Conversations with Colombians: Simón Zimmer

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Simón is Colombian by birth, but he grew up with a German family in the United States. When he returned to Colombia to reconnect with his roots, him and his wife Sabrina set up an organisation called Aguauyda to help Colombian communities access clean water. Simón tells us his story below.

LCO: Tell us a bit about your background. What’s your connection to Colombia and how much time have you spent in the country?
SZ: I was born in Bogotá in 1975 and was given up for adoption when I was a baby. I was adopted by a loving and caring German family living in the United States. Thirty years later, in 2005, I returned to Colombia for the first time. With my wife, Sabrina, we found my biological family including my mother, two brothers and two sisters. We have a wonderful relationship and through this experience Colombia has become my second home.

Sabrina and I lived in Colombia for 6 months and since then have visited Colombia 11 times. Our goal is to move back to Colombia to establish in office in Riohacha for our international water non-profit organization called Aguayuda.

LCO: Having lived away from your birth country for so many years, what were your expectations right before you returned? How did reality match up?
SZ: My expectations were high because I had talked to many people who had visited Colombia and every one of them raved about how amazing the country is. However, there was some fear because Colombia’s history is brutal and violent. My adoptive family was very worried about me and though they understood my reasons for wanting to return, they were very scared for my physical safety. Their fear made me afraid because I knew if something bad happened (kidnapping for example), this would affect them in a very negative way. I did not like having this feeling but I felt it was worth the risk.

The reality matched up to my expectations in many ways – good and bad. During my first week I heard my first car bombing in Bogotá. I also met very friendly, caring and good people all over Bogotá whether rich or poor. There is warmth to the people in Colombia that I have seldom seen anywhere else.

LCO: Let’s talk about Aguayuda. What is the background to this project? How and when did it develop?
SZ: In 2000, I was not happy at my job and it was through this process that I had the desire to return to Colombia and find my roots. I couldn’t speak a word of Spanish and knew very little about Colombia besides the typical negative headlines, but I set out a plan to go back in 2002. Unfortunately, it was still too dangerous at this time to visit Colombia due to all the kidnappings. My backup plan was to visit Guatemala to learn Spanish, followed by some volunteer work in Bolivia and Ecuador. It was an amazing experience through which I fell in love with Latin America, improved my Spanish, enjoyed development work and helping people in need, and gained skills needed for my eventual return to Colombia.

In 2003, I joined the Peace Corps so I could continue working in the development field. I worked as a Peace Corps volunteer for 2 years in Honduras. In 2005, I finally returned to Colombia and after 6 weeks I found my biological family through the children’s home where I was given to in 1975.

In 2006, with the support of my adopted family from the United States, Sabrina and I created the non-profit organization Aguayuda with the mission to improve life and health in poor rural communities through clean water and education. We chose water because my adopted father is a chemical engineer and has over 35 years of experience in water and evaporation technologies. Also, Sabrina and I learned first-hand how tough life is when you don’t have running water every day when we lived in a small village in Honduras during my Peace Corps service.

LCO: Tell us about your latest project in Colombia. Where do you work? What’s the atmosphere like? What do you hope to accomplish here?
SZ: The majority of the projects are in La Guajira on the north coast of Colombia near Venezuela.  We chose La Guajira because I was working for a few months with Habitat for Humanity Colombia in Bogotá. One of my colleagues at the time had a sister who was working at the Los Flamencos Sanctuary near Riohacha, La Guajira. She told us that there is a great need for clean water in rural communities; therefore, we visited La Guajira a few months later.

Since our inception in 2006, we have installed and repaired windmills, implemented pipelines, installed rain harvesting systems, repaired water storage tanks, built laundry washing stations, maintained a water truck sponsorship program and created four educational manuals on essential health topics. These accomplishments have provided 3,900 (3,450 in La Guajira) people access to clean water on a daily basis.

By 2014 we aim to help 20,000 people gain access to clean water and education solutions for rural communities. We plan to do this through building more windmills and water distribution systems. We also will implement new technologies such as solar pumps, composting latrines and establish an office in Riohacha, La Guajira, Colombia to be closer to the majority of our projects.

LCO: Do you have an area of Colombia in mind for your next target? Another project in the works?
SZ: La Guajira is our main focus; however we are always open to doing projects in other areas of Colombia. Security is an important criterion and unfortunately we cannot work everywhere in Colombia. For example, we are planning to work in a community called Los Altos de Florida in Soacha. However, due to security issues, the project is on hold. This is very frustrating because we know the people in the community urgently need a stable and affordable clean water supply.

We will be in Colombia in January 2012 to install a water storage tank at a school in La Guajira. The school would like to have water truck deliveries but there is no water storage tank. Therefore, with a new water storage tank 210 students can have access to clean water.

We also would like to install another windmill, which pumps water out of a well through wind energy. In the end, it all depends on how much money we can raise. The nice part is we have a strong network of Colombian companies that can make the water storage tanks and install windmills. We always try to keep the solution local, which makes the solution more sustainable and also helps the local economy.

Thanks to the University Javeriana in Bogotá, we also will have 3 Colombian interns working for us for 5 months in 2012. They will be in La Guajira for 10 weeks and will do community surveys of our completed projects and potential projects. They will also test out household solutions such as a ceramic water filter and a solar still. A solar still is a method to distill water through heat from the sun.

LCO: Give us some general facts about the water situation in Colombia that your team addresses.
SZ: We’ve chosen to work in La Guajira because only 16.3% of the rural population in La Guajira has access to clean water. For being one of the richest departments in Colombia, this is not only shocking but extremely sad. Water is the key to any prosperous community, which explains why 90% of the people living in rural communities in La Guajira are in poverty; often times extreme poverty (World Bank).

LCO: Tell us about one Colombian who has inspired you during your work with Aguayuda and how.
SZ: There are many wonderful Colombians that have inspired us but I would have to pick Franklin from El Pájaro as one of most inspiring Colombians. When we first met Franklin and his family, they were extremely poor. Every day it was not clear if they would have enough money to buy food. However, despite this situation, Franklin became the hardest worker we have ever met in Colombia. He never asked for anything, he just wanted to help where he could.

In 2009, we implemented our first windmill in La Guajira in El Pájaro. Franklin and 3 other members of the community formed part of a water committee that we establish with all of our water projects.

A few months later, Franklin and 15 members of El Pájaro attended a workshop on how to maintain and install windmills. In 2010, they created their own company with the goal to maintain and install windmills in communities in La Guajira. We have contracted with this company to maintain a windmill in Ramonero, which we installed in 2009. We also hired them in 2011 to repair a windmill in Comején, which is about 20 minutes from El Pájaro.

Franklin and his family are doing much better because they now have access to clean water and they also have a steady income. We stay in contact with Franklin because he is on Facebook now.

LCO: What does “being Colombian” mean to you?
SZ: Growing up in the United States and being raised in a German family, I always felt confused about who I really am. Once I returned to Colombia and found my biological family in 2005, I found the missing part (identity) that I looked for so long. Being Colombian completed my unique identity of being American, German and Colombian. The journey to this realization has changed me in many ways and I am honored to be a Colombian and look forward to learning more about Colombia’s traditions, culture, and history as well as improving my Spanish.

LCO: When you’re working in Colombia and find yourself with a bit of free time, how do you spend it?
SZ: Our free time is spent working on Aguayuda. For the first 4 and a half years we had a full time job working at an engineering firm and we worked on Aguayuda during our free time in the evenings and on weekends. Since April 2011, we have retired from our paid jobs and volunteer full time for Aguayuda. We hope to raise enough funds to be able to earn a modest salary. Beyond that, we visit our many families all over the world and we love watching movies. My wife, who is the President of Aguayuda, loves salsa dancing whereas I prefer playing billiards.

LCO: If you could tell the rest of the world something about Colombia, what would you say?
SZ: Colombia is an amazing country with beautiful people, culture and landscapes. However, with 50% of the people still in poverty, Colombia still needs support in many areas. Let us work together to fulfill the great potential that Colombia has and solve the serious problems it still faces in a peaceful and nonviolent manner.

Thanks Simón!

For more interviews with Colombians, click here.

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