By Katie Freund | Head of Partnerships & Learning
Hello from PSYDEH! We hope this finds you well—it's hard to believe that we’re already nearing the close of the year. Every November PSYDEH holds a regional conference we call our Encuentro, in which we come together to celebrate the year’s accomplishments and prepare for another year of progress, because we know the work is never done. This November, we will hold the 8th iteration of this gathering, and while we are in the midst of preparations as a team, I also like to take this time to reflect on all that we have achieved over the past months.
Cooperative accomplishments
After many years in the works, in September we launched our first-ever online sales platform for the Red Sierra Madre network of cooperatives, linking our women partners directly with supporters and consumers all over the world. This is a huge step for our women partners, many of whom have long had to rely on intermediaries to resell their goods. You can browse and shop the site here. In addition, to help explain the complex economics and history of bordados in the region, one of our recent global collaborators wrote a fascinating story on different embroidery techniques, beyond the beloved Tenango for which the region is known. We hope you find it informative and enlightening!
Women-led cooperatives also continue to work on a variety of important initiatives that make their communities stronger and encourage local problem-solving: PSYDEH has joined forces with Sembrando Vida to start providing workshops on gender equality and community engagement to men who work in the rural agricultural sector. This project is a crucial step towards involving men in changing gender paradigms in the region, and we are lucky to be doing it with a strong local partner.
Civic engagement work continues
Following a historic election in Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum has now taken office as the first female president of the country, and local and state level electoral transitions are in process throughout the region. PSYDEH led a regional, non-partisan elections monitoring initiative that trained over 60 women as electoral observers, and continues our civic engagement work with the support of the SHE WINS Rapid Response Fund, a joint initiative of the U.S. State Department and Search for Common Ground. Program activities center on updating and promoting a regional citizen agenda, and will involve supporting women to engage with newly elected officials through the end of the year.
We've also been sharing our work and breaking boundaries as we do it: PSYDEH field lead Citlali Aparicio Estrada was the youngest member and one of only two women who spoke on a panel hosted by Mexico's non-partisan national elections institute (INE) about her community's experience participating as observers and ensuring the free and fair participation of vulnerable populations in the voting process. Citlali noted "I was told by a teacher in college, 'You have to learn to walk in the field, to really understand the needs of your community, but you also have to learn to speak in the institutions and present these needs.'" We look forward to seeing Citlali speak at more insitutions in the future!
Welcoming our new field coordinator
August was a month of transition at PSYDEH as we bid farewell to our dear colleague Alejandra, who for the past 2+ years has been leading our work in the field with love, creativity, and a deep commitment to creating lasting change for local communities. Ale has left to pursue a Master's degree in Rural Sociology, where she will continue working on issues that affect rural women in the Sierra Otomí-Tepehua and around Mexico. We will miss her dearly, but can't wait to see what she will do in this new chapter.
With Ale's departure, we are also excited to welcome a new field coordinator to the PSYDEH family. Miranda Carreón is a sociologist and sexuality educator with a Masters degree in social psychology. She is passionate about women's studies and community development and education, and has dedicated her career to the implementation of food security, financial education, leadership, and women's empowerment projects in more than 90 communities of origin across Mexico. She has specific experience promoting gender equality in educational spaces, accompanying teachers, administrators, and community leaders in the design of pedagogical materials that promote comprehensive sexual education, dignified menstruation, and gender equality. She brings all of this experience to her field work with PSYDEH, and we know she will be a valuable member of our local, women-led team.
A personal note for our GlobalGiving donors
PSYDEH friends and family, whether you have walked with us for years or just joined our effort last week, we want to thank you for what you’ve contributed to our organization, allowing us to continue to expand and deepen our work alongside the women of the Otomí-Tepehua region. Our field work is always evolving in new and exciting ways, and with that we continue to evolve our organizational capacity, while remaining rooted in our values of intentional transparency, creative impact, and sustainability. To this end, we'd like to share a few big organizational wins, which allow us to keep doing our work to the best of our ability. We hope you'll consider them your wins as well.
We hope that you can share in our November celebrations from afar, knowing that we are deeply grateful for your support and all that it is has helped us accomplish. We will be back in touch in the new year!
Wishing you a restful and reflective Día de Muertos, Thanksgiving, and holiday season,
Katie & equipo PSYDEH
By Hannah Swenson | Sustainability Coordinator
By Alejandra Rios Perez | Project Leader
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