Indigenous Women's Leadership Program

When Gabriela first arrived at Centro de Compartimiento (CDC) for a workshop, she immediately recognized that at the center there was something she had needed years earlier.

As a college student living away from her family for the first time, Gabriela struggled without a strong support network. Although she ultimately completed her degree, she remembers feeling as though she was “drowning” in everything she was experiencing. She longed for a place where someone would listen to her and understand what she was going through.

After graduating, Gabriela moved to Juchitán for work and achieved what she had once considered her primary goal: earning her degree, finding employment, and becoming financially independent. Yet something was still missing. Through her involvement with CDC workshops and the women’s circle, Gabriela began reconnecting with a dream she had carried since her professional training: using her profession to help others. The network gave her time and space to reflect on what she truly wanted—not simply what she had been told success was supposed to look like.

One of her first experiences at CDC was a Servant Leadership workshop. Initially, Gabriela understood leadership primarily as becoming a leader or reaching a position of influence. The experience challenged that definition. She began recognizing behaviors and assumptions she had previously considered “normal” and discovered that there were healthier and more compassionate ways to respond to challenges.

She also began applying what she learned in her daily life. Gabriela described improvements in her relationships with her parents and siblings and greater awareness in her professional interactions. Because her work involves frequent contact with patients and other people, she could see how the changes in herself were affecting the people around her.

For Gabriela, the women’s network is difficult to define because its impact is not limited to one activity or outcome. At its heart is the practice of women sharing their real experiences with one another. Participants listen to each other’s stories, exchange perspectives, and discover that challenges they may have believed were uniquely their own are often shared by others. That process provides something difficult to find elsewhere: perspective. When Gabriela feels overwhelmed by a situation, sharing it with the women in her network can bring calm, understanding, and new possibilities. Hearing different perspectives can reveal solutions that are difficult to see alone.

Perhaps the clearest example of this transformation came when Gabriela traveled with members of her network to a rural community. There she noticed that the children lacked access to dental services. The experience reconnected her directly with the reason she had originally entered her profession. She saw children who needed dental care and realized: this was the work she had wanted to do. With support from her network, Gabriela returned with a small group to provide dental services to the children. The setting was not ideal. The group was small, and the work was physically demanding. But those circumstances became secondary to the sense of purpose she experienced. For Gabriela, the experience was deeply fulfilling precisely because it was focused on service rather than recognition.

Gabriela’s story illustrates why intentional spaces for women’s connection matter. Centro de Compartimiento does not simply provide a one-time workshop or isolated training. It creates an ongoing environment in which women can return, share what is happening in their lives, receive perspective, and continue learning from one another.

Gabriela’s journey—from feeling isolated as a college student, to achieving professional independence, to rediscovering her desire to serve—demonstrates the long-term transformation that investment in community and connection can make possible.

For donors, this is the broader impact of investing in connection: supporting one woman’s growth can create ripple effects far beyond the individual. In that time, women can find connection, perspective, courage, and renewed purpose—and then bring those gifts back to the people and communities around them. We thank you for your continued support of our women’s leadership program. We hope you will spread the news of our work to friends and family.

Links:

• CDC Website