Educate 400 adults in rural Mexico

Finally, after living during the months of June and July in San José Corral Blanco, within rain and sunshine, enjoying cold winds and great hospitality, we have concluded the campaign of education with young people and adults, ¡Alfabetiza! 2016. This was our second consecutive summer of work in this locality in the municipality of Chignahuapan, Puebla, and in contrast with last year, we have been a numerous group conformed by 29 volunteers working with 106 people during 6 weeks of regular classes.

The campaign is the moment where we take into action everything we learned and reflected on in the previous months. It is the place where you are surrounded by other volunteers and where every day you get along with men, women, children and young people in the community.

With the people of the locality, an environment of trust and friendship is built, as well as of continuous learning. It happens the same within the team of volunteers. The group was constituted by young people that had already a year of experience in San José as well as other newcomers of the project. One of the literacy teachers shares some of her feelings on returning a second year to the community:

“It seemed as if I had not leave, my body did not feel strange, the steps followed a natural impulse that dragged me along the roads. Head, full of expectations, wanting to do new things, wanting to see people I had met last year, tell our stories and return to share two hours every day to transform, to learn and to teach.” (Abril, a 16 years old volunteer ).

As a result of our work in 2015, we carried out a participatory diagnosis with the people of San José based on their needs. This document served us to plan a series of sessions for class-training in different subjects such as: mathematics, history and gender.

This year our house was the primary school Aquiles Serdán of San José, place that took us in for almost two months. During the morning, each literacy teacher prepares his classes and then goes to the houses of the people to give them. Classes are held in an environment that fosters dialogue, the building of knowledge and the participation of the attendees. Although several people who took class last year were not able to continue working with us, this time new students joined.

In addition to daily classes, other educational spaces were opened in San José. Some activities that took place were based on the theme of natural resources, an important issue in the community and topic of interest in the group that sparked many reflections in a community class.

In addition, we developed an embroidery workshop in order to recover the stories of the participants and translate them into a piece of fabric. Also, like every year, a workshop for children and a day of a community picnic with a soccer game included.

A peculiarity of this year was the work done with Helio, contemporary art project of the Foundation Alumnos 47. Since the pre-campaign, we had a link with a team of people from different artistic disciplines, who worked with us in San Jose for a week. They taught a series of workshops of music, corporal expression, modification of images, playing with costumes and wool pigmentation mainly for children and women of the town. It was a very enriching experience that had ¡Alfabetiza! in parallel work with another project .

Our last day in the community had a very emotional and melancholic farewell to the people with whom we worked. In addition to concluding our stay in the town, as a closure of classes and the work done together with the people of San José, we delivered a community book, product of the labor between volunteers and residents.  A group of people from San José along with some literacy teachers served as an editorial board, deciding the cover and the title of the book in addition to the organization of the texts. Thus, the book San Jose Corral Blanco. A world in a small place, collects personal stories, feelings of the community and wisdom such as recipes and legends.

After all the work done, the evaluation of our work remains. Consequently, we have begun the last period of the project where the group of volunteers meets to give feedback of our work and to decide whether we will work a third year in San José or instead, have a new begin elsewhere. The reflection continues with new challenges and ideas for ¡Alfabetiza!

As a conclusion a volunteer expresses her feelings:

“It is nice to know that there are those who still believe that the world can be a better place, and that one can and must participate in the process, not as a savior or anything alike, but from a position where you are not just a mere observer.” (Jocelin, 32 years old volunteer).