I had a meeting this morning with a group of directors from the mining community of Cuatro Horas. Mineros artesanles are miners that don't work for a mining company, they work on their own. This community mines gold, they have organized themselves to be the owners of their mine and to try and provide services for their community.
There are approximately 800 families in the community. They have a grade school, but no high school. They have built their own medical clinic, but their doctor just left b/c he was not making enough money. So they currently have a fill in doctor while they are trying to find a permanent replacement. They are about an hour away from a health center and about a 6 hour drive from a hospital. They have no potable water and apparently one phone in the whole community. They are really, really, interested in improving the education and health of their community. Their needs are big...they have no real access to occupational health professionals and they work under less than ideal conditions and they are interested in learning about nutrition and women's health issues. My heart actually hurt after talking to them. They would love for us to come and work with them...just not sure we're the right group for them. Anyway, think I'm going to try and make it out to visit them during the later part of my stay.
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