Team Meeting Update, October 28, 2008

The last meeting was held at URS Corporation.

An overview of the project and its current status was provided for new members. The group has applied to EWB National for Clinic Expansion & Water distribution in Miraflores, El Salvador, and we should hear back by December 15th on whether our proposal is approved or needs additional work.

Tamar Losleben - a Peace Corps volunteer, Earthquake volunteer, Unicef volunteer, and daughter of a USAID worker in ES - gave a presentation sharing her knowledge and experiences to the group. She looked at the history of El Salvador, highlighting problems associated with its poor economy, high levels of emigration, and densely populated and deforested areas.

She also shared her experiences in her community in which she worked with building compost latrines and a water distribution system. Tamar noted potential regulatory issues and noted tools that we may be able to use in our project. She focused on the importance of these tools being drawn together, as a community and include the following:

i. Form an ADESCO – legal community leadership
ii. Form a Water and Sanitation Board
iii. Use Mayor
iv. Health Surveys – find out about a Health Promoter
v. Community water testing
vi. Problem & Solution Trees
vii. Community Map
viii. Seasonal Calendar
ix. Excellent Communication
x. Build confianza! (trust)

For the next meeting, group members should individually continue gathering information according to the research topic teams that were formed in the last meeting.