Who are we? - Poco a Poco San Pedro
"Poco a Poco San Pedro" is a small group of volunteer, ex-pat, (mostly) retirees, living around the area of Ajijic, in Jalisco. In late 2016, when we first visited San Pedro Itzicán and Mezcala, we saw that these areas really needed help and we started as a group in 2017.
We saw the work that Anita Torres was trying to do, but she needed support, encouragement, and more resources. Seeing the extreme poverty in the area, lack of education, the many children surviving alone, drew us to help Anita, as she had become the organizer and trusted community spokesperson. Anita was the one who guided and encouraged youth to volunteer in their community, to stay in school and aim higher! She involves the parents and community to help them find their pride.
The Founding members of Poco a Poco San Pedro Itzican A.C. are Doris Wakeman, Francisco Nava and Kari Higgins, together with Anita Torres. Anita lives in San Pedro. We pay for our own expenses for gas, etc., to drive out to the villages and provide much of the office administration and accounting support. We collect and take donated items out to Anita to distribute. We do our best to run the website, Facebook and spend time grant writing. We try to connect with other organizations and individuals so that they can also help. We enjoy and encourage working with other organizations so it's not "just us".
We initially started the Kids' Kitchens as Anita managed to borrow land for this use, and used the Poco a Poco truck for picking up the food for cooking, delivering the cooked food to the different locations, etc.
In 2021, CreSer took over the Kids' Kitchens but we continued with the original kitchen in the Rincon area of San Pedro, which is now run from our community center. (That's where we feed over 170-190 children a hot meal, five days a week.)
The team now comprises other great volunteers including Carrie Hemphill, Jan Chakravarthy and Gaby de Obeso - with many other volunteers helping run programs. Our grateful thanks to Mark Skrivanek and Julia Karns, for running the English learning program; Janet Saklad and Lu Wyland for organizing the programs for children and young adults with different needs (helped by many other volunteers); to Johannes Bjorner for his art classes; to Mary-Ellen Rushworth for her encouragement and training of mostly women learning to make jewelry; to Yoly Martinez for education on hair health; and to Dr Carlos Cerda for dental health education.
In 2017 we started many projects aimed at helping the local youth and adults gain skills, give them ideas on how to have careers and be able to support themselves. We encourage and fund education, teach growing food, distribute donated clothing and other items, provide medical assistance, and encourage other organizations to come to help people in these marginalized areas.