Improve quality of health and education in Mexico

It is with great joy that we share the progress of the projects we supported this year; as always, they have filled us with much hope and encouragement to continue working for our communities. This year, we have sought more ways to strengthen organizations through our Institutional Strengthening program and closer support with our Projects and Strengthening Coordinator. We give you previews of what has happened inside each project without further ado. Now, we present 5 of the nine projects that we accompany. Thank you for being here supporting us to reap these fruits.

"Water to live, nutrition to grow: Tsotsil families achieving health." AMEXTRA

The project seeks to improve the health and nutrition conditions of 80 families (300 girls, boys, and adults) from seven communities in the municipalities of Aldama, Chalchihuitán, and Larráinzar.

Direct beneficiaries served to June: 600    Indirect beneficiaries served to June: 240

In the first months of the year, the results we were able to obtain were the following:

1. Baseline application to 38 people.

2. 2 biofilters, benefiting six families (18 people), were built

3. 8 bathrooms, 30 stoves, 12 biofilters, and 11 chicken coops with monitoring technology.

4. Support in beekeeping production and marketing of 610 kg of honey.

5. 3 Tabilhucum promoters participate in the Solidarity Economy Meeting at the University of Quintana Roo.

6. 81 children in early childhood undergoing anthropometric and hemoglobin monitoring.

7. 57 dewormed children in early childhood.

8. 111 people in personal care and breastfeeding workshops.

9. 41 in Non-violence education workshops.

10. Seventy-two pantries were delivered to 72 families (248 people).

11. Regional Meeting of Promoters with the participation of 18 people.

The main lessons learned from this period have been the following:

Having a multidisciplinary team in the region and using languages, specifically Tsotsil, allows us to have a closer relationship with the workgroups, recognize the needs and problems that arise, define how to solve them and achieve the indicators jointly. Follow-ups and monitoring generate appropriation, use, maintenance, and replication of the production processes and eco-technologies. During community visits, recommendations are given for the conservation and improvement of these systems.

The alliances promote the development of the promoters'promoters' capacities. Thanks to the training they participate in, they replicate their knowledge in the groups, thus enabling an analysis of reality and the comprehensive transformation of the groups and strengthening local leaders in decision-making and community participation. They are also essential to maintain and grow the project. For example, we constantly ally with the La Revo Organic Products Collective Stores and the El Almacén Collective to market agroecological products produced in the communities (honey, fruits, and vegetables).

Communication with groups and the presentation of clear information on activities and projects promote greater participation and allow a positive transformation of the conflict, oriented towards collective well-being when disagreements are expressed. It is necessary to identify the challenges and look for alternatives in productive diversification, always for the benefit of the food security of the communities, for example, by implementing actions such as the production of backyard birds.

"New Women, comprehensive development for indigenous women migrants to the City." Hogar Comunitario

The project seeks to develop comprehensive practices that lead indigenous and mestizo migrant women to the city, with unplanned pregnancies and single mothers, towards their human development, free of violence and in conditions of equity.

Direct beneficiaries served to June: 3,500   Indirect beneficiaries served to June: 2,105

The main achievements that we can observe are:

Women participating in meetings and primary care:

- They understood the importance of respecting each other and caring for themselves that violence is not normal and can be avoided.

- Their attitudes changed, and so did their interpersonal relationships.

- They improved their body knowledge and achieved birth in good emotional conditions. They felt accompanied (by us) even when they gave birth in the hospital.

The women participating in TRAMA:

-Antonia returned (she was trained as an intern at CERESO in 2018-2019), willing to share her experience and continue learning.

- The women of Aldama are active, sharing their extensive experience in the backstrap loom, helping to improve the quality of other women.

- Project work: they were open to learning new designs, sales were activated, and the hope of obtaining income through textile art was renewed.

Workshops in the school environment:

- Interventions with young people have produced changes that schools greatly value. We consider the success in which both schools have committed themselves to the process of their students, doing what is necessary on their part so that the children do not miss the workshop. We consider it an achievement that the boys and girls no longer need to be forced into the classroom but rather come on their own and are happy to do so.

The main challenges or difficulties:

- Primary care women reach the end of pregnancy loaded with trauma from violence and previous births and with the belief that the midwife will (magically) resolve their pain in a single session: a strategy is maintained that helps establish a reflection that is deeper than the woman allows, sustaining this strategy in subsequent sessions.

-Many women fail to commit to themselves and stay in the process of self-knowledge and empowerment. We know that what the woman has received in a session, or two will be a seed in her heart that will mature at some point. We support dissemination through loudspeakers and posters in strategic areas.

- When there are not enough volunteers, we feel the overload of work in the face of the responsibility of meeting the goals: We reorganize ourselves, supporting each other to carry out the activities. We take extra rest times when the workload allows it. - It was a great challenge to adapt to the new guidelines of Friends of San Cristóbal, adding administrative burden to the teams (obtaining quotes for the material to be purchased to request the corresponding transfers). We only learned to do it and incorporate this task into the others in the most organized and structured way possible.

- In the school environment, it has been a challenge to adapt the intervention strategy to 50 minutes once a week and class suspensions in the attempt that the children receive at least the most essential part of the program.

"Strengthening community health in nine locations with a comprehensive approach, deworming campaigns, and nutritional care in San Juan Cancuc, Chiapas." CONIDER

The project seeks to strengthen comprehensive visions of health in nine Tzeltal localities in the municipality of San Juan Cancuc.

Direct beneficiaries served to June: 1,200        Indirect beneficiaries served to June: 933

In this period of the project approved for this year, the following activities could be carried out:

1. Promotion of the campaign, publicize the strategy with authorities and assembly in working groups. Ratify or select health committees and health promoters to be trained.
2. Promote the specific strategy to care for children under five with malnutrition and make agreements with the entire population.
3. Raising weight and height of girls and boys under five years of age / Provide dewormers and vitamins. Glucose and blood pressure detection.
4. We carried out the first deworming and vitaminization campaign, serving 800 inhabitants of the 9 locations.
5. Monitor communities to treat the effects of deworming and vitaminization.

The achievements that we consider of the project are:

One of the achievements is that families continue to participate in our various activities, first because people are accustomed to obtaining something good for their participation in workshops or activities and health care, nutrition, and timely attention. It does not benefit children with some degree of malnutrition; on the contrary, it is often a waste of time for them.

Second, it allows us to reflect on eating habits in this case, identifying that families opt for foods of low quality and nutrients to give mainly to children under five years of age, such as bottled soft drinks 3 to 4 times a week, very They are frequently consuming processed, fried foods, such as chicharrones, fries, cookies, canned foods (Chile, Homemade Sauces) that have no nutritional value and they are accepting supplementation even if this implies work for the mothers and caregivers.

The third achievement that seems relevant to us is that mothers and some fathers have agreed to take glucose and blood pressure measurements, which in some way implies a path towards beginning to take preventive measures regarding health. We will continue generating learning to find the best ways to affect care in clinics or health centers positively.

And finally, take advantage of the available foods and through the cornfield to make varied and nutritious menus that can help the family in general.

One of the lessons learned that we are reflecting on within the CONIDER team is that although the deworming and vitaminization campaigns have been attractive to people in the communities, they are not enough, especially when there is a problem of severe malnutrition or obesity. We have detected children with cavities and other diseases, and more comprehensive action is required. We know that our activities are a sum of wills but that families deserve greater attention and that state or federal health services get involved and fulfill their role. On the other hand, we have learned to dialogue with other organizations and raise awareness about the need to establish coordinated actions on the health issue. Proof of this is the collaboration with Promazahua and soon with the León XIII Foundation, with whom we already have committed agreements. We consider these relationships to be vitally important because this can encourage more communities to join this comprehensive approach.

"Our Organization, land of Peace: Healthy Relationships, Non-violent Coexistence, and Social Insertion for young people from the urban periphery of San Cristóbal de Las Casas." Tierra Roja Cuxtitali, Centro Comunitario.  

The project seeks to build a social space of comprehensive learning, equity, and peaceful coexistence with diverse youth to be a natural alternative to the increase in violence and marginalization of the urban periphery of San Cristóbal de Las Casas.

Direct beneficiaries served to June: 100        Indirect beneficiaries served to June: 55

For the continuity of the project in this half year, the following activities have been carried out:

1. Guarantee a decent and comprehensive learning space for girls and boys from 10 to 18 years old.

2. Promote processes of free expression and respect for all identities.

3. Build collective tools for autonomy and a life free of violence.

4. Accompany the participants' families through group training spaces and individual meetings to identify possible problems, build valuable tools to support their children, and channel to other areas for needs.

Our main achievements are the following:

We are achieving our goals: a fixed group of 20 participants who attend regularly, the majority have finished their (formal) school year with positive results and are enrolled in school, the entire group has knowledge of comprehensive education and has improved in their habits of care and use of space in a free and respectful manner, in addition to proposing activities that reflect their desires and needs.

The majority of families participate in training spaces and community events. It is worth mentioning that the emotional accompaniment space has been very successful thanks to the "art therapy" format, and there is strong cohesion in the workgroup (4 women). In these first six months of the year, we have a group of capable volunteers who are committed.

The challenges or difficulties:

Without a doubt, the issue of insecurity and shootings is very close to Tierra Roja. The way to cope with this situation has been to carry out a safety protocol with the families and the work group to establish agreements, intervention routes, and responsibilities in case of emergency, strengthen the space for listening, emotional support, and containment, and to be able to identify together safe areas (physical and emotional).

We also continue with a call for attention system that allows us to visualize and not miss cases of lack of respect, non-violence agreements, and non-discrimination. These actions contribute to constructing a peaceful space and integrating temperate habits to help children identify and reject violence and crime.

Lessons learned:

It seems to us that we are in constant learning, professional and human, individual and collective. The main lesson has been and continues to be not to stop listening and involving the participants to adjust the proposals so that they feel taken into account and to create and build together. These actions are done daily, but in particular with the mid- and end-of-cycle surveys that very clearly indicate the path to follow and, at the same time, what we have to leave behind.

"Milpa interspersed with fruit trees (MIAF) for food security and sovereignty and environmental sustainability for the communities of Chancolom, municipality of San Juan Cancuc, and Bochilté, municipality of Huixtán." UNECODES

The project seeks to implement the MIAF system as part of families' food security and sovereignty to increase the yield of corn, beans, vegetables, and fruit crops in an agroecological manner, increase family income, and control soil water erosion in addition to strengthening human relationships through the positive transformation of conflicts.

Direct beneficiaries served to June: 750         Indirect beneficiaries served to June: 195

In this first period of the year, the following activities were carried out:

1. Appointment of promoters, farmers, and managers of each community and subsequently:

-          Preparation of the land (February and March)

-          Purchase and deliver materials, equipment, and supplies (spray backpack, machetes, and legume seeds, among others (April).

-          Cornfield sowing (April).

-          First clean (May).

-          Group workshop on preparing organic fertilizers and integrated pest management in the milpa (May).

-          Purchase and delivery of fruit trees (June).

-          Planting of fruit trees (May-June).

-          Second clean (June).

-          Follow-up and monitoring visit (April, May, June).

2. Exchanges of products and experiences between the communities we accompany (June)

We purchased and delivered materials such as 180 fruit trees, including peach, mango, avocado, lemon, apple, perón and orange. People were given spray backpacks and machetes to each family. Informative workshops were also held on the different topics raised, such as preparing organic fertilizers and integrated pest management in the cornfields, as well as a workshop in both communities about soil conservation through living and dead barriers. In the same way, it was possible to generate an exchange of experiences between the accompanied communities through making jams and pickled chilies, planning and designing the rainwater harvesting system, and six follow-up and monitoring visits.

The main challenges we have had during the implementation of the activities are the time available between the organization and the communities (Bochilté and Chancolom), since it is not possible to make a daily visit to each community, so the activities are being accommodated according to time availability, carrying out the most important activities with priority. In addition, the climate plays a vital role since activities require a specific season of the year, and we are forced to take more extraordinary precautions due to climate change.

We also learned that there are communities with a greater willingness to make a change in favor of the environment and their autonomy, who question more about how to improve their quality of life without losing their customs and traditions so we can offer them the necessary tools, the knowledge, and monitoring to carrying out a project sustainably and efficiently. But not all the problems they have can be solved.

Thank you very much for reading us. :)  

Together, we make the difference. 

Hello there! We are happy to greet you again and tell you about the projects and organizations we accompany this year. We have started and are so glad to continue supporting our region's communities, families, children, and women. So that these projects can be accompanied, Amigos makes an arduous selection work together with volunteers who give their time and talent. Year after year, our foundation makes a call that allows us to meet many projects, but thanks to the participation and dedication of our selection committee, made up of various members of the Los Altos communities and experts in education issues, health, and environment, we can choose relevant projects with a significant impact. On this occasion, we present the ones that have been selected this year, which are a reality thanks to all the support that you continually give us. Thank you very much!

AMEXTRA: "Water to live, nutrition to grow: Tzotzil families achieving health."

Direct beneficiaries: 300 Indirect beneficiaries: 600

Amextra has been working in 10 communities in the municipalities of Aldama and Chalchihuitán since 2011. During 2020 and 2021, they identified that 100% of the families have excessive consumption of sugary drinks, their diet is not varied, they are unaware of good ways to prepare the food to preserve nutrients, and 80% consume water contaminated with E. Coli, which generates high rates of gastrointestinal diseases and puts girls and boys at risk. Through feedback and community participation, they have achieved a program of flexible attention to people's needs, prioritizing access to healthy food and sanitation of water for human consumption. This year's project continues to work on it. It aims to improve the health and nutrition conditions of 80 families (300 girls, boys, and adults) from seven communities in Aldama, Chalchihuitán, and Larráinzar. Improving the infrastructure of homes and increasing knowledge about health and hygiene habits; maintaining production and increasing consumption of local and diversified foods with five production projects; and strengthening the understanding of fourteen community leaders in eco-technologies and productive projects.

Hogar Comunitario: "New women, comprehensive development for migrant indigenous women to the city."

Direct beneficiaries: 999 Indirect beneficiaries: 3,500

There are several hundred women from communities in Los Altos who, in these 26 years, have developed their power, recovered self-awareness and care, and built a life seeking the best development opportunities for themselves and their children. The health and awareness of the sexual and reproductive rights of hundreds of women have resulted in humanized deliveries, dignified births, and the initiation and learning of a relationship with their children based on mutual respect and care. The shelter service for women in highly vulnerable situations has decreased over time, meaning that the stigma around unplanned pregnancies has significantly reduced, and women prefer to remain in their support networks. We consider this a significant advance. On the other hand, the beneficiary women constitute the essential dissemination mechanism since they are the ones who refer other women to the Community Home in situations of violence and unplanned pregnancies. As the years have passed, prevention work has become more relevant in our work plans, not only in schools but also in communities and with groups in the rural area of our region. The community homework continues, and this year they aim to continue developing comprehensive practices that lead migrant indigenous and mestizo women to the city, with unplanned pregnancies and single mothers, towards their human development, free of violence and in conditions of equity, also, by providing primary care to women, strengthening their technical and human skills for self-employment, providing clear information to identify and prevent violence and loving support for the children of single mothers.

Sanando Heridas, A.C.: "Empowered girls and adolescents in exercising the right to their reproductive and sexual health."

Direct beneficiaries: 160 Indirect beneficiaries: 500

Sanando Heridas has worked for more than eight years in communities in Los Altos with a high degree of health vulnerability, offering comprehensive care and health education. Throughout these years, she has intervened with girls and boys in self-care for health from a collective learning approach involving the community. She has provided adequate information adapted to her uses and customs to develop skills in each person so that they can exercise the right to health. Thanks to this intervention, we have detected that a priority issue is women's reproductive and sexual health care from childhood and adolescence. This project seeks to strengthen knowledge, attitudes, and healthy habits on sexual and reproductive health by providing adequate information on hygiene and menstrual health with indigenous girls and adolescents from Los Altos de Chiapas, as well as providing tools and supplies that improve their self-esteem and quality of life.

CONIDER: "Strengthening of community health in nine locations with a comprehensive approach, deworming campaigns, and nutritional care in San Juan Cancuc, Chiapas."

Direct beneficiaries: 1,602 Indirect beneficiaries: 1,200

The project is a continuation of two cycles that started from a consultation process carried out in 2018 to implement an alliance project between organizations and communities of the municipality of San Juan Cancuc. We conducted a community diagnosis and identified needs in three areas: a) Strengthening skills and capacities, b) Health and water, and c) Income generation. Based on this diagnosis, actions such as nutritional monitoring of girls and boys, strengthening four community health plans, deworming and vitamin campaigns, and gynecological care have been carried out. After all this work, the current project comprehensively complements several of the population's health needs. It seeks to strengthen comprehensive visions of health in nine Tzeltal localities of the municipality through monitoring community agreements, incorporating community promoters, with the nutritional recovery of twenty children under five years of age in two localities with high vulnerability and with two deworming campaigns, vitaminization for the population and folic acid for lactating women.

Tlahtolli, A.C.: "Vocers of the Basin"

Direct beneficiaries: 20 Indirect beneficiaries: 100

This group seeks to promote knowledge and conservation of the biodiversity of the Jovel Valley basin (San Cristóbal de Las Casas) through training young people as environmental promoters and implementing environmental education and communication activities in neighborhoods and neighborhoods. Close to areas that protect threatened ecosystems. The project promotes in the youth population the necessary awareness and initiative for their participation as environmental leaders with the appropriate skills to encourage biodiversity conservation. This will be achieved through the knowledge of local biodiversity and its importance through educational activities and the creation of a group of young leaders who carry out actions to promote local biodiversity conservation.

UNECODES: "Milpa interspersed with fruit trees (MIAF) for security and food sovereignty and environmental sustainability for the communities of Chancolom, municipality of San Juan Cancuc and Bochilté, municipality of Huixtán."

Direct beneficiaries: 500 Indirect beneficiaries: 750

We have previously worked with families on other issues related to improving food sovereignty, such as vegetable production, care of backyard animals, and organized everyday work, which is why we need to implement this new issue to continue strengthening the attitudes and skills of the groups that we accompany, in addition to continuing to improve the knowledge of community promoters. This project seeks to implement the MIAF system as part of families' food security and sovereignty to increase the yield of corn, bean, vegetable, and fruit crops in an agroecological way, increase family income, and control water erosion of the soil floor, in addition to strengthening human relations through the positive transformation of conflicts. It seeks to promote the active participation of women and men and enhance the exchange of agroecological products and knowledge between families, groups, or communities.

Tierra Roja Cuxtitali Centro Comunitario, A.C.: "Our organization, land of peace: healthy relationships, non-violent coexistence, and social insertion for young people from the urban periphery of San Cristóbal de Las Casas."

Direct beneficiaries: 75 Indirect beneficiaries: 1,000

The main objective has been to offer a social space of peace, learning, and fun to girls and boys from the urban periphery as an alternative to violence and marginalization, strengthening their social skills and building tools for healthy and equitable relationships. During the first stage (October 2021-July 2022), we observed an essential change in the attitude of the young people, who have been attending regularly and participating actively and critically. There were also advances in their autonomy in managing space, relating, and making possible conflicts or discrimination visible, in addition to strengthening their capacities to transform these conflicts. Several processes need more time and space to materialize in more systemic changes. In several cases, Tierra Roja is their only social and learning space. In this second stage, we want to guarantee a dignified and comprehensive learning space for girls from eleven to eighteen years old, promote processes of free expression and respect for all identities, and build collaborative tools for autonomy and a life free of violence.

Centro de Formación para la Sustentabilidad Moxviquil, A.C.: "Prevention of child sexual abuse in San Cristóbal de Las Casas."

Direct beneficiaries: 500 Indirect beneficiaries: 2,500

Child sexual abuse is a huge problem that cuts across all ages. Working with children and adolescents strengthens personal resources for self-care and the ability to set limits. Working with the young and adult population is because it is necessary to raise awareness about adult centrism and the permission to exercise sexual violence toward children and adolescents. It is a present and daily issue that is invisible and ignored in all ages. This project aims to generate spaces for awareness, orientation, and attention to the San Cristobal population regarding the prevention of child sexual abuse from a focus on the rights of children and adolescents, as well as intersectionality, contributing to making the problem visible. It seeks to generate spaces for self-knowledge and the development of skills for self-care and the exercise of limits in the child and adolescent population; make visible the problem of child sexual abuse, providing precise and scientific information to the adult population in neighborhoods and schools; and open space for care and counseling for individuals and families, establishing a critical care path with various areas in the city.

CAMATI Mujeres Construyendo desde Abajo A.C: "Dignifying the rights of women and midwives to a free exercise of the use of their knowledge in traditional medicine and decent food with their resources in Santiago el Pinar and Chenalhó, Chiapas."

Direct beneficiaries: 140 Indirect beneficiaries: 600

This project seeks to improve the quality and warmth of reproductive health services with the free exercise of midwifery, traditional medicine, and nutrition improvement in two municipalities, Santiago el Pinar and Chenalhó, in Chiapas. 98% speak an indigenous language in these two municipalities, and only 41.86% are bilingual. One of the problems faced by women of reproductive age is the lack of adequate maternal and neonatal health care, lack of knowledge about the exercise of women's rights and decision-making regarding their health, even though they have a Health Center extended in which the services are 12 hours, from Monday to Saturday. Women mainly distrust medical care due to the obstetric violence within health institutions, lack of communication in their mother tongue, and supplies for their care. These two municipalities also face poor nutrition, little sustainability, uses, and customs that directly affect girls, boys, and women of reproductive age, which causes them to violate their rights.

Thank you very much for reading and for staying close. We invite you to participate in the upcoming campaigns or continue contributing your grain of sand. Hugs!