Indigenous Women's Health Center in Mexico

“Tirse was the woman who brought my brother into the world, he was born thanks to her. Mrs. Tirse was there for my mom from the beginning, she was there for her recovery. My brothers and I were born at home, it was what we could afford and what my mom wanted, a birth with the essence of home” 

    Elsa, health promotor

Hi there! Last months we have been trying to strengthen the health center for indigenous women. We had the opportunity to share new workshops with women healers. 

We were worried about the fact that OMS says there is no reason for any country to have more than 15% of childbirths by cesarean section, while in Mexico the figure is more than 50%. That's why many women are looking for giving birth assisted by midwives, added to the fact that doctors commonly exercise obstetric violence on indigenous women. However is no longer so common to find trained midwives, that's why is important to promote midwifery, for future mothers and women who want to learn. 

Fortunately, and thank to your support for this cause, we have the presence of Henedmusalem a traditional midwife, who share a workshop with women of our community about the situation so we can be aware of the situation and include this program in our health program. 

By the other hand, María, a healer from central Oaxaca share a workshop with us to recognize the importance of plants in our lives from a spiritual perspective. We believe that to keep ancestral knowledge alive we also need to strengthen our minds. We also had the presence of Lourdes for sharing a beautiful workshop about menopause.

The next step for the health center is to ask for the guidance of more and more healed women for sharing medical alternatives that solve our community health concerns. The health center is open to everyone, the medicinal plant garden is growing, and the neighbors are asking for plants to attend to their families. We know that this community project will gradually continue to change lives.

Thank you for being part of and trusting us. 

“I try to recognize that I am a bridge. I don't heal anyone! I return the dignity to people so that people know if they want to heal or not. Because many times it is a life decision, there are recurrent illnesses that come into your life, as ailments that have to do with emotional issues unresolved and that you have to internalize. And we also have to look at the vulnerabilities with which I live in this world on this planet. We need -the others- to make community networks.” told us Silvia, a traditional healing partner who is accompanying us in our training as community health guides. 

We are 18 women training for rescuing the importance of traditional medicine. Little by little, we are creating networks to guarantee our right to decent health. 

We have learned from different professionals, traditional healers and we are continuously looking for new moments of sharing ancestral knowledge within our zapotec communities. As part of our training we have made walks in our territory to identify and recollect local medicinal plants, we built a communal medicinal garden, and last month we started to organize a community apothecary. Together we create our first herbarium and we dream of publishing a book that assembles the importance of ancestral knowledge and the richness of our territory. 

We believe that we have the capacity to heal ourselves.  This knowledge was reaffirmed by Nina, a traditional healer.  “So… if the person comes open from his heart, I can transmit to people the knowledge [to heal], they just need to remember it. My work is to restore those memories, remind them that they have the ability to heal, we all have it.” 

During the lessons, we have shared experiences about nutrition, local food, medicinal plants, herbalism, physiotherapy, self-massages, and also we are trying to deepen the relationship between emotions and health. 

Thank you for pushing a new way of organization between women. We are sure that all the learnings we are gathering will give us a new chance to improve our livelihoods.