Sergio’s work is mainly focused on the following projects:
1) MUSEUM IN SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS
Sergio owns a small museum in San Cristobal de las Casas, one of the largest cities of the state of Chiapas. Here he shows over a 100 different traditional costumes with the corresponding “huipiles” (poncho’s), hats, scarfs, wooden shoes, sticks, belts etc. All donations made by visitors along with the total income of the museum are used to support the other projects.
2) IMPROVING AGRICULTURAL TECHNIQUES
As an agricultural engineer, Sergio attempts to teach those indigenous people who own a small piece of land, not simply to grow a single variety of crop. Through differentiating and crop rotation, a bad harvest of a certain variety of crop doesn’t immediately mean that there will be no income at all, as has been the case before.
He also teaches the people to build the land in terraces and avoid the felling of trees, therefore reducing erosion.
3) CONSTRUCTION OF SCHOOLS
A community based construction programme is helping to build small schools, with latrines and occasionally showers, across the region. Each community involved submits a request for a new school and helps with the construction. A “School Board” is then formed within the community, responsible for looking after the maintenance of the school, as well as the attendance of the children.
4) MEDICAL ASSISTANCE, ESPECIALY TREATMENT OF BURN WOUNDS
The treatment of injuries (mostly burn wounds) is Sergio Castro's most time consuming task, for which he must visits all remote areas of the state.
Through drinking polluted water an intestinal parasite is ingested, which can cause neurological diseases like epilepsy. Due to the fact that the cooking fire is the centre of every traditional hut, having an epileptic attack inside a house almost automatically means falling into the fire. Clearly resulting in the most horrific burns.
Sergio not only treats injuries but also attempts to educate the indigenous people on hygiene issues (boiling drinking water, cooking meat etc.), hopefully preventing contamination and infection.
5) CONSTRUCTION OF WATER TANKS AND WELLS
Clearly prevention is better than cure as far as the injuries relating to the drinking of contaminated water are concerned. Sergio's aim therefore is to provide as many people as possible with access to clean, filtered drinking water within walking distance. So far several wells/water tanks have been constructed, however, due to the size of the area many more are needed.
