in countries less fortunate than ours. 
Last year your financial support gave us the rest of the funding we needed to drill a well at a school in Sibana Norte in the district of El Asintal in Guatemala for which the school community and ourselves are very grateful to you both.
We’re continuing our work in this corner of the world with the help of our faithful local partner l’Asociacion de Desarrollo Integral de Coatepeque and we’d like to be able to drill a new well at another school. Attached with this letter is a more detailed description of the project and costs involved as well as the total sum we’d like to ask Fondation Coup de Cœur for. We hope that you’ll be able to help us with our request. 
I’m also attaching some photos of the well being drilled in Sibana Norte in summer 2015 so you can see the type of machinery used at the school. The last photo is of the Monitoring Committee made up of pupils, parents and teachers who we met during our visit. 
Thank you for your time and attention. I am available to answer any questions you may have concerning the funding request and our activities.
Have a lovely day,
Kind regards,

Monique Messier, CEO
Solidarité Montérégie Amérique Centrale
200, Boulevard Richelieu, Richelieu, J3L 3R4
smacsolidarite.org

Translated by: Elizabeth Arif-Fear 


Financial contributions:
 

Number of beneficiaries	362 people
Total project cost	$36,000.00
Fondation Louise-Grenier	$ 25,000.00
SMAC	$ 6,000.00
Fondation Coup de Coeur	$ 5,000.00

Detailed account of the project:

FUNDING REQUEST - FONDATION COUP DE CŒUR - YEAR 2016

1. ORGANISATION REQUESTING FUNDING
Solidarité Montérégie Amérique Centrale (SMAC)
1.1. Contact details : 
- Address: 200, Rue Richelieu, Richelieu QC, J3L 3R4 ; Tel.: (450) 447-6780 or (450) 
- Website: www.smacsolidarite.org
 Contact personnel: Monique Messier (CEO); Julie Daigneault (treasurer)

1.2. Organisation’s mission:

Our organization decided its first mission would be to provide children in the south- west of Guatemala with drinking water, having noted that the main health problems in this region were caused by a lack of access to this essential commodity. To work towards this objective, SMAC established a partnership with a local farmers association involved in developing better living conditions within their communities. L’Asociación de Desarrollo Integral (ADI) defines which needs are priority and works on the ground to establish our joint projects. 
Since 1998, we’ve been able to provide 11 schools in Guatemala with surface wells, reservoirs and sanitary facilities (water based toilets or compost toilets). Two of the schools have been provided with deeper tube wells (artesian wells). One of these wells was set up with the financial assistance of Fondation Coup de Cœur in 2015.  
2. PROJECT
2.1. Project summary
With our local partner, we have established that the priority is to be able to provide drinking water for the schoolchildren where we are based. Climatic changes have meant that certain wells are drying out and aren’t able to provide necessary water supplies for several months of the school year, forcing the children to carry the water from their home or even go without water in a very hot climate. 
One of the schools affected by this is in El Rosario in the district of Génova (in the county of Quetzaltenango). In order to resolve the problem in the long term, we want to mechanically drill a tube well. Our partner has already successfully set up two similar projects. We can confirm that local businesses have the necessary expertise and that this type of well can meet our intended objectives i.e. to ensure a stable water supply in both quantity and quality. As a matter of fact, as the well was drilled much more deeply, it is less susceptible to contamination, seasonal variations and changes in weather.
The project also involves a training phase for parents, pupils and teachers as well as the community so that this new resource can be preserved and used appropriately. Taking into account the setting up of the site, the tube well will have to be at least 350 feet deep, which involves significant costs. We nevertheless consider the investment to be worthy since the project brings a feasible long term solution. 
The drilling of the well will take place between April and August 2016, according to the contractor’s availability and weather conditions. 
2.2. Recipient community 
El Rosario is a community belonging to the district of Génova in the deep south of the county of Quetzaltenango in Guatemala. It is a rural area where corn, frijoles beans and rice are grown for family consumption. Few people have their own land and when they do, it is small. Farmers therefore for the most part have to go work as day labourers for large landowners on coffee, rubber and palm oil plantations in order to feed their families. They have to cover large areas, under difficult working conditions and with minimal salary. They can only just ensure their family’s survival and have few resources to invest in community facilities/amenities. 
Around 4000 people (600 families) live in El Rosario - out of which, 150 families have children who attend school. The school looks after close 310 students and has 12 teachers who give classes from kindergarten up until the first year of secondary school. 
Even though schooling is free, the cost of school materials is a significant burden for families. 
3. FUNDING
3.1. Budget for the well project
This well drilling project is part of a larger project which SMAC will be funding in this region in 2016 which aims to sustain the set-ups already in place and to continue training students on how to protect the environment and to get them involved in their community’s development. 
The total budget for well project is 198,000 Quetzales i.e. around $36,000 (the current rate of exchange is $1 (CAD) = 5.5 Quetzales). One part of the budget is covered by the community (by providing labour), another by SMAC and another by Fondation Louise-Grenier. The district has also been asked to provide part of the materials for the set-up and the local education authorities are taking on the extra electricity costs which will occur as the well is being set up. We are also seeking support from the Ministry of Health concerning water quality control. The project therefore brings together several organisations in both Guatemala and Quebec. 
Here are the details of the budget required (in Quetzales) to carry out the well building project at El Rosario school:
- Drilling: Q148,000 (transport, set-up, dismantling the equipment, drilling,cleaning the well)
-Set-up/equipment (pump, pipes, reservoir and required set-up equipment): Q45,000
-Training workshops : Q2,000
-Water testing and  monitoring: Q3,000
3.2. Request to Fondation Coup de Cœur
We are requesting the sum of $5000 to complete the project’s funding as the funds we have collected ourselves and the funding received by Fondation Louise-Grenier do not cover the total cost of the project. Additionally, the rate of exchange for the Canadian dollar has continued to fall and is very much not in our favour. This has led to a shortfall which could jeopardize the project and force us to postpone it. For this reason we are asking for the support of Fondation Coup de Cœur to fill this gap in our budget.     
4. MONITORING
SMAC has a long history of managing projects with its Guatemalan partner ADI. We carry out our projects a under clear signed agreement between both parties and our projects are subject to rigorous monitoring. The agreement formally stipulates that financial and narrative reports must be provided and in addition to this, communication via telephone and email is maintained throughout the project. Furthermore, SMAC carries out an annual field visit to monitor the project. We are therefore able to not only certify that the project is being set-up effectively but to also observe over the following years how the school is taking care of previous set-ups. 
Monique Messier, CEO 
Richelieu, 21st May 2015

Translated by: Elizabeth Arif-Fear