Support Grassroots Earthquake Recovery in Mexico

Dear supporters,

2020 has started at a full stride in Fondo Semillas. We spent the first month of the year accompanying our grantee partners that were closing the project, so that they could send all the documents needed. We also reviewed the applications to the 2020 extension and decided to provide monetary and capacity-building support to fifteen organizations:

• Alianza Cívica Pinotepa Nacional (Oaxaca)
• Asamblea de Pueblos Indígenas del Istmo de Tehuantepec en Defensa de la Tierra y el Territorio (Oaxaca)
• Asociación Estatal de Mujeres Indígenas y Campesinas Xasasti Yolistli A.C. (Puebla)
• Centro de Acción para el Desarrollo CODICE (Oaxaca)
• Centro de Asesoría para el Desarrollo Indígena A.C. (Puebla)
• Centro para los Derechos de la Mujer Nääxwiin A.C. (Oaxaca)
• Comité de Mujeres de la Asamblea del Pueblo de San Dionisio del Mar (Oaxaca)
• Comité Ixtepecano en la Defensa de la Vida y el Territorio (Oaxaca)
• El Sueño de Huejotengo (Morelos)
• MONAPAKÜY (Oaxaca)
• Mujeres de la tierra y el sol (Puebla)
• Mujeres Pescadoras del Manglar (Oaxaca)
• Mujeres por la reactivación económica de Jojutla (Morelos)
• Una Mano para Oaxaca (Oaxaca)
• Unión de Pueblos de Morelos (Morelos)

This support allows these organizations to continue their recovery work while strengthening their resiliency tools. They’ll receive more risk-management workshops so that each one of them can produce their own risk-management plan. Some of the projects they will carry out during 2020 include:

El Sueño de Huejotengo is going to focus on strengthening their business model to strengthen their local economy. They got trained on how to produce avocado-based products and how to market them. They’ve even created their own brand called “Nepanyotl Cihuatl”, which means women supporting women in Nahuatl.

Una Mano para Oaxaca is strengthening their cultural appropriation project by creating a zapotec and a music class.

Alianza Cívica Pinotepa Nacional and Comité de Mujeres de la Asamblea del Pueblo de San Dionisio del Mar are building ovens to those affected by the earthquakes that were not part of the last cohort.

For the next grant period that starts in 2021, Fondo Semillas will open a Resilient Communities program to support grantee partners that continue working on the recovery of their communities after a disaster, long after the first three months of the emergency, the time period when most donors tend to respond, and increase their resiliency tools. This way, women will be able to lead processes such as the reactivation of the local economy, the rebuilding of the social fabric, the preparation of a local risk-management plan, amongst others. This 2020 extension will serve as a bridge to install this permanent program.