Border Partners, Author at Border Partners

Lots accomplished in 2015. Full steam ahead!

Posted onJanuary 7, 2016August 12, 2016

Before we launch into the plans, dreams and old-fashioned hard work of 2016, we wanted to share a minute of good news. So much happened in 2015 that we wouldn’t want to move forward without looking back and reflecting on how much has improved.

2015 Accomplishments

So in just a bit more than a minute, this little video recounts the highlights of the year.

We hope that you enjoy it and feel a sense of pride. None of this would be possible without our many supporters and donors. We are honored to have your trust and we look forward to another year of accomplishment with so many partners lifting our work and propelling it forward.

December 6: New Community Sports Center’s Grand Opening

Posted onDecember 6, 2015August 12, 2016

A new sign mural welcomes the community to the Community Sports Center.

Years of planning and months of intense labor culminated on Sunday, December 6 in the Grand Opening of a new recreational facility in Palomas: the Community Sports Center. Border Partners conceived this idea years ago after visiting a stadium for futbol rapido in a Mexican municipality. When Phillip Skinner permitted the use of his building and the Paso del Norte Foundation granted major funding for building renovation, work began in earnest. Juan Rason and the health promotoras (health promoters) spearheaded the project, with assistance from Peter Edmunds of Border Partners’ U.S. staff.

Juan Rascon (l) & Peter Edmunds (r)

Mexican civil authorities, including the Municipal Mayor and other officials from Ascención, the local regional capital, as well as the local mayor of Puerto Palomas de Villa and his wife all attended the late morning dedication ceremony. These leaders addressed the attendees, expressing their appreciation for the new facility and of Border Partners for its dedicated investment in the area. Peter Edmunds expressed appreciation for the many local residents whose hours of labor completed the project.

Exhibition games of volleyball (foreground) and soccer (background) played simultaneously. Soon after, a girls’ basketball scrimmage occupied the third court.

A disc jockey entertained attendees with pop music throughout the day and during the series of exhibition games that followed the ribbon cutting ceremony. Hundreds attended the event, and all were treated to delicious home made beans.

All attendees enjoyed delicious homemade beans.

We were amazed and grateful for the tremendous support we received from the community in this project. Hundreds of volunteer hours contributed to the completion of the facility. Significant community investment in and ownership of the sports center is already apparent.

The complex will be used by local soccer leagues and will also be available for free play and casual games. Construction of the sports center allows three simultaneous games: soccer, volleyball and basketball.

New Community Sports Center puts focus on sustainability

Posted onDecember 5, 2015May 15, 2016

Construction of the new Community Sports Center in Palomas models Border Partners values of people-centered development and sustainability.

The new Community Sports Center in Palomas–a major Border Partners project to improve life in Palomas–models Border Partner’s value for sustainability and people-centered development. A project that’s been years in process and several months in direct development, the sports center building makes the best possible use of resources that are available in the town to stretch funding dollars and accomplish more. In concept and in implementation, the Community Sports Center reflects Border Partners’ commitment to sustainable and community-centered development.

Building Re-purposing

A building that was built as a factory, but never actually used, had fallen into disrepair and begun collecting debris. When Border Partners approached owner Phillip Skinner with a proposal to re-purpose the building into a community sports center, he generously agreed to allow the building to serve that use.

Basic rehabilitation of the building required months of clean-up and many trips to the landfill for the small crew that began work. They had to clear the facility and the area that surrounded it of dozens of small trees and also thorny bushes that had grown to up to 5′ in height.

The area was littered with broken glass, plastic bags and garbage. Workers cleared all this before construction of the facility could begin. The project essentially rehabilitated a city block, turning an eyesore and sanitation hazard into a town asset.

Dry toilet under construction

Sustainable Sanitation

Promoting sustainable sanitation is a hallmark of Border Partners. We’ve promoted and built dry toilets since our earliest days, installing them in various places in Palomas. Dry toilets offer sanitation at low cost, because they do not require water, connections to city sewage lines or elaborate septic systems. So, it was natural for Border Partners to augment the sports center with dry toilets for the athletes’ use.

Recycling Available Materials

Reused PVC pipe becomes soccer goal

Commercially purchased soccer goals are expensive. To circumvent that cost, Border Partners workers devised the plan to recycle some pipes that remained from a playground climber that formerly occupied a Palomas park. This piping has had several “lives” as we’ve reused it over and over in several recreation configurations. It now stands proudly in cement, ready to signal the traditional soccer victory cry of “Goooooooooooooooal!”

Homemade window protection

“People Powered” Construction

Similarly, commercially purchased soccer goals are costly. But with the available “people power” of many willing community workers and volunteers, home-made nets now adorn more than just the soccer goals. Macrame nets also cover the windows of the facility, preventing errant balls from exiting the building and will eventually separate the courts in the facility allowing play of several games concurrently.

Community Sports Teaches Sustainability

A community project can stretch funding dollars and can also serve as a model for a community like Palomas that has few available resources. This Community Sports Center has been a boost to the town by providing a major recreational asset. That in itself would have been laudable. But, even better from our point of view, the project promotes values that we hold dear: sustainable technologies and people-centered development. For that, we are pleased and grateful.

Border Partners celebrates seven years of accomplishment

Posted onNovember 13, 2015May 13, 2016

It’s “Happy Birthday” time for Border Partners, as the agency celebrates seven years of accomplishment.

We have an extra reason to give thanks in November each year because we remember Border Partners’ beginnings in November 2008. Our work began in response to the poverty in Puerto Palomas, Chihuahua, MX. Palomas had been doubly devastated by drug-related violence and the economic downturn. But the citizens were eager for support and willing to work toward the needs they defined as most important:

Employment and jobs for income
Access to health care

Please join us in celebrating the progress that people in Palomas have made in achieving their goals. Without your support, none of the work would have been possible! But, overshadowing those, we celebrate the accomplishments we’ve supported the people to make that have improved life and brought them closer to achieving their identified goals.

In fact, we’d like to celebrate our birthday by sharing some of these highlights with you.

Border Partners’ Accomplishments 2008-2015

Helped 70 families start home gardens with ongoing technical assistance!
Built a greenhouse and a large community garden that provide vegetables to a community meal program and Ford Primary School.
Trained six health promotoras who offer health screening and education, working closely with the medical staff at the Palomas Health Center.
Constructed an Education Center that offers free use of 20 computers with internet and classes.
Helped seven women form their own cooperative business: Palomas Oilcloth Designs which now sells all over the world!
Worked with a student and staff at New Mexico State University to build and install water filters that reduce the toxic levels of arsenic and fluoride in drinking water in Palomas schools.
Established computer labs for three primaries, middle school and high school.
Built play equipment in two parks including a new kids’ climbing wall!
Created a walled soccer court which is ready to open in December, 2015.
Donated over 200 books in Spanish and 12 computers to the local library.
Provided blankets, warm jackets and hats to needy residents.
Brought 150 used bicycles to the community for repair and use.
Installed rainwater catchment system for community garden.

You’ll find more detail about our origins and a more detailed look at our accomplishments through the years on our website page “The Origins of Border Partners.”

It’s all thanks to our supporters

We know with acute clarity that the people of Palomas could never have done all this without the support of Border Partners’ benefactors. So, when we figuratively “blow out the candles” on our Border Partners’ birthday cake we’ll make a grateful wish. That wish will be that all our supporters–who deserve the credit for making Palomas a better place to live–will understand what they’ve accomplished. We hope that the good they have done will return to each of them in multiple ways. And we hope they know how much we appreciate them!

Meet Catie Carter, Researcher in residence in Palomas

Posted onOctober 23, 2015May 13, 2016

Catie Carter

by Catie Carter

Hello Border Partner enthusiasts!

I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself to this community: I am a PhD Candidate in the School of Architecture at the University of Texas in Austin and am conducting my research here with Border Partners!

I am interested in all aspects of Border Partner’s sustainable technologies programs, but I know I cannot understand the way these technologies work without understanding life of people here and the stories of these places. I have moved to Columbus to immerse myself here and I hang out with and help the Border Partner’s team during the day to learn all about life and the process of introducing technologies.

I will also begin conducting interviews this fall. I would love to hear everyone’s opinion and stories so I can share this knowledge with the academic community, others who hope to improve lives through sustainable building technologies, and those who misunderstand life at the border.

Feel free to come talk to me or ask me any questions about this process!

Catherine (Catie) Carter

Master Gardener Visit Yields Benefits that Cross the Border

Posted onSeptember 25, 2015May 13, 2016

Jackye Meinecke (L) chats with the Border Partners team Juan Rascon, Peter Edmunds, and Juana Flores during her visit to our garden program in Puerto Palomas.

Jackye Meinecke, a master gardener from Las Cruces, NM, responded to our invitation to Puerto Palomas. Her mission on September 21 was to see Border Partners’ garden projects and advise us about our methods. It was a productive visit!

As Jackye arrived that morning, the local gardeners were in the process of moving the locations of garden beds inside the community greenhouse. Immediately, Jackye admired the healthy soil, appreciatively cupping it in her hands and sniffing it. Jackye was able to offer some advice on bed location and design, but she also generously affirmed the gardener team on the good work they were accomplishing.

Noting that would be a difficult to cultivate plants near the building, Jackye advised that we increase rain water collection along the exterior of the building walls. If even weeds don’t grow in any location, she commented, that’s a sign that it will be hard to make any other kind of plant grow in that location.

Jackye also advised us to ensure that tree roots don’t encroach into the nearby community demonstration garden bed. She recommended adding compost around the base of the trees to promote tree health.

Jackye enjoyed samplings of various edible plants we offered her. She seemed to appreciate this opportunity, as some of them are quite uncommon in the U.S.

Jackye then toured many of the home gardens around town. At the various home sites, she offered advice that would promote improved plant production by altering bed design, by using home livestock compost and by rotating garden locations.

While at various home gardens we all enjoyed sampling white pomegranates. Although Jackye had heard of this variety, she had never before tasted it.

Jackye’s visit to Puerto Palomas concluded with lunch with members of the Border Partners team. It was a beneficial day of real cross-border partnership. View more images from the day on our Flickr album.

Border Partners extends health, wellness activities in Puerto Palomas

Posted onJune 19, 2015May 13, 20161 Comment

Border Partners extends its reach with new funding from Paso Del Norte Health Foundation.

Border Partners is very happy to announce that the Paso del Norte Health Foundation has awarded us a grant to significantly expand our programs that promote healthy eating and active living. The program, titled Healthy Eating and Active Living in the Border Region, allows us to extend our home gardening program to 20 additional families. In addition, we can significantly improve recreational activities and opportunities for children.

School busses travel NM-11 weekdays during the school year bringing students from Puerto Palomas to attend classes in Deming, NM.

Through this grant we will coordinate with the Deming (NM) Public Schools to reach the families in Palomas whose children attend school in Deming. Our activities will reinforce the messages their children receive at school about the importance of eating nutritious foods and getting plenty of exercise. We’ll encourage these targeted families to start home gardens and to take advantage of nutrition classes offered under the grant funding. Families with children in the Deming school system will comprise about half of the new home gardening families.

During the coming year, with funds from this grant, Border Partners will:

convert an abandoned furniture factory into a court soccer facility;
build a dirt bike track;
establish a bicycle repair shop; and
install a gate to enable an elementary school gym to open to the public.

These additions will add significantly to the recreational options in Palomas!

The Paso del Norte Health Foundation is one of the largest private foundations on the U.S.-Mexico border. It was established in 1995 from the sale of Providence Memorial Hospital to Tenet Healthcare Corporation. The purpose of the Foundation is to improve the health and promote the wellness of the people living in west Texas, southern New Mexico and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, through education and prevention.

This grant is funded under the Foundation’s Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) initiative, which looks to provide all residents the opportunity to eat healthy and be active. We’re proud to partner with Paso del Norte Health Foundation to advance their mission in our area of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Palomas factory employment in Juarez maquiladora affects town’s way of life

Posted onJune 10, 2015May 13, 2016

Maquiladoras (Mexican free trade factories) use retired U.S. school busses to transport workers to and from their jobs

We’d like to share with you a situation that’s developed recently that affects our work in Palomas. In the last month, a maquiladora–a free trade manufacturing plant–in Juarez has started bussing two shifts of workers from Palomas to their plant that assembles Dell computers. This week, the number has risen to 300 people who commute to Juarez five days each week to work a ten hour shift. Juarez is a two hour trip one way from Palomas.

The workers, men and women, make about $1.66 per hour. Their weekly salary is $1,250 pesos, roughly $80.

We at Border Partners are feeling the impact of this outflow of able-bodied people from the town. There are fewer people on the streets, so the town feels more vacant. Our programs are affected. One example of that is that many of our loyal volunteers are no longer able to work in the community garden.

These jobs complicate family life. One of our staff people, for instance, must take care of her grandchildren each afternoon and evening so her daughter can work the night shift.

Juarez maquiladora employment creates social problems

We feel conflicted about this new employment development in Palomas. The opportunity for employment is positive because there are so few jobs in Palomas. Employment is a consistent need and we’re glad that people can experience the dignity of work and earn some money. But, at the same time we wonder: is it reasonable for a person to commute so far and work such long hours to earn this very low wage?

In addition, exporting personnel for work has ushered in what appears to us to be a new social problem in Palomas. There are many children who are left at home with no adult on site while the parent or guardian is gone for their 14 hour workday. Currently, school is still in session, and that alleviates the ramifications for now. But, from the beginning of July until mid August, there will be no school or other facility for these unattended children. A parent cannot afford to pay for child care from the low wages they’re earning. We see the potential for some very negative consequences due to work-related parental absence in the homes.

There are no easy answers.

New system gives mobility to handicapped individuals who lack resources

Posted onJune 3, 2015May 13, 2016

Gabriel signals his delight to be able to direct his own steps in the trolley device Border Partners’ Peter Edmunds designed and built.

Peter Edmunds noticed a need and met it in typical Border Partners style: he used his know how and some simple materials to improve life for those who had little. Now his ideas are attracting international attention and could launch a new opportunity in Palomas.

When Peter visited the local special education school in Palomas run by the nonprofit Nuestros Teosoros (Our Treasures), he met people with some fundamental needs–including basic mobility issues. Peter imagined a method to help the clients walk that was based on his past experience of building furniture from plastic pipe.

The trolley he designed is a simple 2 ‘x 4′ frame that’s mounted on smooth rolling casters. A seat-like harness suspends the individual, permitting him or her independent mobility.

The simplest of wheeled chairs costs hundreds of dollars. In the developing world a $400 expense is out of the question. But the materials for the trolleys just cost a bit over $20 dollars, and any skilled builder could put it together, explained Peter Edmunds. A special donation covered the costs of the materials.

Border Partners has already received inquiries from Mexico, South America and Europe asking how to produce the devices. Edmunds’ long range hope is to establish a work shop staffed by persons with handicaps that would build these trolleys. It’s possible, he says, to build many other types of equipment for handicapped persons: special chairs, tables even different types of wheel chairs. They could produce this at a fraction of the cost of the commercial models.

Thanks for Giving Grandly!

Posted onMay 6, 2015May 13, 2016

Give Grandly was a crowd sourcing event sponsored by the Grant County Community Foundation.

We want to thank our donors who participated in our one day fundraising drive. We received a good response: $2,361.00 from 31 different donors!

We deeply appreciate their support for the people of Palomas.

Those Border Partners totals participated in a day that brought Grant County 751 gifts that raised a total of $92,302.15 for local nonprofits. This was the second annual day of giving that Grant County Community Foundation has sponsored, and it’s the first that Border Partners has joined.

Donations from ordinary people are the lifeblood of a small nonprofit like ours. We cherish the support that we receive from loyal, faithful donors because we see how their contributions are changing lives in Puerto Palomas.

Thanks very much!