By Andrea Morales | Project Leader
Report
Young indigenous women empowerment through basketball!
IDEAS Ch’ieltik is a Civil Society Organization that for 10 years has been working for the rights of children and youth of indigenous peoples of Chiapas to strengthen their capacities through training, cultural and artistic activities with a rights perspective.
On this occasion we are very happy because thanks to your support we have started a new dream: to strengthen more young women from the state of Chiapas.
Our activities have already started:
In the municipality of Chenalhó we had our first lightning tournament, in which 40 girls from the Technical High School participated, in eight teams. This tournament was held on the main court of the municipal capital of Chenalhó, we have the assistance of mothers and fathers, as well as the total student community. After a day full of emotions, they won with a score of 36 to 14 “Las Águilas Negras”, a team of 15 young people from first grade of secondary school.
As Our work is carried out in 5 micro regions located in Los Altos and La Selva Chiapaneca, where communities with the lowest Human Development Index are located. The activities are facilitated by the “Semillero Team”, (young indigenous educators who carry out direct work in the communities, from the Mayan, Tseltal, Tsotsil and Tojolabal cultures), that is why in Nvo. San Juan Chamula, municipality of Las Margaritas, also was hold the first tournament, where 4 teams participated, with a total of 24 players from 109 High School, where the final score was 32 to 26.
The objective of these first activities is to strengthen women, supporting them to make use of public spaces within their communities, due that In Chiapas, women's conditions are limited in their access to education, health and recreation. Women from an early age must engage in housework and be prepared for the fulfillment of the role of being mothers. This situation has a bearing on the high rates of teenage pregnancy and marital unions at an early age, a phenomenon that in many cases arises from negative cultural practices such as the sale of girls and adolescents, the normalization of sexual abuse and gender inequality.
That is why, we find sports as a tool that improves development and physical well-being and strengthens leadership, teamwork and companionship. However, in Chiapas, the lack of public spaces conditions the access of young indigenous women to practice, not to mention that in basketball or in any other sport the presence of men prevails. As far as the next basketball activities is concerned, the winning teams of each of the tournaments will be followed up and trained to improve their basketball skills, leadership workshops so they can manage their own spaces and empower themselves.
Next month the tournament will be held at CECyTe 18 in Chenalhó and the Rufino Tamayo Telesecundaria Escuela de Nvo. San Juan Chamula, and then, we will start with the training of these Ch’ieltik teams.To achieve our goal of empowering more than 50 indigenous young women, we need to form basketball teams and provide them with professional sports advice to increase their skills, in addition to the acquisition of the necessary sports equipment and the rehabilitation of the courts in community and school spaces within the regions of Los Altos and La Selva, in Chiapas.
With your donation, we will continue to strengthen the indigenous youth of Chiapas. Your contribution is very important!
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
