Help marginalized Mexican children and teenagers

Greetings Global Givers!  It is the beginning of school year and we have amazing results and great news to share with all of you!

As we come to the end of our program in the state of Coahuila, we would like to share testimonies from different perspectives that capture the essence of the efforts carried out:

“This program has helped us value what we have and what we don´t have. And to transform bad situations… suppose somebody tries to offend me, I will try and find something positive out of that” (Girl, 6^th grade)

“There are types of violence that I did not know existed, and I finally learned about their existence here, because we recognize being physically hit or getting a bruise as violence, but no, even words, psychological violence, economic violence was new to me. Now the majority of us homemakers work out of the house as well and sometimes when they get home they will ask, What did you do?; well then, Who cooked?, Who did everything else?, I sometimes say to my husband, lets change roles…we can ask to be respected and valued for what we are doing, our eyes were finally opened wide.” (Mother of a 6^th grade student)

“On a personal level it slowly walked me through aspects that I needed to reinforce, to speak directly… I first started with myself, trying not to mix in personal issues, and it helped me very much, in my home, with my family, with myself, it helped me reinforce my own resilience…what we try to encourage in children, I also work on it on a personal level.” (Teacher, participant during 3 years of program)

In our previous report we shared with you our results in numbers, which exceeded our initial expectations, now we include the final conclusions.

Overall, the program was well accepted and well-liked by the teachers that participated; it also generated an environment for reflection and empathy during the sessions. Students were satisfied with the program and everything they learned during its development. The workshops were also well received by parents because of the topics that were approached and the opportunity to share experiences and encourage freedom of speech. Lastly, students expressed an interest to continue learning about: self-awareness, goal achievements and capacity building.

In other news, we are halfway through our program “I want to, I can… think like a scientist”, in the state of Tlaxcala, and we are glad to share the following numbers that indicate the success of our efforts so far:

• Elementary school children now have a 70% interest in learning about Chemistry; 92.2% of them want to continue their studies and become professionals, 93% of them are very happy that they are participating in the program.
• School teachers reported that 75% of their students have presented positive changes since the program started.
• Parents expressed their interest and participating in this type of activity again, since they were very pleased with the conferences they attended.

These are just some examples of the work we continue to do to improve the lives of marginalized children through education. Next time, we will share more results and other programs that are currently being carried out.

We are very grateful for the continuous support from the Global Giving! Please stay tuned for more upcoming news!

Hello to all of you Global Givers!

Exciting news! We are close to finishing our last year of working with marginalized children in Coahuila and have now shifted the focus on elementary schools; of course this is all possible because of your support. With our programs teachers are making a difference with their students, here is a testimony of that: “These are practices (activities of the Yo Quiero Yo Puedo program) that will help students to become well-adjusted in their community and as human beings in all of their relations” – Middle school teacher, 30 years old.

The state of Coahuila is found in the northeast region of Mexico, an area that has been negatively impacted over the last few years by drug trafficking, organized crime and poverty. Added to those issues, there are other risk factors such as obesity, diabetes, addictions, violence and school abandonment. At Yo Quiero Yo Puedo (IMIFAP) we are working towards diminishing the impact of those risk factors in our third and final year in Torreon, by carrying out a program in elementary schools called “I want to I can … learn, develop skills and have fun in school”. This program is designed to prevent the previously mentioned issues by acquiring knowledge, developing life skills, so that children can become agents of change by assuming control of their own lives and can contribute to their communities.

Over the last 3 years of implementation we have worked with teachers, parents and students and in the third and final year we have had:

• A total of 878 people participating directly, which translates to 28 teachers, approximately 850 students and an estimated 650 parents that will participate in training workshops.
• Over the next couple of months we will at least reach 1,528 participants directly which will result in around 4,584 participants reached indirectly, given our previous experiences with similar programs.
• Over the course of this third and final year 15 new teachers were involved with the program, bringing the total to 26; however, new members are expected to join during the coming activities that include workshops, end of project fairs and activities that students can carry out at home.

We continue to expand our work in elementary schools in two more towns in the state of Tlaxcala. Yo Quiero Yo Puedo (IMIFAP) with the support of science and technology company Dow Chemical Mexico, conducted a study focused on education in early 2015, which showed high percentages of absenteeism and school abandonment, low expectations in students regarding a college education and general rejection towards scientific subjects (math, chemistry, science, etc.) Therefore, we have continued our partnership with Dow Chemical Mexico and launched our program “I want to I can… think like a scientist”. This project aims to encourage scientific thinking through programs that accelerate skills and scientific thinking in children of surrounding communities. Workshops will take place and training manuals will be distributed to students from grades 4^th, 5^th and 6^th as well as, teachers. We expect to directly reach at least 618 people that include 18 teachers, 450 students and 150 parents; these numbers will also help us indirectly reach around 2, 472 people:  teachers, students, family members and other members of the community.

Your ongoing support is vital so we can continue to achieve and exceed results!