Education Mexico Project #36907

Say Yes to Women's Education of Oaxaca, Mexico.

by Fondo Guadalupe Musalem A.C.

Say Yes to Women's Education of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Project Report | Aug 9, 2019
Blanca Says Thanks

By Blanca Flor | Scholar

Blanca Flor

Hello dear donors,

My name is Blanca Flor. I live in a community in the Mixteca Baja, 8 hours from the city of Oaxaca in México, and I will soon begin my third year in high school.

I want to share with you that of the six members in my family, I am the first female member to study in high school. This is something that motivates me because my parents are very happy and conscious that everyone, female or male, has a right to education.

One day in class, the person in charge of education came and showed us the application to receive a scholarship from Fondo Guadalupe Musalem. From this moment I knew I could have the opportunity to study in my high school. When I studied via telesecundaria, online secondary school, it was very complicated because I had to help my parents sell tortillas, pumpkin and tomatillo seeds. The economy was very difficult at this time.

Since I was small my dream has been to be a doctor, because in my community there are no doctors to attend to us. I have suffered because I have had appendicitis and needed to transfer to another place four hours from my community. Because of this, I want to study medicine and help everyone because occasionally we have suffered deaths in my community due to a lack in medical care.

When I was a girl I had stomach pains, migraines, and I was anemic. In my community we didn’t have the resources to get medicine, so my mother cured me with only traditional medicine.

In the time that I have been a scholarship recipient and have attended workshops, I can already analyze what I want: that as women we have new opportunities and that nobody can prevent us from obtaining what we really want.

The workshops about gender that I have received here in FGM have served me well in that everything I learn, I can share with the other kids and teenagers in my community. I give workshops to children in elementary school, online secondary school, and high school, sharing everything that I have learned from FGM, especially violence prevention. Everyone who participates in the workshops is changing their mentality of how to act.

When I studied in online secondary school, I wasn’t interested in books and I didn’t like reading. When I arrived at FGM, they lent us books to read, and this was where my interest in reading grew. Books have helped me to think more and learn about new places.

If I hadn’t received the FGM scholarship, my life would be completely different because in my community it is traditional for girls to stop studying at 15 and get married. At my age I would be a mother or working in the fields to maintain my family.

I am very grateful for the donors that have donated to Fondo Guadalupe Musalem because it permits us to continue the workshops that strengthen us, as well as the economic benefits that allow us to continue our studies.

Andrea in academic counseling

Meeting of graduates and grantees

Presentation of community works

Young women happy to finish narrative class

Visit to the General Archive of the State of Oaxac

Links:

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May 22, 2019
Women with education

By Brenda Luzmar | Scholar

Brenda Luzmar

Dear donor:

My name is Brenda. I'm 17 years old. I am studying my sixth semester of Telebachillerato Comunitario. My community is called Rancho Nuevo it is 12 hours from the capital city of Oaxaca in Mexico.

I want to tell you that being a Fondo Guadalupe Musalem Scholarship recipient has been a dream of mine, knowing that with this scholarship I will be able to enter the university to study a degree in Business Administration. This is my biggest goal right now and I hope to achieve it.

My father works in the fields, he is a farmer, and my mother works at home. I have three brothers. I am the first of my family to enter the university. My father and mother are proud that I am studying. In my community, women cannot study because they get married at an early age and because there is not enough income, but my parents have guided me to study in order to improve my life.

In my community, people say that I am a woman who can improve herself and they have been very impressed by the fact that each month I travel to the city of Oaxaca to receive training in many subjects such as photography, academics, learning skills and strategies, etc. Importantly, I receive the financial support that helps me so much to pay for my studies.

Everything I have learned in the Fondo Guadalupe Musalem has been very important. I really like to share with my classmates issues such as: violence prevention in relationships, caring for the environment, and the love of reading.

What I have learned has helped me in psychological and scholastic ways; I have shared the topics of prevention of gender violence and sexuality with the young people in my community, especially those in high school because they are the ones who understand best what I teach them.

I think it is important that young women study because everyone has the right to study, to have their own goals, to not to suffer discrimination. I study because I want to improve myself, I want to support my brothers so that they also study, and above all I want to contribute to my community.

In my community, unfortunately, we do not have a library to go to learn about some subject or simply read, but in the Fondo I have books available to me. I love reading history books and other books related to my studies.

I want to thank you for your donations because thanks to you I am going to finish my baccalaureate and I am motivated to study more. I thank you with all my heart for supporting me and for remaining interested in contributing to the education of young women who have all the desire to continue studying but do not have the economic resources to do so.

Young women in yoga session

Concepcion in academic counseling

Women scholars in photography workshop

Women in math class

Links:

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Feb 25, 2019
Say Yes to Womens Education of Oaxaca, Mexico

By Fatima | Scholar

Fatima

Dear sponsor, I am Fatima, a baccalaureate scholar of the Fondo Guadalupe Musalem. I want to share with you that I am 15 years old and I am originally from Santa María Tlahuitoltepec, Mixe, Oaxaca, Mexico. My mother tongue is Mixe or Ayuuk.

I am currently in the first year of high school in the same town. During elementary school and part of high school I participated as an acrobat and trapeze artist with the cultural group "Comuneros del Viento.”

When I read the call for the FGM scholarship I gathered all the documents and submitted them; that day I was very nervous, afraid of not fulfilling the requirements, but it was an incredible experience.

Weeks later they told me that I was selected to be part of the Fondo Guadalupe Musalem. I was so shocked and excited that I even cried with joy. In the time I have been a participant I have learned a lot, topics such as: sexuality, writing texts, how to avoid violence, and lessons that in general support me in the school, family and social environments.

For example, recently two graduates of the Fund spoke to us about teenage pregnancy and that in my community most of the girls drop out of school because they do not have enough information, so that by 20 years old or before many young women have up to three children.

The course that Karina and Gabriela gave us opened my eyes because the cases are real, but these issues are often not commonly discussed anywhere or in the classrooms.

In my community I participate in the talks of the program Prospera together with my mother and other ladies, supporting the assistant of the courses. Now with the topic that they taught us about teenage pregnancy in the Fondo Guadalupe Musalem I will be able to help and share this knowledge with my companions.

I have also learned many things from my FGM classmates and their communities, from my tutors and all those who are part of the Fund. It all helps to not give up and move forward because not all young women continue their studies for different reasons and this scholarship is one of the reasons not to stop fighting for our goals.

I appreciate your donations that allow us to continue with our education; we are a group of young women willing to share everything we learn with our families and our communities.

Women scholars are trained in learning strategies

Happy students

Conception in his math class

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