Educate Indigenous Women Leaders to Defeat Poverty

We send this Special Edition Report to highlight a unique opportunity and new success. 

OPPORTUNITY 

To grow our investor network and link American and Mexican young people, we've created a new partnership with a group of US high school students who launch this week the first of their roaming Mexican coffee shops to offer win-win experiences for investors like you.

*Should you want to join our novel collaboration, all donations between $10 and $50 made through COB Friday will be matched by 50%. 

**All recurring donations made for a four-month term will have the fourth donation matched by 200%.

SUCCESS

We recently produced two important actions.

In mid-March, PSYDEH linked regional women leaders with a Mexican federal government project educating citizens on their rights around the protection of personal data. The collaboration was strategically timed such that our rural partners see themselves as (1) actors addressing practical challenges of the modern age and (2) informed leaders sharing lessons learned with their local communities. 

On March 24, we produced the third Regional Public Forum to unite women around shared challenges. There, 200 indigenous leaders from across the Region joined local NGO and elected government officials to constructively discuss sustainable development. Like the 1st and 2nd Forums, this meeting linked regional women with foreign (Mexico, Canada and the United States) and national-based women (6 different Mexican states), but with a particular focus on how and why women can participate in Mexico's democracy.  

- Little-by-Little, Juntos Somos Mejores (We are Stronger Together) -

Links:

• 3rd Indigenous Women Regional Forum
• Citizen Rights Around Access to Information

Three months have passed since we last spoke. Then, we celebrated our passing the $10,000 mark in our campaign to $15,000 while highlighting myriad big wins in 2016 and strategic planning for our 2017 work.

Since today is international women's day (on which all donations to PSYDEH are matched), we think it a good time to share our second report. 

FUNDRAISING UPDATE

Among a few creative strategies for reaching our full fundraising goal, we now link Global Giving’s forthcoming April campaign "Little by Little" to our novel partnership with high school students in Ohio, USA. They want to produce a roaming coffee shop to build bridges between Mexicans and Americans. We think this is a great idea. ¡Adelante!

YOUR DONATION & IMPACT

Since mid-December 2016, your donation has helped us to:

• FACILITATE myriad workshops for native women on why and how to increase their participation in Mexico's democracy

• MEET women's demands for a tool they can use to promote the benefits of collaboration with them and PSYDEH.

• FULFILL women's demands for a tool to help them share learning in their communities.

• PLAN for the forthcoming Third Regional Forum of Native Women Leaders when women will offer their unprecedented-for-the-region constructive critiques of local government plans

• DOCUMENT fieldwork in preparation for a video and photo exhibit promoting our work

• PUBLISH the first of 3 articles planned for US and Mexican press in 2017, a new blog entry on why our work is needed, and plan for novel events in Mexico City as an extension of our national outreach strategy

Anectodally, Augustina, the regional leader pictured above, recently explained how ongoing work is challenging and rewarding. "PSYDEH invites us to make many changes and to be a part of a process bigger than ourselves. This is not normal but good. I've learned a lot of helpful things. For example, I had no idea that Mexican citizens have the legal right to demand to see and comment on the local government's development plan. Now I know. This information makes me feel powerful." 

WHAT's NEXT

Our third report in June 2017 will cover progress around our (1) novel work to use story telling as leader development tool, (2) support of women and their NGOs to solve their own challenges, and (3) using action learning methods to help women plan the solution to a regional challenge.

Links:

• Newly Updated Website
• Recent News

Thanks to your generosity, 2016 has been a banner year for PSYDEH and our indigenous women partners.

Since you last heard from us, we've raised $10,272 and pursue our 2016 campaign goal of $15,000 by December 31! In the field, we've just completed strategic planning with our partners on the following actions planned for early 2017 and partially funded by your donation:

• 40 workshops with 150 women from 32 communities to increase their participation in Mexico's democracy

• 15 strategic planning sessions with our 20 member Regional NGO on (1) qualitative assessments of local government community development plans and (2) their own local project design and implementation, and

• produce the 3^rd Regional Forum for 200+ indigenous citizens.

In quarters 2-4, among other actions we'll highlight in future reports, we will conduct novel field research on which citizen leader disciplines sustain impact in the Region, innovate a series of workshops for women on story telling as marketing tool, and produce the 4th Public Forum.

As Yesica, the official in charge of indigenous community development for the newly installed local government of Tenango de Doria stated during our December 15 strategic planning session, "I have never seen any NGO produce a program like the one PSYDEH and its women partners work to implement. Your program's scope and impact, achieved and pursued, is unprecedented and we want to help you in any way we can."

To learn more about 2016 wins, impact, financials and more, click HERE for our brand new and first Annual Report!

Links:

• PSYDEH 'Fruits of Change' Video Series (The Holidays)
• PSYDEH 'Fruits of Change' Video Series (Our Workshops)
• PSYDEH 'Fruits of Change' Video Series (Love)