Higher education for indigenous students in Mexico

You may have noticed a change in the title of our project here on GlobalGiving. For more than two decades, Centro de Compartimiento A.C. has supported access to education through a residential program for young women needed to relocate from rural communities to continue their education. This model has produced strong results, helping many to successfully complete their studies and improve their own lives and the lives of their families.

Over the past several years, we noticed that the social and educational situation has changed. While more government scholarships now exist, significant challenges remain, affecting students not only economically but also on a personal and emotional level. While our program focused on young women, we began to have young men; brothers, friends and cousins of our residential students, approach the program for emotional support and guidance. We also have had several local youths who moved up through our community programs and are now looking at college but lack the financial means to continue their education. Our residential program can’t support them as it only helps out of town students. Although they came to the community programs we found they were dropping out of school for financial reasons.

We met Juan when he was in fourth grade. He was a student in the classroom of one of our staff.  He had recently lost his mother and was living with his elderly grandparents.  He started hanging out at CDC looking for emotional support he was not getting at home.  As he grew he became the main caretaker of his grandparents, today he is 20 and has dreams of going to college.  He enrolled in the local Tech school to major in architecture but with working to have funds for school and caring for his grandmother he could not dedicate the time he needed for school work.  He has consistently participated in all of our community programs, this past summer becoming a volunteer for CDC to work in our children's program, but we were saddened by the fact the he could not get to his dream of a college education. 

This past winter we assessed the needs of high school and college students in the region, and we identified that students continue to face:

• Financial difficulties that affect their ability to stay in school
• Limited academic support and career guidance
• Emotional challenges that impact well-being and performance
• Interest in personal growth, but limited access to structured opportunities

To better respond to these realities, we will be transitioning to a broader and more inclusive model for the next school year with a direct scholarship program with non-residential services, open to both young women and men. This approach will allow us to expand our reach and serve more students across the region. The new model will maintain our holistic framework, including:

• Supplemental financial support
• Academic guidance and mentoring
• Emotional support services
• Gender Equity Programs
• Personal and spiritual development opportunities
• Community service engagement

We remain dedicated to the improvement of the lives of young women in our region but have found that we also need young men to walk the path with them. When allied by the men in the community our young women have an easier path forward. This update represents a natural evolution of the program, aligned with the current needs of our community. Our commitment remains the same: to support young people in their education so they can build a better future for themselves and their communities.

We are deeply grateful for your continued trust and support, which make this work possible and sustainable.