Nutrition for me and all my friends: Chiapas

Hello! I hope your 2021 is starting off in the best way, with health and peace for you and those you love. Amextra´s health and nutrition program in Los Altos (Highlands) of Chiapas ended with a time of reflection between the regional team and the families we serve, and this year is starting off strong with workshops, planning, and exchange of information. Here are just three acheivements we want to highlight from the period of December 2020 and January and February 2021.

• 114 people participated in the “2020 Summary and 2021 Planning” workshop in the communities of Aldama and Chalchihuitán. In this yearly workshop the families we work with share what they liked best about their work with Amextra and as a community during the year, share what they think could have gone better, and make plans for a collaborative and successful next year.  

• 4 women participated in the planting of tomatoes, cilantro and radishes, of the Xulumó community greenhouse in Aldama. This greenhouse serves as a demonstrative project to other communities, where they can see how working in a greenhouse benefits the community of Aldama and decide if they would like to work on one in their own community.

• 16 women participated in the 1st practical workshop on hygiene and cleaning of ecological latrines, to avoid infectious diseases in the community of Namtic in the municipality Chalchihuitán.  These ecological latrines are generally well-accepted by the communities, as they provide a hygenic alternative to defication in open spaces, thus preventing contamination of water and soil and providing families with more comfort. These 16 women that have been trained had this space to ask questions and learn best practices for making the most of the ecological latrines.  

Thank you for being a part of this project and the Amextra community. It will be a joy and honor to share the advances in this project with you every trimester throughout the year, 

All the best,

Stephanie