Gender Equality Mexico Project #40601

Empowers 100 Zapotec women to be government

by Espiral por la Vida, A.C.

Empowers 100 Zapotec women to be government

Project Report | Feb 19, 2021
RESILIENT COMMUNITIES

By Blanca Castanon Canals | Proyect Leader

Meeting of women alderwomen

Dear friends and benefactors of Espiral por la Vida:

We greet you in the hope that you are in good health and with your family!

We are proud to keep this space of communication open to express our wishes for your well being and to share with you the experiences and activities that we developed at the end of last year with Zapotec women from the Sierra Norte. We are also proud to inform you that we have extended our work in two regions of the state to benefit more women from other ethnic groups.

Within the context of the pandemic and the increase of cases of COVID-19 in some municipalities of the Sierra Norte during these last months, an unfavorable economic and social panorama is presented due to the impact of the social distancing that implies the loss of jobs and leads to the increase of inequality and even impacts on the mental health of people by generating stress and anxiety.

However, our communities are characterized by their commitment to community wellbeing and resilient wills. While it is true that at the beginning of the pandemic, the Zapotec indigenous women we worked with did not know how to use platforms such as zoom, meet, etc. to meet, in these months, they have learned some digital strategies in order to continue their participation in distance training activities in human rights.

WOMEN'S POLITICAL RIGHTS

The training focused on women's political rights is a fundamental axis of the work that our organization carries out with women and is reflected in the exercise of their positions as well as in the decision making that favors their communities and population.

An example of this, among the beneficiary women, are those who are currently holding municipal positions and are those who participated in the decision-making process to promote the contracting of connectivity services and thus provide internet to young people in their communities, which although it is only a temporary measure, represents a significant reduction of the digital divide in these months and translates into access to education for children, adolescents and young people.

We are currently replicating the good practices of our training to more women in other regions, which is why we have incorporated approximately 80 women from the Coast and Central Valleys region to online learning.

HEALTHY EATING CAMPAIGN

On the other hand, we continue our work with young women who have become promoters and promoters of rights in their communities, emphasizing the right to food.

Therefore, our young women are participating in a network in the State, to promote healthy eating through social networks where they post infographics, exercise videos and healthy recipes.

Finally, we would like to acknowledge their valuable contribution to our work, since their generous donations are what make these achievements possible. It is very important for us to share our gratitude, but also to emphasize that generosity and interest is an essential part of the empowerment of the Zapotec women with whom we work.

Please receive our thanks and appreciation.

All the best

Espiral por la Vida, A.C.

Image of the campaign for healthy eating.

poster created by young people

Women benefit from e-learning

Healthy eating promotional infographic

Links:

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Oct 22, 2020
Report Empowers 100 Zapotec women to be government

By Blanca Castanon Canals | Proyect Leader

Work meetings with zapotec women

Dear friends and benefactors of Espiral por la Vida:

¡We greet you in the hope that you will be healthy and in your family!

We are pleased that we can maintain this space of communication to share with you the activities that we have been articulating in the communities of the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, from our Organization with the women beneficiaries of this Project.

Collaborative learning

This period has been marked by confinement as well as the visibility of social inequalities that have increased, such as access to connectivity and therefore to education. In this regard, distance education has become a challenge for the entire population: youth, teachers and parents.

In this sense, the indigenous Zapotec women with whom we work are currently participating in the online workshop that we adapted to continue with the training, in topics such as the right to food, education and a life free of violence.

Likewise, they have become promoters among the young people of their communities to incorporate them into this teaching modality, giving them support to bring them closer to the contents and to attenuate the complications they may have due to the lack of internet signal.

In this way, the online workshop has managed to establish a collaborative work between women and young people, in which women, in addition to acquiring new learning, strengthen the social fabric of their community and are shaping their support network within it.

Work meetings

From Espiral por la Vida, A.C. we continue to hold work meetings with women on a regular basis, where in addition to being a space for training and making agreements, we have tried to encourage reflection on issues of self-care as well as job creation.

Communication through our social networks

We are in constant communication through our social networks, website and groups at whatsapp; sharing news, links of interest, research and recommendations, with the aim of keeping our beneficiaries informed and at the same time allowing them to participate in the information in their communities.

We are proud to see how women have grown in the face of the adversity of the pandemic, as they begin to lose their fear of technological tools such as mobile devices; they have acquired new and useful learning in information technologies, although they are basic, but for them they represent a great advance in the issue of communication and connectivity.

It is important to emphasize the great work that our women beneficiaries have always done as caregivers within their families; now, as protectors of their communities, they continue to do so from the exercise of their positions and participating in surveillance posts at strategic points in their municipalities, preventing the spread of COVID-19.

Finally, we would like to remind you that these achievements are possible thanks to your valuable collaboration; your donations have made it possible for us to continue our work in the indigenous communities, and although working from a distance implies a different rhythm in our actions, these continue to bear fruit in the empowerment of the Zapotec women with whom we work.

Receive our thanks and recognition.

All the best,

Espiral por la Vida, A.C.

Pictures realized by indigenous teenagers

Poster on promoting a culture of peace

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Jun 29, 2020
It is a time of great learning

By Blanca Castanon Canals | Proyect Leader

Sharing strategies at a distance

Dear friends and benefactors of Espiral por la Vida:

We greet you in the hope that you will be healthy and in your family!

On this occasion, we are going to take advantage of this communication space to inform you about the actions that our organization has been carrying out in this period marked by the pandemic and the confinement, of which the indigenous communities and in particular, the women with whom we work, far from relegating themselves to a secondary or expectant role towards what the authorities give them, have exercised a protagonist presence, leading the actions of protection and preservation of their communities.

From our organization, we have implemented communication strategies that allow us to continue with the work of training, skills development and capacity transfer in the participants of the project, within a framework of respect towards the health measures dictated by the Health Authorities in our State, but without neglecting this collaborative work:

1) Sessions through Zoom to continue with the training on a biweekly basis, addressing different topics that allow for a beneficial association between the activities they are carrying out such as the cultivation of their land and that, in addition to subsistence, allow for the creation of sources of employment and the possibility of organizing regional organic markets.

2) Moodle Platform where they have adapted courses on topics in rights: food, education and a life free of violence; emphasizing at this stage, food security: the right to access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their needs and according to the food preferences of their culture to lead an active and healthy life.

3) Creation of Whatsapp groups in order to maintain constant communication between the compañeras and municipalities.

4) Social networks and website, we are sharing relevant information: statistical data, news, links to research or useful recommendations.

Putting these strategies into practice has allowed women to develop new skills that allow them to bridge the gaps of inequality that exist in their indigenous communities, including access to technology. This last one has made more difficult the work we do, however, far from discouraging us, we try to innovate by learning and sharing with our partners, the way to solve these problems: learning in different platforms, how to install and use them in different devices, etc.

The work with our partners in the indigenous communities of the Sierra Norte has left us with great lessons, because in the face of the economic, political and educational disadvantages that they have maintained for centuries; in situations such as the one we are currently experiencing, it is our indigenous peoples who show their social conscience, developing networks of solidarity, support and mutual help to maintain and protect the health of the entire population, putting collective well-being before their individual needs.

Showing the strength of their social fabric and exposing the characteristics of why their millenary culture transmitted through generations, is capable of moving forward through respect for community rules, the common good and food sovereignty, since it is the indigenous communities, who far from worrying about how they will feed themselves; they occupied their plots, their fields, are eating what they harvested and continue to sow, because as they mention: "it is a time of great learning because we can realize the relevance that agriculture acquires, the cultivation of our lands that allows us to have food self-sufficiency; it is the return to the land, the pleasure of dedicating time to our crops".

We'd love to hear from you!

All the best,

Espiral por la Vida, A.C.

Training of indigenous authorities

Sharing strategies at a distance

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