Educating for Wellbeing

Dear Friend

In Los Altos de Chiapas — one of Mexico’s most deeply Indigenous regions — educators carry far more than teaching responsibilities. They accompany histories, identities, languages, and deep ties to community life.

Thanks to the support of partners and donors, we have begun bringing culturally responsive socioemotional learning to 466 educators working in 265 schools, reaching 15,877 students. Yet this is only the beginning. We have only just started to touch the vast universe of teachers and children in Indigenous communities across Chiapas.

When we support one teacher, we are not only supporting an individual educator — we are helping transform the lives of hundreds of children, their classrooms, schools, families, and communities.

As we prepared to implement the leadership component of Educating for Well-Being, we realized we needed to pause — to listen, learn, and build together with the Ministry of Education so that the program would be culturally relevant and responsive to the realities of Indigenous schools, educators, and the children they serve.

Through this co-creation process, we integrated four pillars of the Tsotsil worldview into the leadership training:

• Lekil Kuxlejal — well-being, peace, happiness, connection with community, and harmony with all living beings.
• Ich’el Ta Muk’ — deep respect for others, “seeing the other as great.”
• K’uxubinel — feeling the pain of another and recognizing that others’ suffering should never leave us indifferent.
• Lekil Xchanel — “good learning,” where learning, well-being, respect, compassion, identity, and community remain deeply connected.

Rather than replacing the Educating for Well-Being curriculum, we co-adapted it: preserving its core tools and practices while framing them through these four cultural pillars.

Our goal was not simply to deliver content, but to create spaces where educators could strengthen their socioemotional well-being, reflect on their leadership, and nurture more humane, conscious, and resilient school communities.

The voices of participating educators remind us why this work matters.

One teacher reflected that socioemotional learning can generate “a true transformation in society — not only as an individual good, but as a common good.”

Another shared the pride of hearing these four pillars named within the program: “They come from our roots, from our ancestors. Through this training, I realized these teachings were reminding us of who we are.”

For some participants, the experience transformed not only their teaching, but themselves. One educator explained:

“Before the course, I understood some ideas about leadership, but I lacked socioemotional management. After this process, I realized how important it is — and now I am working with other teachers so they can bring it into their own educational practices.”

Another participant told us simply:

“I feel I have changed. I feel like I am a different person than I was before.”

What followed confirmed something deeply important: when well-being, culture, community, and education genuinely dialogue with one another, learning becomes meaningful — and transformation becomes possible.

Every educator we accompany becomes a multiplier — bringing these practices into classrooms, sharing them with colleagues, strengthening school communities, and shaping the experiences of thousands of children.

With your help, we can extend culturally appropriate socioemotional learning to many more teachers and students across Chiapas. By supporting educators, you help create ripple effects that reach entire classrooms, schools, and communities. We have only begun — and your donation can help bring this work to many more Indigenous educators and the children they serve.

Links:

• Indigenous educators talk about their experience with EW