COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
August 1, 2008 San Miguel de Allende
Volunteer, support and get involved with San Miguel’s nongovernmental organizations.
Does your nonprofit need some extra help? Send your short requests to edit@atencionsanmiguel.org with “Volunteer Opportunities” in the subject line. Maybe you have an event coming up and some extra support would be appreciated.
Amigos de Animales http://amigosdeanimales.blogspot.com/
We are dedicated to improving the lives of dogs and cats in San Miguel by curbing overpopulation via the spaying and neutering of pets whose owners cannot afford to pay; educating children and adults about the care of and respect for animals; and working with the San Miguel Municipality to end the suffering of street animals and lost pets.
Amigos recognizes the value of animals and is committed to serve them because they lack the ability to speak for or defend themselves in the face of abuse, abandonment and neglect.
President: Arno K. Naumann,, info@amigos-sma.org
Atención edit@atencionsanmiguel.org
Biblioteca Pública, Insurgentes 25, 152-3770
Open Mon–Fri, 10am–4pm
The purpose of Atención San Miguel is to create and reinforce community among San Miguel residents and visitors, and to bridge the cultural gap between town’s foreign-born and Mexican national residents. The Biblioteca Pública has published Atención since May 30, 1975, as an English-language newspaper with key sections in Spanish. Advertising revenues support the library.
“I have never seen such a rich-looking weekly, so crammed with handsome full-page color advertisements, as Atención San Miguel, the 116-page expat newspaper I came across this weekend.” Matt Welch, LA Times, Feb 20, 2007.
Editor in Chief: Suzanne Ludekens
Audubon http://www.audubonmex.org/
The Audubon mission is to experience, enjoy and protect the birds of the region and thereby enhance and promote our understanding of the local ecosystems; to educate and enlist the people of the community to restore and maintain the quality of our natural environment. Audubon, partnering with other NGOs and the ecology departments of the city and state, will work together to restore the Upper Rio Laja Watershed; develop and maintain a birding sanctuary and research center in Parque Landeta for the purpose of education and recreation, and in the future, assist in any other related ecological enhancement and protective projects.
President: Linda Whynman, vellum1@mac.com
Authors’ Sala www.authorssalasanmiguel.com
The mission of the San Miguel Authors’ Sala is to provide visibility, community and education for writers and readers in both English and Spanish.
The Authors’ Sala presents works by writers of novels, poetry, memoirs, short stories, and nonfiction, as well as agents and editors. Additionally, it presents readings and workshops for writers and aspiring writers. Look for books by local authors in a special section in La Tienda in the Biblioteca. Most events are held in the Posada de San Francisco, Plaza Principal 2, at the corner with calle Hidalgo, across from the Jardín. Events are 5–7pm and are usually 50 pesos.
Best of Burros See Leading with English
Biblioteca Pública www.bibliotecasma.com
See also Atención, Café Santa Ana, House & Garden Tour, Teatro Santa Ana
Insurgentes 25 and Reloj 50A CP 37700
Open Mon–Fri, 10am–7pm, Sat 10am–2pm
The library of the future and the education/cultural/community center of San Miguel is home to the second largest collection of English-language books in Mexico, the bilingual newspaper Atención, the House & Garden Tour and Teatro & Café Santa Ana. Provides secondary & tertiary scholarships, art classes and many other activities for sanmiguelenses.
President Gregory Diamant
General Manager: Miguel Kegel: gm@bibliotecasma.com
Café Santa Ana helps support the Biblioteca’s activities and is a popular gathering place before and after movies, plays and lectures. Local artists exhibit at the Café and musicians make Wednesday nights lively.
CASA (Centro para los Adolescentes de San Miguel de Allende) http://www.casa.org.mx/sanmiguel.html
Monday through Friday from 9am to 4pm, 154-6060
CASA is a nonprofit organization that has been serving the poor, particularly adolescents, rural women and their families, through health, social service, education, and environmental outreach programs since 1981. It has created Mexico’s first government approved Midwifery School, which has been cited as meeting international criteria for effective replication in countries worldwide. It teaches others to teach, a pedagogy that has enabled hundreds who, in turn, have affected the lives of thousands. Its focus on advocacy, from community initiatives for health and environmental issues to sounding the clarion call against family violence, has inspired, empowered and benefited thousands.
Casita Linda www.casitalinda.org
Casita Linda is a Mexican nonprofit organization founded in 2001. Their primary goal is to provide simple decent housing to the most disadvantaged who are living in shacks. We are focusing on helping those with such limited resources they cannot apply for government housing programs. For the families we help, even organizations such as Habitat for Humanity are beyond their reach.
Executive Director: Jean Gerber jean@casitalinda.org
Chamber Music Festival
The “Summer” Chamber Music Festival (30th Annual) needs volunteers for various assignments in housing and transportation, event planning/support, student program help, “asking” and some office assistance for the festival scheduled July 31–August 17. Contact Gloria G. at
promocion@festivalsanmiguel.com,
or call 154-8722. Festival offices are in Bellas Artes
El Charco del Ingenio http://www.laneta.apc.org/charco/
Open daily from sunrise to sunset. Conservatory of Mexican Plants: open 9am–4pm.
Information, memberships and guided visits: Tel/fax (415) 154-4715, (415) 154-8838
e-mail: charcodelingenio@gmail.com.
Admission 30 pesos, children under 10 free. Discounts for students and groups. Annual membership: 500 pesos.
El Charco del Ingenio is an extraordinary natural monument. Its name comes from a natural pool, nestled in an impressive canyon, which popular legend has interwoven with myths and stories since the Spanish conquest. Among the rocks and scrub lie vestiges of aqueducts and waterworks from the past. A historic reservoir receives the water draining from the nearby mountains, forming permanent wetlands where birds and other wildlife abound. During the rainy season, water overflows the dam, cascading into to pools in the wooded depths of the canyon. The high canyon walls open towards the west, with a magnificent view of San Miguel at the foot of the hills, the wide valley of the Laja River and on the far horizon, the Guanajuato Mountains.
Information: Naomi Zerriffi, nzerriffi@yahoo.com
Colegio Los Charcos
Colegio Los Charcos is a bilingual Waldorf School that offers full and partial scholarships to local Mexican children. An independent school rooted in the international movement and philosophy of Waldorf education, we provide an environment that inspires students to reach high levels of intellectual, spiritual, artistic and physical achievement. Faculty and staff work in partnership with the larger school community to keep this environment vital, dynamic and diverse. By integrating academic and artistic pursuits, we honor the potential within children to fully develop their unique abilities. Our students acquire a lifelong love of learning and a sense of compassion and joy that benefits them, their community and their world at large.
Feed the Hungry www.feedthehungrysma.org
Feed the Hungry is an independent nonprofit corporation in the US and Mexico providing hot, nutritious meals to 4,000 school children a day. The high-protein vegetarian diet includes fresh vegetables, legumes, soy, rice, fortified tortillas and fruit.
Our 32 kitchens are attached to elementary schools in the San Miguel rural area and now employ 45 local women to cook the food. They receive year-round pay, medical benefits and a pension.
Every week volunteers at a central warehouse pack dry food for each kitchen. Bulk purchasing, inventory control and dedicated volunteers allow us to feed a child for $65 a year. A donor also can feed a village’s children for a year by sponsoring a Feed the Hungry kitchen for US$7,500. Contributions are tax deductible.
Volunteers: Feed the Hungry is looking for volunteers to help with the preventive medical screening of our school children. We are looking for bilingual persons, computer data input operators and drivers with access to a vehicle with high ground clearance willing to drive out to the ranchos. This medical work is being conducted in cooperation with Patronato Pro Niños. For more information, call 152-2402 or
contact@feedthehungrysma.org.
Festival de Música de Cámara See Chamber Music Festival
Garden Club of San Miguel de Allende
The Garden Club’s purpose is to join together with like-minded people to learn, discuss, enjoy and promote interest in flowers, plants, gardens, gardening and floral arrangements. The club promotes projects to benefit the city and surrounding areas, such as Campaign for a Clean City; maintenance of the Biblioteca’s many trees and plants; building three new greenhouses, a windmill and a tree barrier El Charco del Ingenio; funding a drinking fountain in Parque Benito Juárez; and a vegetable garden for Alma. The club presents a bi-annual flower show and publishes a calendar whose sales proceeds fund many of the above programs.
Hospice San Miguel is looking for volunteers with experience in fundraising and publicity. Please call 154-4287 or email
markb@hospicesma.org.
House & Garden Tour is a long-running Biblioteca program on Sundays that provides US$75,000 a year in scholarships to local students. About 125–175 people meet at the Biblioteca in the late morning to wait for buses, enjoying an atmosphere made festive by artists, musicians and Café snacks. Descriptions of the houses are in that Friday’s Atención.
Jóvenes Adelante http://jovenesadelante.org/
Jóvenes Adelante (Youth Go Forward!) was founded in 2001 by a small group of volunteers in San Miguel to provide five-year university scholarships to outstanding Mexican high school graduates without sufficient resources to continue their education.
Applications are accepted and reviewed in the spring for scholarships commencing in August. Applicants must show a determination to succeed, have superior grades in their preparatorias and demonstrate the need for financial assistance. Following initial interviews, the most promising applicants are visited in their homes where the level of economic need and family support is evaluated.
Students selected for scholarships receive a monthly stipend, support and encouragement; a mentor with whom they meet monthly; and the opportunity to study English in small classes with fellow students.
Thirty-nine scholarship recipients currently study law, medicine, dentistry, engineering and accounting in 16 universities throughout Mexico. Ten graduates are professionally employed.
New scholarships awarded yearly are determined by donations from individuals and foundations and the success of ongoing fundraising events.
Leading with English http://www.forgottenchild.org
Leading with English helps identify leaders and inspire leadership skills through English language acquisition among Mexican rural children. We work with the local school teachers and community leaders to expose children to English language skills which can create potential alternative paths for future employment and/or educational opportunities within Mexico. Leading with English uses a unique combination of interdisciplinary, experiential approaches and resources, reinforced by teams of English-speaking volunteers. Leading with English is a program of Forgotten Child International and Fondación de Niños Olivdados. An annual fundraiser is the Best of Burros Festival in Jalpa in March.
Mujeres en Cambio
Mujeres en Cambio helps young rural Mexican women gain an education and thus foster their self-sufficiency, self-esteem and self-respect. We currently support 160 scholarships students, promising young women recommended by their school’s principal and teachers. Continued receipt of a scholarship is dependent upon maintaining good grades. Annual high school scholarships are US$275. College students receive US$1,000 annually. We raise and pay out approximately US$75,000 per year. Administrative costs are nearly zero since most are funded by members. Exceptions include our legally required accounting and legal fees. Membership is entirely composed of volunteers who plan and organize fundraising events. We are a legally established nonprofit organization under Mexican law. US tax-deductible donations may be made through San Miguel Community Foundation.
Patronato Pro Niños
PPN, one of San Miguel’s oldest and most vibrant charities, is looking for a selective group of volunteers who would be willing to dedicate two or more mornings per month to go out to the outlying areas of the municipality to visit schools, talk about the work that PPN is doing to assist children with medical and dental problems, and to invite those children who need medical attention to the PPN office for evaluation and assistance at little or no cost to the family. The volunteers ideally would either be reasonably fluent in Spanish and/or have a car/truck/SUV which can withstand the back (mostly unpaved) roads of the municipality.
Volunteers contact Steve Livingston at steve@stevelivingston.com
with your name and contact information.
Pro Musica mpearl5493@aol.com
Pro Musica de San Miguel puts on more than 30 classical music concerts throughout the year in the city. We are looking for volunteers to help out as ushers at St. Paul’s church and other venues during concerts, sell tickets prior to the House and Garden Tour at the Biblioteca on Sunday mornings, help organize suppers in private homes after concerts for our musicians and patrons and assist with publicity, marketing and fundraising. We are a fun group of people to work with and the music is fantastic!
President: Michael Pearl, 152-2688.
Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende- Midday www.rotarysma.org
Meets: Hotel Real de Minas, Tuesdays, 12:30pm
A multicultural English-speaking Rotary Club was chartered June 30, 2005, in San Miguel de Allende. Their mission is to work on projects to help the residents in the greater San Miguel community.
President David Bossman
Sala Quetzal See Teatro Santa Ana
Save A Mexican Mutt
www.saveamexicanmutt.org
SAMM is a charitable organization that rescues, spays/neuters, provides veterinary care, socializes, and transports highly adoptable Mexican street dogs to the US for adoption. We need volunteers to foster dogs for up to six weeks and to transport dogs to the US. If you live here full or part-time and can provide a temporary loving home for one of the many dogs in line to be transported to their forever homes or are traveling to Texas, New Mexico or Colorado by car and can transport one or more dogs with you, please contact Kelly Karger at info@saveamexicanmutt.org. SAMM is a US 501(c)3 organization, so donations are deductible on your federal tax return.
SPA (Sociedad Protectora de Animales) http://www.spasanmiguel.org/
Los Pinos 7, colonia Lindavista, (CP 37736) a right turn off Calzada de la Estación, just before the bus station. Mail: La Conexión, Aldama 3 (mark envelope SPA).Weekdays: office hours 10am–2pm; volunteers 11am–2pm. Information: Tel: 011 52 (415) 152 6124, Para información en español, por favor llamas 152-6124. The Sociedad Protectora de Animales has been leading the charge in animal welfarefor over 20 years. It is the only animal shelter for dogs and cats in San Miguel and environs.We have a 24/7 operation which houses up to 100 animals. For this, our annual budget is high and so are our spirits as we register our major makeover in the last two years.
We fund an on-premises clinic which offers low-cost veterinary care, vaccinations and spay/neuter Services to needy resident animal owners. Our adoption numbers are constantly increasing as the accumulative effect of an ever-more professional operation plays out. Recently, we have instituted a community outreach sponsorship program which trains young Mexicans to work with animal obedience and care. This provides the youth potential employment in animal sitting and care, which is much in demand among San Miguel’s foreign and traveling residents.Director: Natalie Hardy,
natalie@spasanmiguel.org.
Teatro Santa Ana and Sala Quetzal are the main venues at the Biblioteca Pública for music, movies, plays, lectures, choir practice and workshops. Revenues support the Biblioteca.
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