By Beatriz Alvarez | Operational Director Amigos de San Cristobal
Report on the Projects Supported in 2025
We are pleased to share with you that the health, education, and environmental projects selected this year by Amigos de San Cristóbal, A.C. and currently being implemented in 2025 are:
Tierra Roja Cuxtitali, A.C.
Nombre del proyecto: "Tierra Roja Cuxtitali: 10 Years of Peace and Community Learning".
Beneficiaries:
Direct beneficiaries: 70.
Indirect beneficiaries: Between 275 and 530.
Project Description:
The 2025 project is directly linked to and continues the work initiated in 2024.
The four operational areas remain strong—comprehensive education, socio-emotional education, socio-environmental education, and community participation—all with an approach rooted in outdoor popular education and education for peace. These areas support children, youth, and families in building knowledge and reinforcing skills that promote a sense of belonging to their territory and foster healthy relationships.
The educational approach is further enriched through exclusive activities (initiated in 2024) held separately with girls, young women, and adult women, and with boys, young men, and adult men. These aim to build a more equitable, aware, and responsible community in regard to gender roles, violence, and marginalization based on gender, origin, and/or sexual orientation.
In addition, strategic actions with the local environment are being strengthened to expand the network of alliances around the Tierra Roja educational community and to engage more segments of society in the work we do.
This is carried out through outings, community events, volunteer programs, knowledge exchange spaces, and the local and international campaign "Healing Our Hearts," which celebrates 10 years of activity with 10 public presentations in various social spaces in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, in Chiapas, and beyond Mexico.
Municipalities and Communities Where the Project Will Be Implemented:
Urban periphery of San Cristóbal de Las Casas: neighborhoods of La Garita, Molino de Los Arcos, Molino-Utrilla, Peje de Oro, 31 de Marzo, and 4 de Marzo.
Hogar Comunitario, Yach'il Antzetic, A.C.
Project Name: "New Women: Comprehensive Development Free of Violence
for Indigenous and Mestizo Women, Girls, Boys, and Adolescents. Chiapas, Mexico 2025."
Beneficiaries:
Direct: 737
Indirect: 630
Project Description:
The activities of this project form a continuous offering that has been accessible to women, girls, boys, and adolescents for almost thirty years. The support has been adapted to the social circumstances of labor exploitation, violence, and the risk of falling into criminal networks that women face in their pursuit of improving their living conditions. For this reason, Hogar Comunitario proposes five outcomes in this project:
In this way, we offer women comprehensive support that enables them to value themselves as individuals, understand the importance of self-care, and experience safe and dignified childbirth. Through the TRAMA group (which works on handicrafts for self-employment), they strengthen their autonomy and develop skills for individual and collective paid work. There are also educational actions for preventing violence and early pregnancies at the center, schools, and community levels. Additionally, there are coordination efforts with different actors to achieve greater impact on the target population.
Municipalities and Communities Where the Project Will Be Implemented:
San Cristóbal de Las Casas municipality, both in the urban and rural areas. It is also planned to work with two schools in the Mitontic municipality and with artisans from Aldama, San Andrés Larráinzar, Tenejapa, and San Juan Cancúc. Most of the women receiving primary care at our San Cristóbal center come from communities in the Los Altos region of Chiapas.
Melel Xojobal, A.C
Project Name: "Protagonistic Participation for Contextualized Education as a Right for Working Children of San Cristóbal de Las Casas."
Beneficiaries:
Direct: 145
Indirect: 580
Project Description:
Strengthen training spaces and informal learning circles to defend the right to education for working girls and boys between 4 and 11 years old from four markets and public plazas in the city. This is done through daily sessions of contextual literacy, recognition, and defense of their rights. These sessions include meaningful play activities, fine and gross motor skills exercises, literacy and mathematical thinking using systematic workbooks tailored for each participant, progressing through three stages. Additionally, there is targeted tutoring for school tasks they cannot complete with the support of their mothers and fathers. The project also promotes reflection spaces for developing life skills and organizational capacity from their protagonistic being, encouraging positive conflict resolution through self-knowledge, identity, and emotional management, thus reducing violence among peers.
These actions are reinforced through community sensitization processes about children's rights, primarily through dialogues with mothers and fathers to reduce school dropout and prevent violence at home. Engagement also includes adults who inhabit public spaces, encouraging them to take actions for care, cleanliness, and safety to support children’s right to the city, through cultural events, rights fairs, and campaigns about the right to identity (birth registration) and education.
Municipalities and Communities Where the Project Will Be Implemented:
San Cristóbal de Las Casas, in four public spaces: Santo Domingo Artisan Market, Popular Market of the South (Merposur), Cathedral Plaza (in the evenings, while their parents sell products to tourists, children have fun and learn through educational activities), and Andador 20 de Noviembre.
Sanando Heridas, A.C.
Project Name: “Strengthening Oral Health in the Tsotsil Communities of Los Altos de Chiapas.”
Beneficiaries:
Direct: 1,030
Indirect: 2,495
Project Description:
The Healing Wounds Care Program has two areas of intervention:
Health care, providing services at the San Cristóbal Clinic to low-income families and in seven communities in the Los Altos de Chiapas region through six strategies: comprehensive medical consultations, basic dental care, monitoring of four groups: growth and development of children aged 0 to 5, prenatal, childbirth, and postpartum care, family planning methods follow-up, chronic disease care in adults, and management of specialized medical services.
Health education through training cycles promoting healthy habits among preschool and primary school children on topics such as healthy eating and oral health. This proposal prioritizes dental care for girls, boys, and women, and the promotion of healthy habits in children through training cycles in basic education schools.
Municipalities and Communities Where the Project Will Be Implemented:
The target population is located in eight communities across five municipalities in the Los Altos de Chiapas region. Medical and dental care is provided in seven of these communities, and training cycles are implemented in basic education schools in eight communities:
Municipality of Chalchihuitán, community of Canalumtic (Health Care and Health Education)
Municipality of Chenalhó, communities such as Poconichim, Bachen, Naranjatik Alto (Health Care and Health Education)
Municipality of San Cristóbal, community of Los Llanos and the Healing Wounds Clinic (Health Care)
Municipality of Teopisca, community of Chichihuistán (Health Care and Health Education), community of Lindavista (Health Education)
Municipality of Zinacantán, community of Tierra Blanca (Health Care and Health Education).
Ideas, Información y Diseños Educativos para Acciones Saludables, A.C. (CHIELTIK)
Project Name: “Socioemotional Education with Maya Girls, Boys, Adolescents, and Youth to Promote School Retention.”
Beneficiaries:
Direct: 195
Indirect: 716
Project Description:
The project aims to train youth promoters in radio by strengthening their skills in communication, production, broadcasting, and editing. This will enable adolescents and youth to create content that promotes values from the Maya worldview, as well as human rights, sexual and reproductive rights, and the rights of Indigenous peoples. Additionally, content will be produced in Tseltal, Tsotsil, and Spanish, addressing topics related to Maya identity and the rights of children and adolescents.
The project ensures that it will not put vulnerable individuals at risk, following principles of harmonious and nurturing coexistence based on traditional values of Maya communities. Agreements are also in place with educational and community institutions to support the activities.
Municipalities and Communities Where the Project Will Be Implemented:
San Pedro Chenalhó, municipality of Chenalhó
Chilolj’, municipality of San Juan Cancuc
El Pozo, municipality of San Juan Cancuc
Cooperation and Integral Organization for Rural Development, A.C. (CONIDER)
Project Name: “Misma luna.”
Beneficiaries:
Direct: 194
Indirect: 238
Project Description:
The project will last for 8 months and will focus on conducting workshops with girls and adolescent boys and girls in the first grade of secondary school at Technical Secondary School No. 77, located in the municipal seat of San Juan Cancuc.
The youth will participate in awareness-raising and practical workshops. As a result, adolescent girls will gain tools to experience menstruation with dignity, and boys will be sensitized to better understand and support the needs of their female peers.
In addition, part of the teaching staff will be sensitized so they can propose changes within the school to improve conditions for menstruating adolescent girls. Community participation as population centers that make collective decisions on this topic is not planned, as the necessary conditions for informed dialogue have not yet been established.
Municipalities and Communities Where the Project Will Be Implemented:
The project will be carried out in the municipality of San Juan Cancuc, specifically in the municipal seat, at Technical Secondary School No. 77 (School Code: 07DST0079O). Due to our limited capacity, our initial priority will be the first-grade secondary school groups, reaching approximately 90 girls. If favorable conditions exist to conduct the workshops, an equal number of boys will also participate.
Formación y Capacitación, A.C. (FOCA)
Project Name:
“Visibility and Strengthening of Midwives and Apprentices: Continued Training from a Gender, Intercultural, and Rights-Based Approach for Community Health Care.”
Beneficiaries:
Project Description:
This project seeks to foster generational dialogue between master midwives and apprentices, integrating traditional midwifery knowledge with additional tools for comprehensive health care. Our goal is to improve care in emergency situations and strengthen the political training of midwives’ leadership. The training process for apprentices will be carried out from a women’s rights perspective, with an intercultural, gender-based, and Indigenous-centered vision, enabling them to advocate for traditional midwifery both in their communities and at regional, state, and national levels.
Core Components:
Municipalities and Communities Where the Project Will Be Implemented:
San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Oxchuc, Tenejapa, Chanal, Chamula, Las Rosas, and San Juan Cancuc.
FORO PARA EL DESARROLLO SUSTENTABLE, A.C. (SEMILLERO 259 Y PATRULLA ROJA & CENTAVITOS ROJOS)
Project Name:
“Agroecological Community for Well-Being”
Beneficiaries:
Direct: 123
Indirect: 3,800
Project Description:
We are a community of collectives carrying out activities in the outskirts of the city, offering workshops, training sessions, and sports and artistic activities for children and youth. We promote self-care, conscious eating, physical activity, the arts, and community work.
Our work is made visible by taking place in the streets of our community centers, allowing us to build connections and support networks to share these activities throughout the city and promote these values.
Knowledge is created through the exchange of wisdom with people from the Altos region, recovering our ancestral traditions in areas with a large Tseltal and Tsotsil population from Chiapas.
Municipalities and Communities Where the Project Will Be Implemented:
San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, both in the northern and southern areas of the city.
AGUA Y VIDA: MUJERES, DERECHOS Y AMBIENTE, A.C.
Project Name: “Toward the Empowerment of Women in the Participatory Management of Water in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas – Phase 2”.
Beneficiaries:
Direct: 30
Indirect: 330
Project Description:
Although women's organized and strategic participation in water-related issues in San Cristóbal de Las Casas is increasingly visible, it still requires strengthening. In many cases, organized groups face internal challenges such as women’s limited time due to the burden of domestic and caregiving responsibilities, as well as sexism and machismo within their families, neighborhoods, and communities.
In response, the project focuses on the empowerment, organization, and participation of women water defenders in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, from an ecofeminist and climate and environmental justice perspective. Activities will include: one municipal women's meeting on water with 20 participants from neighborhoods, communities, and autonomous water systems; one regional gathering of women water defenders; a video on water (featuring testimonies from women at the regional meeting); and continued promotion of the international campaign Women Are Water.
Municipalities and Communities Where the Project Will Be Implemented:
San Cristóbal de Las Casas: Alcanfores, Cuxtitali, and neighborhoods in the southern zone.
Women water defenders from other municipalities in Chiapas (to be fully confirmed), with current candidates including: Tuxtla, Chenalhó, Tenejapa, Chilón, Palenque, and Tonalá, aiming to represent diverse regions of Chiapas.
PROMEDIOS DE COMUNICACIÓN COMUNITARIA, A.C.
Project Name: “The Hearth of Words: Community Storytelling Lab”.
Beneficiaries:
Direct: 147
Indirect: 3,500
Project Description:
The Hearth of Words is an interdisciplinary project that creates spaces for gathering and listening through community art, narrative practices, and popular communication. Participants are invited to create and share their own stories with dignity, promoting their culture, identity, work, dreams, and hopes.
From 2022 to the end of 2024, we collaborated with 22 organizations in Chiapas, Guatemala, and Honduras. In this second phase (January–December 2025), we aim to promote greater ownership of artistic and technological tools that contribute to social and community transformation. We will work again with some of the organizations that previously took part in our storytelling workshops, now offering more technically focused sessions so that participants can record and edit their own narratives.
We will host 7 Listening Gatherings in 5 different communities to continue strengthening networks among organizations, and in 2 universities that promote popular communication, intercultural education, and environmental care.
This year, we aim to place special focus and dedication on the dissemination of programs created between 2022 and 2024 with more than 22 organizations—14 of which are based in the Los Altos region of Chiapas.
We aim for women to make up the majority of participants in our workshops, as historically, access to and knowledge of media has been dominated by men. We will provide financial and logistical support to ensure women can attend, and we will offer childcare spaces for children accompanying them.
Municipalities and Communities Where the Project Will Be Implemented:
San Cristóbal de Las Casas (with collectives from both the north and south of the city)
Tenejapa (with the network of women healers).
JÓVENES ARTICULANDO TERRITORIOS, A.C. (JOVENARTE)
Project Name: “Agroecological Youth for Good Living in Huixtán, Chiapas”
Beneficiarios:
Directo: 82
Indirectos: 465
Descripción del proyecto:
El huerto escolar ubicado en CEMSaD 300 se fortalecerá mediante la instalación de un sistema de riego por poliductos, malla de sombra y el establecimiento de un vivero para la reproducción de semillas de hortalizas tradicionales y árboles forestales.
Se desarrollará un "Plan de Acción Local" para abordar y gestionar los riesgos naturales asociados con el cambio climático, con el objetivo de responder a los desafíos que la comunidad enfrentó anteriormente. Para lograr esto, se llevará a cabo una evaluación de la vulnerabilidad de los medios de vida con la participación de toda la comunidad estudiantil, el comité escolar y los padres. Una vez sistematizados los hallazgos, se creará el "Plan de Acción Local".
Los jóvenes recibirán capacitación durante todo el proceso para prevenir y gestionar los principales riesgos naturales identificados. También se incluirá a los maestros y al comité escolar para fortalecer el aprendizaje y el diálogo intergeneracional e interdisciplinario. Al final del proyecto, se llevará a cabo una actividad de reforestación y se presentará el "Plan de Acción Local" al gobierno local para su consideración en el Plan de Desarrollo Municipal.
La organización continuará apoyando a CEMSaD 137 con otros socios como parte del plan estratégico previamente desarrollado con ese Centro Educativo. Por lo tanto, la financiación solicitada se centrará en continuar el trabajo en CEMSaD 300.
Para el fortalecimiento institucional, la organización planea actualizar sus estatutos para iniciar el proceso de obtención de la condición de Donatario Autorizado, destinando parte de la subvención para trámites legales. Esto ayudará a consolidar la organización y aumentar su impacto en la región de Los Altos de Chiapas.
Municipios y comunidades donde se implementará el proyecto:
Pedernal San Pedro, Huixtán.
Links:
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