CFACT, SEFED and Valle Verde
 A sleepy fishing town of about 25,000 just three decades ago, Cancun has become a bustling city of a million people who have come from all over Mexico and Central America to find jobs. Cancun and other coastal areas in Quintana Roo State are still fast becoming one huge enterprise zone.
Unlike most of those at the WTO summit in 2003, CFACT and several other free-market-oriented groups ventured into the city's outlying regions to the tiny village of Valle Verde, where some 3,000 people live in huts and shacks made of sticks and tin without benefit of sewage treatment, paved roads, or even running water.
Under the watchful eye of reporters covering the WTO, CFACT and its allies distributed two tons of food to Valle Verde residents -- and vowed to return to forge a long-term relationship with its people. We would owe a lot to the people of Valle Verde and to a local faith-based group, Fundación Ciudad de la Alegr?a (City of Joy Foundation), which opened doors for us to that community. But we had a lot of work to do before we could return.
Valle Verde literally transformed CFACT from a group that simply advocated constructive ideas into an organization which now sought to implement them as well. Founded in 1985, CFACT had for two decades focused on writing and speaking about environmental issues and how they affect human populations. Now, we knew our mission had to include hands-on work helping people build sound economies in environmentally wise ways.
Since the events in Cancun, CFACT's mission statement focuses on "enhancing the fruitfulness of the earth and all of its inhabitants" through pursuing strategies that, first of all, meet the basic needs of people around the world -- food, water, energy, and essential human services. Furthermore, CFACT expanded its scope to include a new sister organization in Europe (called CFACT - Europe), and to build stronger relationships with like-minded groups in African nations.
And to further bolster its ability to succeed, our network invested a lot of time and efforts in devising the new Social Entrepreneurship and Free-Market Environmental Demonstration Program (SEFED).
SEFED works through building partnerships among businesses, governmental entities, non- governmental organizations, and individuals to remove barriers to success placed by governmental, banking, and other institutions, and replace them with bridges built by SEFED partners.
Because of its vital importance to CFACT's mission, and because of our promise to its residents, CFACT made a commitment to build its first SEFED demonstration program in greater Cancun, and to include Valle Verde residents in that network so that they can partake of the first fruits of this bold new venture. So in preparation for our return to Valle Verde, we once again asked the City of Joy for help in finding potential SEFED partners, and establishing links in the Cancun area.
Arriving in the busy Cancun airport, we met with our colleagues from the City of Joy and found that people in Quintana Roo are ready and willing for us to join with them in economic development projects to diversify their economy and bring prosperity to their citizenry. After gathering ourselves, our CFACT team headed out to Valle Verde for the first of two visits with old friends.
What a contrast to leave the hotel district -- one of the world's most beautiful playgrounds -- and travel through the city center, replete with COSTCO, Wal-Mart, and giant grocery stores, and definitely with a growing middle class, out to the "regiones" area where land ownership is next to impossible for 99% of local residents and public services are few (there are buses, much needed to provide transportation to and from the hotel zone for the many who work there).
Valle Verde itself, to our great delight, finally got electric service about four months ago -- but only, we were told, after community leaders and their friends waged a long battle, going so far as to block the highway to publicize their plight. There is still no running water -- it has to be trucked in -- and no sanitation system for a community now nearing 5,000 souls. There is also a brand new public school for lower elementary children -- but no books, no library, and no playground.
We sat together with our interpreters and friends under a canopy at the make-shift home of a middle-aged couple who had lived in Cancun for two decades but had lost their house in town (and what we in this country would have deemed to be equity) after falling behind on house payments. Our friends told us much about their life in Valle Verde -- and how people in their village had come there from as far away as Chiapas State, and literally from all over southern Mexico. Most of the men are able to find some kind of work, and many of the residents, we learned, have visions of creating -- or expanding -- their own businesses.
Leaving the village behind, we traveled into town to meet with local government leaders. We were encouraged to learn that the newly elected county government (Cancun is part of the county of Benito Juarez, one of eight in Quintana Roo State) is committed to working with those who want to help provide economic opportunities for county residents.
We also enjoyed meeting a local business and community leader who is helping to develop a 25- year plan for diversification of the Cancun economy that includes construction of an industrial park and development of inland resources. The big problem they are facing in Quintana Roo is investment capital outside the hotel-resort business area.
We learned that most hotels get their supplies from other countries, using little that comes from Quintana Roo. Even local farmers have to send their produce to Mexico City, 800 miles to the west. The rocky soils are not suitable for cattle ranching, but there are forests galore. The local economy used to be built around fishing, and now the tourist business is helping spawn numerous boat-based businesses.
Apparently, however, the boom that has come to this area (bringing along many of the well- educated from Mexico City who love the freedom and clean air but hate the heat and humidity) has also created many social problems. A university study found depression syndrome to be rampant among people who have left behind their extended families to seek a higher standard of living in a strange new land. Prostitution, drugs, and even suicide are on the increase, as well as other symptoms of social disruption in an area overrun with immigrants from poorer areas of Mexico and surrounding nations.
But Cancun leaders do not intend to let their community fall apart. Better education, better housing, better jobs are all part of the future for Cancun. But a chief obstacle to economic growth in the area remains to be a lack of clearly defined property rights that stems from the days of Spanish land grants and was only complicated by the Revolution, which transferred huge ranches to poor people but without providing for clear title to property.
Even today, property continues to be a tool of political corruption -- but that situation is changing, too, if only because people in power are realizing they cannot meet the needs of the people (and thus stay in office) without assisting economic growth -- which can only come by freeing up property for development and home ownership.
One other very encouraging meeting came at Caribe University, where we learned of many exciting projects and promising ventures. This university, we were told, is not a traditional college but rather one that was specifically designed to train students to contribute to developing the nation and the local economy. The school is working on technological solutions to major problems. For example, recycling is mandatory and very important, and the university has developed a technique for separating different types of waste for reuse, but there is still a need for technology for processing the recyclable waste into usable products.
By far, though, the highlight of our trip came when we went back to Valle Verde for a public meeting with village residents. In anticipation of our visit, we brought four solar ovens to distribute to needy families which can be used to cook food or even purify water without electricity. We also brought parcels of food for the families chosen to receive the ovens. Villagers are not yet using their newly gained electricity for cooking, so these ovens were certainly welcomed by those receiving them.
Our major purpose for the meeting, however, was to share our SEFED vision with the friends we had made two years earlier and to let them know both that they were a primary inspiration for us in developing this vision and that we want them to be primary beneficiaries and participants in the program itself. The response was overwhelming.
Many, many residents spent time talking with us and our interpreters (volunteers who are also business and professional people in Cancun) about their dreams and business plans. We were even a little surprised to learn just how many of these people who today live in huts that can be blown away by major storms have high hopes for themselves and their children.
One woman wanted help to obtain a computer for her high school student son so that he might be able to go to college. Another wanted help to start a call center that would benefit her neighbors. Others already have microbusinesses, selling groceries and other goods from the huts they also call home. All seemed to understand the law of supply and demand -- and especially the need to become computer literate and have access to technology and communications.
Even more so, the entire community seemed to have a thorough understanding of the need for property rights and the benefits of owning one's own home and business. And these are among the poorest of the poor in a growing city that most Americans think of as a tourist center. They also understood the need for sanitation and environmental management of their lands. Best of all, they soundly believe in their future and that of their children.
Finally, we spoke with the village "mayor," a man we had first met two years ago. A native of Chiapas State, he had led the fight for the extension of electric service to his village. He would be meeting the very next day on a number of other important matters -- but foremost on his list was land rights. People are able and willing to pay for public services, he said.
He also told us that he and his fellow villagers were proud to be partners in our SEFED project and wished us great success. "There are lot of people around the world who are far worse off than we are," he added, "and it would be a joyous thing for us to be partners in helping you help them out of extreme poverty."
And that was when we KNEW we were onto something with SEFED.
To read more about the philosophical background of SEFED, click here.
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