Welcome to Poco a Poco San Pedro Itzicán
What does Poco a Poco San Pedro do?
We get asked this a lot. Mainly because we have evolved a lot since 2017, when we started working with the communities in and around San Pedro Itzicán. We keep growing and changing as the needs of the communities have changed, and those needs have also become clearer to us all.
Our mission has always been to support the leaders on the ground, listen to what the community members want, and then try to assist them achieve that. Sometimes its programs they want to take part in. Sometimes its wanting clean drinking water. We don't have just one focus like most organizations. But we do try to involve other organizations to provide the support that the community needs, bringing in their specializations. We can't do it all.
Our support for the community has ranged from teaching to grow plants from seed, to teaching music, traditional dance, English classes, literacy classes, knitting, sewing, jewelry making and hairdressing lessons, support of education for youth and adults, and we have expanded programs into Mezcala as well.
During covid, our San Pedro team of local leaders were on the front lines during the pandemic; delivering weekly food parcels to over 2,000 families for more than 5 months. Our "medical group" of two local people in San Pedro, identified and helped care for covid patients. Poco a Poco raised the funds for the food, and provided oxygen concentrators and medicines for sick patients. Many of those supplies are now also being used by the renal (kidney) patients. During all of this, we have continued supporting the 90 identified renal patients and people with other medical issues (cancer and diabetes).
The renal problems in the area are worse than we originally thought. Many studies have been done to identify the cause of why so many people have varying degrees of this disease. But while the causes have been identified, there is no easy "fix". Genetics, malnutrition, no access to clean drinking water, pesticide exposure, poor living conditions, are among just a few of the causes. The area is now identified as having the highest levels of non-identified renal disease in the world.
If you want to read more about what's happening with these kidney patients and what we and other organizations are doing to help them, click on this link.
Our priorities:
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Continue to support the work of Anita Torres, who lives and works in the community, and who people go to for help;
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Ensure Anita has the tools to do her work (maintenance of the truck that is used for all her work and to enable her to coordinate between the different towns and villages);
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Provide clean drinking water to the Kids' Kitchen at Anita's house;
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Have a secure area for donated items and for our programs;
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Gradually build a community center that will be owned by the community;
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Help the renal patients who financially are unable to pay for medicines or dialysis that they need to survive. Just a few years more with their young children will make a huge difference to all their lives.
Read more about the renal disease in the area
If you want to read more about the renal situation in the areas around San Pedro Itzicán, click here. There are many studies, but sadly, few solutions to date.
We are so grateful to be working with the Lila K Foundation, Fundación Violet, Niños Incapacitados and Chapala Rotary Sunrise, in this fight to help the many renal patients.
Do watch these YouTube videos made by the student architects from the Tecnológico de Monterrey Campus Guadalajara, in March 2023, after they visited San Pedro. These students are the ones working on the community center design for us.