‘Hoe kijkt coördinator Emilio Aguilar terug op het project?’

De partner vertelt... van 3 oktober 2022 door Emilio Aguilar

Elk jaar vragen we onze partner hoe het project is gegaan en welke lessen de partner heeft geleerd.

Context and summary


Describe the original plan/idea for the project. Has the project been executed as planned?
[For the original Spanish text and pictures see All files / Narrative report].

The Association of Agricultural Workers "Cristo Rey" is located in the Cotopaxi community, of the Rio Bonito parish, Canton El Guabo, province of El Oro, is made up of 17 legal partners 8 women and 9 men dedicated mainly to agriculture, having as main crop the cocoa. Since 2004, the Association has been working on the collection and marketing of cocoa from its partners and from other producers in the sector, this marketing process. They carry it out in a small premises given on loan by a family member of the Association, which is renewed every year; with the support of maquita, the Association is in a process of certification of its product, this process will contribute to improve the prices of the product, but it also requires applying certain conditions in the post-harvest process especially regarding infrastructure. A projection that has always been raised in the Association's plans has been to have own plant, and as of 2020 this need has been more felt given the demands of certification, in addition to having a space with adequate conditions, where all the activities; purchase, drying, storage and shipment of cocoa and bring together the partners producers; With these projections in 2019, the Association began a management process to obtaining land to build the collection center, achieving that the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock area El Oro, donate a lot of land of 14 by 13m2 located in the Cotopaxi community.

In meetings held between MAQUITA and the Association, the plant was defined and designed that will serve as a collection center for the Association, which consists of a clothesline area for drying, storage area and subsequent shipment of cocoa, office that will serve the purchase of the product, bathroom area for women, men and bathroom shower with their respective sanitation; the dimensions of the construction were projected to be 13x9 m2, for which the respective architectural design was made, the same that was subsequently approved by the Association, MAQUITA and World Servants, and registered in the municipality of El Guabo who issued the respective permits for the  onstruction to be carried out

Give a (short) general description of the implementation of the project.

Once the Association defined the construction details, based on the designed plans, work began in July 2021. The works carried out are: adaptation of the land, consisted of the overthrow of the old construction in, leveling the base, having to raise a 1.20 cm wall, which was filled with quarry material, the fill material was donated by the cantonal municipality of El Guabo, thanks to the management of the leadership of the Association; then continued lifting plinths and columns, erection of walls, melting of tendales, placement of roofing, plastering and painting of walls, placement of doors and windows and installation of light and water, all These activities were financed with the resources received from World Servants.

In the month of November, the works were completed, leaving the following spaces operational: tendal for drying the product in a product storage area consisting of a warehouse to store 300 quintals, an administrative area that will serve as an office to serve the processes of purchases, payments, shipments and everything related to the management of the Association, the area of hygienic bathrooms with three spaces a bathroom for men, 1 bathroom for women and a shower, the entire plant has drinking water and electricity, these services were managed and
financed by the association. In the construction of the collection center, there was the participation of all the members of the Association, through mingas to carry out jobs that require more labor, such as land cleanup, construction of walls, casting of floors; for the rest of the jobs, local services such as master mason, welder, carriers and labor were contracted for the construction site.

How do you look back on the following topics? How was it arranged, what went well, what could be done better?


Construction

Buildings worked on
GENERAL
Before starting work, the MAQUITA team held meetings with the Association for the socialization of the project, the resources that were available, the times for the execution and the commitments that the Association had to assume, among them obtaining the deed of the land by the MAG; Once informed, they decided to hire a professional to process construction permits granted by the municipality, this procedure involves the architectural design, inspection visits and respective procedures before the municipality until approval is obtained respective, likewise the Association continued with the efforts to obtain the deed; these Procedures were carried out with the Association's own resources.

Once the adjudication of the land and the construction permits have been obtained, the Association with accompaniment of MAQUITA organized the execution of the project. The coordination of the work was led by the director of the Association, Rosa Valarezo President, Jhoana Balón Administrator and Juan Castillo promoter, who in accordance with the partners and partners and advised both by the technical team of Maquita and the professional who made the technical design, agreed on the details of the construction, dimensions, spaces, type of materials, selected the suppliers and the master mason for the construction, took the control of the budget and they were aware that the construction was finished on time and the quality work.

Internally, to speed up the work, the Association organized itself putting work shifts 2 people per day, who helped the master mason and his team to advance the work, at the end of the week the coordination commission, I supervise the work carried out; the promoter and administrator were in charge of purchasing the materials, contracting of teachers and work supervision. This internal organization strategy worked very well, since all the partners from the beginning they felt part of the decision-making process, participated in the work, were
aware of the progress of the work, the quality of the work and the investments that were made; the mingas every 15 days, helped the work progress and was the right space for everyone and in make suggestions for adjustments, changes, improvements in the works, agreements that the commission received to consult them with the maquita team and then execute them. An issue to improve in the next interventions would be the processing of permits for construction, since these, due to the paperwork involved, take time to be approved, which delay the start of construction.

CONSTRUCTION
Construction has been completed as planned in the respective architectural plans and with active participation of the members of the Association. The plant has been completely finished, the resources allocated in the field of construction and labor of work plus the contributions managed and made by the Association were enough to cover all the planned works; It should be noted that during the course of the work, small modifications, in order to improve the distribution, functionality and operability of the environments to build, and that did not substantially modify plans or budgets, among which we can point out:
- Total coverage of the line area, in the initial proposal this coverage was only for one
part of the clothes line, however, already in the execution it was seen the need to cover everything, since
this would facilitate the generation of heat that greatly contributes to the drying of the cocoa bean,
situation that becomes prevailing in an area that has almost permanent drizzles.
- The bathrooms were relocated to a space where there is greater ease of access and
interrupt other activities.
- A ramp was built at the main entrance of the plant to facilitate the entry of trucks
at the time of boarding.

These changes, as we pointed out, did not imply the modification of budgets nor the
Substantial modification of the original design.

Finally, the plant has four fully finished and operational spaces:
1 reception and storage area - cellar.
1 area for administration-office.
1 area for drying and boarding - tendal.
1 bathroom-sanitary area.

The reception and storage area, where the shipment and drying of the product will take place, it is the largest occupies 60% of the construction, its floor has been reinforced with mesh electro-welded in order to resist the entry of trucks.
The warehouse area and the part of intended for draining cocoa has been reinforced with mesh and molten cement, it has been placed ceramics so that the liquids that drain from the fresh cocoa that are too acids, flow easily into the drains and do not destroy the floor, likewise a small space to store tools and  equipment used in this activity, the door main has been made of reinforced brass for greater security.
The administration-office area has been finished with ceramics, in this place there will be standing room of people making negotiations with the producers concerning the purchase cocoa, quantities, prices, payments and delegations are also received from institutions that visit to the center.
The area of ​​the toilets has been adequate with the respective implements and with the facilities necessary to the public sewage network where wastewater and liquids are received generated by cocoa runoff.
The entire plant has a drinking water and electricity service, the achievement of these services was managed and financed directly by the Association. In this way the plant of the collection center has been completely enabled and the Association is making use of it.

Tasks to be done

As we have mentioned, the plant is fully completed, the funds allocated for its construction have been invested 100%. In relation to the project, there are no pending tasks to execute, however, if we can point out some requirements that are identified once the plant is in operation, such as:

- Placement of cameras to reinforce the security of the plant
- Office equipment, shelf, desks, computer, projector
- Equipment to improve the process of capturing cocoa, scales, pallets
- Plant maintenance equipment, hydro washer.

These requirements will be achieved through the self-management carried out by the Association and with the support of MAQUITA.

Programs

Children program
On this occasion, due to the restrictions of the pandemic, the participation of the young volunteers, however, the common spaces such as the meeting room will be available for youth to come together and train, which are organized into youth groups, and that they are children of the partners.

Cultural and touristic outings
N/A

Life Skills program and Football for Water (also include the amount of tranings given and the number of people from the community actively involved in training).

N/A

Cooperation and involvement


Leadership team World Servants
The leadership team, we can point out that it had the participation of the staff of World Servants, the group leader, Maquita staff at the head office level and field staff and local leaders.

At the coordination level, several virtual meetings were held between the World Servants in charge of monitoring and the technical team of Maquita, National Management and Agency of the territory, you are with the purpose of sharing the progress of the project, clearing up concerns of the team, discuss situations that arose in the construction process, receive suggestions and make the flow of the project viable.

From the Maquita El Oro technical team, a permanent follow-up has been carried out on the execution of the project, at the beginning meetings were held to reach agreements on investments, hiring and management, already in the course of construction through permanent visits to verify the progress of the work, resolve situations typical of the daily life of the construction, review budgets and make possible the normal development of the project, coordination is carried out mainly with the commission in charge, president, administrator and promoter.

With the coordination commission of the project, appointed by the Association, a strategy was defined of communication, by means of which it was possible to share permanent information with the team of World Servant Holland and the youth of the group, by sending photos and videos fortnightly showing the progress of the project.

Local leaders / key persons

Community

Beneficiaries
The beneficiaries of the project are 17 legal partners and 10 business partners of the Association "Cristo Rey" Cotopaxi, who have a completely finished plant, the same that provides the conditions so that they can develop the different activities of the Association, especially those related to the buying and selling of cocoa, and which currently is in permanent operation. Having our own conditioned plant, in addition to improving the functionality and efficiency of the commercialization process, contributes to the certification process of the Association, where one of the requirements is to have the infrastructure that allows a post-harvest process differentiated between organic and conventional and the plant was made with that projection. Secondly the plant will make it possible to capture a greater volume of the product since having covered tendales it can be dried and stored for longer, thus the commercialization projections to close the year 2021 are approximately 850 -1000 quintals.

(Local) authorities
The authorities that have been involved are the parish GAD of Río Bonito and the cantonal GAD of El Guabo, the parish authorities of Río Bonito accompanied the management of the Association before the mayor's office of El Guabo, and the donation of material was obtained from the municipality stone to fill the land where the construction was built, the municipality also provided support by speeding up the process of granting construction permits for the plant; other institution that joined the support was the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock -MAG of El Oro zone, who legalized the donation of the land for the construction of the plant. With the contribution of the aforementioned actors and the determined participation of the people, the goal of having the plant completed and operating.

Facilitation of the team

Accommodation

As we mentioned before, the MAQUITA El Oro team carried out an accompaniment to the project implementation process, which consisted of facilitating information and advice for decision-making from the Association and mainly to the commission in charge, regarding the prioritization of works, suppliers, materials, as well as the procedures before the required agencies. With the Association as a whole, meetings were held to socialize the budgets and their execution, permanently promoting a transparent exercise of the investment of the resources, the administrator of the Association in coordination with the accountant of MAQUITA carried out the daily control of the budget, therefore, she was informed of how many resources were available for the acquisitions, this management dynamic generated a sense of mutual co-responsibility between the Association and MAQUITA The communication between the MAQUITA Association and World Servant was made through the facilitation progress of the project, where there was evidence of openness of the parties to receive the information and make your feedback comments, thus causing this channel to become extremely important to somehow bring the experience of the Association closer to the World Servants team during the execution of the project.

Food

Transportation


Safety


Lessons learned
LESSONS LEARNED
- A situation that marked the dynamics of the project was the COVID19 pandemic, this caused the group of young people not to be able to travel from the Netherlands to the community of Cotopaxi, therefore the execution of the project had to assume a different dynamic than that of other years; starting because the association and community assume a greater role in their
execution; faced with this situation, MAQUITA generated meetings to report on the reasons of the non-presence of the group and the people of the community saw the decision not to travel as prudent, likewise, the new modality of execution of the project was communicated and agreed, the Association he welcomed it as a challenge and an opportunity to show the maturity and capacity he has achieved, adopting the strategy of appointing a commission to be in charge of the administration and monitoring of the project, a commission that was made up of the president and administrator and promoter.

- The non-presence of the youth group, whose work in previous years had been to support in the construction of the plant, involved a greater contribution from the partners, in terms of labor, this also caused the construction time spread a little more, however, people not only from the Association but also from the community was very aware of the situation and contributed very generously and in solidarity with days of work so that the work advances.

- The circumstances that the community was going through, due to the pandemic, because many people lost his job or simply could not go to other places to get it, the Association in agreement with MAQUITA, resolved that the resources of the project to the extent possible respecting the respective procedures, are invested in the same people of the community, by contracting local services, such as labor for the construction, electrical installations, roof placement, door manufacturing and windows, investing $12,600 of the total budget, which contributed in some way to the reactivation of the economy of the community and positions the Association as an instance that not only thinks about your well-being but also contributes to community improvement.

FEEDBACK
In these circumstances in which the project was developed, around a pandemic that leaves a lot of sequels everywhere, find people who care to contribute somehow so that people with less possibilities and who fight for better days are always a reason for joy and gratitude; Therefore, the feeling of gratitude that the families of the "Cristo Rey" association of Cotopaxi express permanently; to World Servants and the youth who have contributed in solidarity to make this project a reality. Transcribing what they and they mention “We have been hoping for a long time to have our own little house, today that we see it finished and we are using it, it gives us great joy, and we thank God to World Servan and Maquita, who have helped us to achieve our dream, we will always remember them”

- Communication through virtual connection has been very important, between the associations and groups, since they have made it possible to narrow as far as possible the ties of solidarity, so it will be essential to maintain this process for other
projects as a communication experience adjusted to the new post reality pandemic.

- As a sign of gratitude, the Association prepared a plaque of recognition and gratitude to World Servan, Maquita and the names of the young members of the group, placing it at the main entrance of the plant, so that they are remembered by forever.