Projects

All three of the projects started in 2010 have been funded for a second year.

The Zinacantán Saturday Children´s Program has been operating for 20 months as of August, 2011. It is very popular and has been effective in persuading children to remain in school.

The Crucero Saturday Children´s Program just started its second year. The women in that community provided materials and built a structure just to house the Saturday school. They are so enthusiastic about it and are hoping that funding will continue.

The Altamirano Literacy Project has been in existence for 20 months. There are 27 people attending, 13 of them women. The instructor is very pleased with the participation and dedication of the participants. He makes himself available for extra-help sessions when requested.

For more information on all three programs, please see more details under “Projects 2010.”

This year saw the initiation of three new community projects. All were conceived and proposed by scholarship recipients who as an obligation of their scholarship must give at least 100 hours of community service per year back to the cooperative.

Zinacantán Children ́s Project

A full year project started in January, 2010 for primary school students in Zinacantán. The project was organized and is run by Juana and Yoli, who both attend university, and Petrona and Adriana, sisters attending preparatory and secondary classes, respectively. The project is aimed at students who are lagging behind in their studies and working below grade level. Starting with about 30 students who were identified by their teachers, the Saturday classes vary in attendance between 25 and 35 pupils. For three hours every Saturday morning, students work to strengthen their academic skills, develop creativity, learn literacy in their Maya language, participate in workshops given by accredited facilitators and learn sound environmental practices. The children are given a meal during the three hour session.

The project has been so successful that parents praise it saying that their children are doing better in school and they are not receiving calls from the teachers. The students love it and beg their teachers to let them come on Sunday, too. Now, at the end of 2010, we have received a proposal for an additional year ́s funding so the program may continue.

Chanal Literacy Project

The municipality of Chanal, and specifically the community of Naranjal, is about four hours from the principal city of San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico. A group of women from Naranjal belong to the cooperative with which we partner and proposed a full year certified program of literacy for fifteen women who did not have the opportunity to complete their primary education. The ability to read and write will permit their participation in the community’s councils and assemblies. They are becoming valued members of their community, their self-esteem is increasing and it is giving them the self-confidence to dedicate themselves to other areas of learning and to take on new responsibilities. At the end of 2010, 13 women have successfully completed the program and are ready to continue.

Crucero Children’s Project

Patterned after the Zinacantán Project, Teresa and Martha, two scholarship recipients now attending preparatory school, proposed to run a similar program in Crucero, a small community in the Chamula region. It is a bit smaller as it has a smaller draw, but on an average Saturday approximately 22 children are in attendance. They, too, work on strengthening academic skills, literacy in Tsotsil, creative and environmental endeavors and workshops on children ́s rights, gender equity, etc. This project began in August, 2010.

The community of Las Margaritas, about an hour and a half south of San Cristóbal, proposed a seven workshop series to educate participants in Margaritas and in four outlying communities.

There was a workshop a month for seven months, each one lasting a day and a half. Professional facilitators were brought in for each workshop. The themes were gender equity, self-esteem domestic violence, individual rights, women’s rights, judicial advice and human rights violations. The goal was to create a space where these topics could be discussed and problems could be confronted. A manual was created so that the workshops could be given again easily. Participants were charged to take information back to their own communities. These workshops were very successful and well attended.