Empowering 50 rural young people in Oaxaca, Mexico

In response to the COVID19 pandemic, in the months of May to July 2020, young former participants of the School for the Common Good in the Mixteca and other regions are taking action in their communities. Here are some pictures and progress on what they are doing to improve the health and food situation:

In the community Constancia del Rosario, Putla, Adolfo from the nursery "Esperanza", began with the first sowings of chilies and tomatoes, the production of organic insecticides, as well as their application. Apart from that, they continued with the weeding and the placement of netting in the place where the "Río Cantador" orchard will be established, the delivery of materials to members of the collective, the sowing of seeds in germination trays for later sowing in bed and also the sowing of sweet potatoes.

In the community of San Jacinto Tlacotepec, the project "Green Families facing the crisis of COVID-19" was initiated. In its first stage, the henhouses were built in order to have a better control of the chickens. The family gardens were also fenced and people were trained to start with the cultivation of the first vegetables.

Wendy from the Santiago Nundiche community, tells us: "We started with a meeting with the heads of families in the community in coordination with the municipal agent to talk about support for the women. We all agreed that those who would benefit from the pantries would be the elderly, 21 in total, (60 years and older) as they are the most vulnerable and many of them live alone.  43 women - supported with chickens as well as vegetable seeds - who on average house 7-8 people. After the meeting was over and hearing about the situation they are suffering as a result of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, it was decided to take a tour into the forest and have a look on the forts to see how else they could acquire food.

Together we went on a tour to  the community's forest, where we also took the opportunity to define the areas where we would be collecting the soil for the vegetables. We decided to include the children who came to the meeting so that they would get to know what the community is all about. We also went to visit one of the women who will benefit from the support of the mushroom production, to examine the area destined for the production. We listened to her needs and how support would help her family and community. We also received a small training about the correct planting of vegetables, to replicate it with the community later.”

With the support we received and the active participation of young people who have been trained at the School for the Common Good, we have managed to generate different actions to improve the lives of people in communities in Oaxaca, Mexico. The most important thing is to help and support each other, even more during this difficult time of the pandemic. Therefore, we would like to thank each and every one of you for believing in our work.

Young people from rural communities of the Mixtec region in Oaxaca, continued in the last quarter of 2019 and the first two months of 2020 with the process of carrying our their initiatives. In addition to that we had a meeting In November 2019 where they shared the activities they are carrying out, difficulties in implementing their initiatives, lessons learned and perspectives.

 We share with you, two of the community initiatives, which are making good progress:

Collective “Voices of Organized Women"

Goal:

-Women in the Mixtec region of Oaxaca know their human rights and exercise them and live equitable and egalitarian relationships through actions of self-sufficiency, exchange of knowledge and actions.

 Performed activities:

- Creation of the municipal council.

- Dissemination of the gender alert on the radio.

- Internal and external meetings to define more actions of how to respond to the gender alert.

- Training.

- Sharing of knowledge and resources.

- Attendance at meetings.

- Continued presence. How do we as women manage to stay in a group.

Conversational Results:

- Earth: strengthening the collectivity.

- Sky: links with institutions, osc, groups, women.

- Human energy: re-recognizing ourselves as women, remembering and looking at ourselves again.

 Collective “The Living Seed”

 Goal:

- Rescue of local fruit trees and conservation of native seeds, through to create a space for training and demonstration of how to plant the trees, fruit trees in the region.

Performed activities:

- Healthy eating workshop.

- Organic fertilizer workshop.

The construction of the nursery is still unfinished.

Achievements:

-       The nursery has yet to be established.

Achievements and strengths of the initiatives

 - Encouragement and knowledge about the theme that each of us is working on.

- Openness to learn new things.

- Willingness to share with people.

- Support for the media.

- Spaces for meetings and work.

- The addition of skills and alliances with other related groups.

- Dialogue with people and participation within the community and acceptance by people of the themes that each of us is dealing with.

- Support from the family.

- Losing the fear of speaking in front of a group.

- Dedication, work, effort and time that they dedicate to their initiative.

- Having been able to form their collective, to start the market again.

- Meet other people.

- The project extended to community.

- Availability of time

Thanks to the support of the people who donated and shared their love via GlobalGiving, it's helping to increase young people’s skills, improve their self esteem and the Common Good to become a reality little by little.

 We all build the common good to be happy!