Posts Tagged ‘Chiapas’
IDEX Program Officer, Katherine Zavala (pictured 2nd on the right), is currently in Mexico on field visits to our grantees there.
Today I went to Comitán de Dominguez, where our partner EduPaz is based. Comitán is 90 minutes south of San Cristóbal de las Casas on the way to the Guatemalan border. EduPaz had planned to take me on a community visit to Tziscao –but first, a much-needed stop at their office for pastries and coffee.
To enter their office, I had to pass through their fair trade store called EcoPaz (Economy for Peace), which was opened to sell products made by the community groups and collectives that received microcredit from EduPaz.
This season, it was interesting to see a beekeeping collective is producing lots of honey and there was plenty of honey on sale.
During breakfast, the 3 full-time EduPaz staff introduced themselves and got me up to speed on the community we were going to visit. And so headed off to Tziscao, a community of around 6,000 people, located an hour from Comitán.
In Tziscao, EduPaz has built a health center which now has a doctor to serve the surrounding communities. Soon there will be 5 alternative medicine interns from the School of Alternative Medicine in Tuxtla Gutierrez on site to provide holistic health services, which is great since this area is really underserved in regards to medical care.
About 15 to 20 community members go to the Tziscao health center each week. There’s only 1 other hospital in the area, but it is limited in it services and just has 1 doctor and 1 nurse. Plus the only supplies they have are of anti-parasite medicine and contraceptives. The EduPaz health center is a much-needed resource and also serves as a meeting space for farmers or cooperative members in Tziscao.
An indigenous couple is currently living on site to take care of the health center: Baldemar and his wife Eloisa. They moved into the center 3 months ago and Baldemar is also currently being trained on how to run the agroecology program at the center.
EduPaz is also in the process of constructing an Agroecology Training Site. They already have started growing organic vegetables – including squash, radishes, peanuts, chayote, chipilin (herbs for broths) and green tomatoes. While I was there, Baldemar showed me where they’re planning to build a chicken coup, and a space for farm animals including rabbits and sheep, as well as fruit trees (avocado, lemon, apple, pear and banana plants) AND a greenhouse to grow tomatoes. It was quite impressive.
They’ve already built a pigsty and a space for a biodigestor. The biodigestor will use the pig manure to create natural gas to produce energy for the center. They will install the biodigestor in August, at the same time IRRI-Mexico, an IDEX catalyst grantee in Mexico City, will train Baldemar and other community members from Tziscao on how to install and maintain this technology. The goal is to encourage them to also use this in their own homes.
I also visited 2 community groups in Tziscao: an organic coffee cooperative and a family grocery store collective. Both have received microcredit loans from EduPaz. They shared how helpful it was to access microcredit through EduPaz and how much better it was than going through a bank which requires a lot of complicated paperwork and restrictive lending terms. Plus the banks only loan large sums of money, which is not necessary for these groups’ projects.
All in all, it was incredibly rewarding to learn more about EduPaz’s work and meet some of the people that are benefiting from their programs and working so hard to continue that they are successful.
IDEX Program Officer, Katherine Zavala, is currently in Mexico on field visits to our grantees there.
I awoke early this morning swaying in a hammock in the open air. We’d stayed overnight in the municipality of Roberto Barrios. All the visitors, including the students, slept in hammocks. This had initially posed a problem for the 2 DESMI staff members I was with- Estela and Pedro- as there were so many people here last night we couldn’t figure out where to hang our own hammocks. Someone had suggested that we sleep under the “palapa” (hut – pictured) where DESMI held its workshop.
I was a bit dubious about this, as were Estela and Pedro. Estela looked concerned, saying, “I’m not sure that hut will hold the three of us with hammocks.” But there was nowhere else and, fortunately, the hut was stronger than it looked!
This morning, DESMI continued their chicken raising workshop series. The students learned how to vaccinate the chickens. Before heading over to the chicken coup, DESMI gave an overview of how vaccinations are done, demonstrating the different syringes and the right direction to poke the needle. The students then went to the chicken coup to practice.
As part of the training, DESMI reviewed how to store the vaccines, and to identify potential side effects that chicken may get after getting vaccinated. The students learned that in order for the vaccine to be effective it had to be kept cold at 4 degrees Celsius at all times. This means that once it’s bought, it has to be kept in a cooler with ice.
This training was a good learning process for the students to be aware of the various complexities in using vaccines. They went on to review the differences between a parasite, virus and bacteria and what preventative care can be given for each.
After the workshop, the DESMI staff got together with community members and teachers to review the work plan they had put together for DESMI to support their initiative to build their own sustainable development center in the municipality. The students also expressed their interest in providing meals for other community members who will come here for training on sustainable livestock-rearing and agricultural practices.
Another long and educational day for the students and for myself, too. Soon after, we were ready to go back to San Cristóbal de las Casas, a 6-hour drive passing through the beautiful valleys of green mountains.
IDEX Program Officer, Katherine Zavala, is currently in Mexico on field visits to our grantees there.
I was told it was going to be a rather long ride from San Cristóbal de las Casas to the autonomous municipality of Roberto Barrios. They were right: it was 6 hours.
I was accompanying 2 members of DESMI’s staff, Pedro and Estela. Both are responsible for DESMI’s programs in the Northern Zone. Today were to go to Roberto Barrios to conduct chicken-raising workshops with young people there between the ages of 12 and 16.
It’s interesting to note that the autonomous government in Chiapas operates its own education system. It is bilingual (Spanish and a local Mayan language) and reflects the local context of the communities’ reality. The youth we were to meet today are in their secondary education, a 3-year program that includes developing practical skills to enable them to be productive in their communities.
There are around 95 secondary students in this municipality and they’ve all chosen different professional tracks. The 20 students that are participating in DESMI’s workshop today have chosen the veterinary track, and today they were going to be learning how to raise chickens among other livestock-rearing activities.
In this group of veterinary students, I learned there were 2 teachers who accompany them to DESMI’s workshops. DESMI’s staff come to this municipality every 2 months for 2 to 3 days at a time to follow-up with the workshops and bring new training materials for the teachers. Between DESMI’s visits, the teachers continue teaching the students based mostly on indigenous knowledge and in the local Mayan language.
In the middle of the afternoon, we finally arrived. The sun was blazing with a vengeance. The workshops weren’t going to start until later, as the students had spent the first part of the day in the fields learning how to cultivate maize.
I asked Estela from DESMI what we were going to do in the meantime and she said, “We’ll meet with community members and then prepare for the workshop. Time moves slowly here.” I had time on my hands – something that would be quite unimaginable in the United States. It was peaceful to be in a place where was no rush or time pressure.
A whistle blew. “It’s bath time,” Pedro explained. “All the students go to the river to refresh themselves from the hot weather.” I followed them and found myself at a beautiful, crystal-clear river that was just calling at me to jump in. I had forgotten my swimwear. But then I saw girls swimming in their jeans and t-shirts. I dived in fully dressed and enjoyed a wonderfully refreshing swim.
Later, DESMI’s workshop reviewed what the students had learned so far. They had already learned about the common diseases found in chickens and their names in their Mayan languages: Tzeltal and Ch’ol. But they didn’t know the terms in Spanish nor what medicine to use to treat them. That’s where DESMI came in and assisted them in finding the correct terms in Spanish and the corresponding treatments.
DESMI asked the students what they’d like DESMI to train them in regarding chicken raising. The students’ responses included learning more about diseases, how to build and maintain chicken coups, and more on general chicken care. In this way, DESMI can structure their new workshops in response to what the youth are wanting to learn.
It is now the end of a long and interesting day and, as Roberto Barrios is far from San Cristóbal de las Casas, we are going to spend the night here and DESMI will continue the workshop tomorrow.
IDEX Program Office, Katherine Zavala, is currently in Mexico on field visits with our grantees there.
Today I visited a community called San Francisco from the municipality of Teopisca, 1 hour south of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas. This Tzeltal community of 300 people has been supported by DESMI for 20 years. The focus of the work is to assist 52 families to work collectively in various income-generating activities.
Don Pablo is the community representative of San Francisco Teopisca and has been the liaison with DESMI and communicates the progress of each collective income-generating project. He accompanied me during my visit, showed me around the community and introduced me to various members.
We went to a couple of parcels of land where organic vegetables are grown. The first patch of land is used mostly as a demonstration site. Here they showcase organic agricultural practices with new crops to communities. Thanks to workshops provided by DESMI, participants learn how to train other community members on these practices, which spreads the knowledge throughout the community.
Last year they cultivated red onions using vermicompost, which yielded successful results. They grew so many red onions that Don Pablo still has many of them hanging in his house. “We don’t have to buy them at the market anymore,” he told me, “when you hang the onions, they can last up to 8 months.”
8 indigenous women are managing the second parcel of organic vegetables that Don Pablo showed me. They grow lettuce, beets, carrots and onions. DESMI is in the process of teaching these women seed-saving techniques. Already the women are waiting for the flowers of the onions to blossom, and then they will harvest the seeds to sow.
Don Pablo also introduced me to women, who are growing medicinal plants such as dandelions, aloe and Madonna lilies. They create creams and medicinal herbal infusions from extracts of these plants to sell in the community.
Finally, I met with 3 members of a bakery collective, which has 30 members, all women. This collective has been baking bread for 15 years now, and sustainably generates income for its members. Marta, a 51-year old woman who has 7 children, recently became president of the bakery collective’s board. She explained how the collective has helped bring the community together, as before none of the neighbors used to know each other and now they are work together.
DESMI provides these different groups through technical assistance and supports them in strengthening their unity as well as raising awareness in gender equality. DESMI will wait for the community groups to bring forward their future plans of how they want to improve their livelihoods. The members of San Francisco Teopisca are hoping to restore their land with more trees and are requesting support from DESMI for this project.
IDEX Program Office, Katherine Zavala, is currently in Mexico on field visits with our grantees there.
I’m in Chiapas, Mexico visiting our grantees here. It’s nice to be in warm weather, after the summer fog of San Francisco. Even better, I get to spend time in the beautiful colonial town of San Cristóbal de Las Casas. I’m going to be in Chiapas for 2 weeks visiting IDEX partners DESMI and EduPaz.
IDEX has been supporting DESMI for over 10 years and we’ve worked with a number of communities. On this trip I’ll visit 2 communities in the Southern and Northern zone of Chiapas. DESMI works to strengthen indigenous communities in Chiapas who are organizing using Solidarity Economics and the values of justice, gender equality, dialogue and respect to the environment. Their goal is to support social change that promotes autonomy and self-sufficiency within the communities.
DESMI was founded in 1969, and this year is their 40th anniversary. DESMI is celebrating with communities in the 3 different regions they work in: Northern, Central (Los Altos) and Southern zone, as well as in San Cristóbal de las Casas, where their office is.
As well as DESMI, I will visit IDEX’s newest partner EduPaz. EduPaz is based in Comitán, and works with communities in the Southern zone of Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala.
EduPaz was founded in 1998, initially to serve Guatemalan refugees who were escaping Guatemala’s internal conflict across the border into Mexico. As Guatemalan refugees started to go back to their home country, EduPaz began to work with the local population in the Comitán region. But their experience with Guatemalan refugees was also needed in their own communities in Chiapas after the Acteal massacre in December 1997.
Today EduPaz’s focus is to promote peace and social transformation through the programs of Solidarity Economics, Holistic Health, Agroecology and Popular-based Organization.
I’m looking forward to catching up with DESMI and growing my knowledge and relationship with EduPaz.
IDEX and DESMI may not have been successful with our Green Mountain Coffee proposal but thanks to GlobalGiving, and their “Give A Little Green” campaign all donations to DESMI will be matched at 50% while funds last.
Hurry, the matching funds are running out!
The coffee cooperative “Ssit lequil lum,” (Fruit Of The Good Earth) in the northern part of Chiapas continues to report back many successes.
In the past year the cooperative has succeeded in acquiring much sought-after export permits. They immediately took orders for Europe. They successfully signed contracts and exported whole bean organic coffee to 4 countries: Tatawelo in Italy; Solidarity Café in France, Free World in Italy, Osporos in Greece and Café Liberty in Germany.
Currently, the members are building the capacity of the cooperative. This involves some technical support and DESMI is assisting the group in developing accounting protocols and maintaining fiscal responsibilities with the local tax authority to solidify their legal status as a commercial entity. This means they need to stay on top of the many necessary registrations and certifications.
The cooperative does not just grow coffee. The farmers also grow citrus fruits and bananas, and other small-scale crops. This diversifies their crops and their incomes. DESMI has been helping with the search for new markets for these crops.
More About Fruit Of The Good Earth
The cooperative is comprised of 594 members (coffee producers) from 5 autonomous municipalities, from both the Mayan Chol and Tzeltal ethnic groups. It includes 555 men and 39 women from 45 different communities. Over 2,900 people indirectly benefit from the cooperative.
The members take extraordinary pride in preserving indigenous culture and unity despite being from different ethnicities and language groups.
By organizing collectively, the farmers gain the scale they need to sell their products directly to exporters. This eliminates the need for middlemen and increases their profits.
Training programs help the cooperatives achieve export quality and obtain organic certification for their coffee crops. Just as importantly they develop knowledge to grow a wide variety of organic food crops for consumption and local sale.
The diversification of crops improves family nutrition (a critical need in this part of Mexico with the highest malnutrition rates in the country) and economic security while nourishing the soil for future generations.
Donate to DESMI now, through April 28 and in honor of Earth Day (April 22) GlobalGiving will match your donation at 50%. Please share your support of these coffee farmers with your family and friends.
Photo: Coffee plant in Chiapas, Mexico.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to vote and comment on IDEX’s project to help Coffee Farmers in Chiapas.
Unfortunately IDEX’s project was not selected to become a finalist for the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters climate change competition. It was a highly competitive process with many inspiring submissions.
One of the benefits of having a public voting component was seeing the response to IDEX. We loved reading your comments. It is heartening to know that IDEX has so many loyal supporters, who believe in our mission.
The finalists for the grant are currently posted on Justmeans. You can review them, and vote or offer public comment through April 3rd. You can find them here.
Thank you!
Today I had my last site visit of my trip and for that I had to travel one-hour south to Comitan. Comitan is where the organization Educación por la Paz (Education for Peace) more often called EduPaz was founded ten years ago, focusing primarily on supporting Guatemalan refugees in Chiapas. Now EduPaz has evolved to an organization that focuses mainly on 2 areas: health and economic development though microcredit.
EduPaz’s health program is focused on mental health as they felt that the issue of addressing people’s traumas after having lived through a conflict was missing in many indigenous communities. Maria Elena, the director of EduPaz’s health program, studied Gestalt therapy when she was in Argentina years ago and now has shared her knowledge with other community members to provide a space for families who need more psychological support.
Jose, an indigenous man who comes from a community that speaks Tojolabal, manages the economic development program. He is the son of indigenous farmers who used to work on a large finca back in the day. He told me how when he used to be a young boy of 8 years old that he would talk Tojolabal with all the other children on the finca and that his father would discourage him from doing so and told him he should only speak Castilla (Spanish). So he did and he lost most of his Tojolabal until he was in his 20s and when he began interacting with Tojolabal-speakers outside of the finca and gained it all back. Now, as director of the microcredit project in EduPaz, he speaks Tojoloba all the time.
EduPaz has a more personalized way in managing its microcredit program than many other non-profit organizations. Before a group of community members can receive microcredit, EduPaz will have a dialog with them 3 times to make sure everyone understands the conditions and why these conditions exist. All members of the group have to become responsible for the group members to pay back their loans. A board of directors is selected and then Jose, with the support of Javier, EduPaz’s executive director, will check one by one all the microcredit proposals and budgets to ensure that the proposed income-generating project will be guaranteed a positive result.
EduPaz will also assist the groups by providing financial administration training to each group. But they do not organize workshops and then ask people to come. Instead, they go to each of the groups they work with, one by one, and give each group the necessary training to build everyone’s capacity to administer their loans.
Before, EduPaz used to offer many workshops such as training in agroecology and seminars on NAFTA and the World Bank but they discovered that not many would attend and people were just not interested. They decided to stop offering the workshops and focus on giving more personal attention to each group.
EduPaz’s office includes a collective store on the first floor where group members involved in the microcredit program can sell their products. The store is focused on offering products that are both organically made and qualify as fair trade. The main product they sell is organic coffee as EduPaz has given a microcredit to organic coffee collectives.
EduPaz has only three staff members and all of them are constantly traveling, mostly to the communities in the Zona Selva and Fronteriza, that border with Guatemala. In spite of the small staff they seem to be covering lots of neglected areas and the advantage of having a Tojolabal native on staff makes a lot of difference.
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After finishing this visit, I feel sad and happy that my work in Chiapas has been completed. I am sad to leave Chiapas as this has been a magical place to be and for me it has been quite an eye-opening experience where I have witnessed the hard work that is being done on the ground with the financial support IDEX has provided. This is a place where you can meet many activists, many community members and people living with another type of government. I am happy to be able take all that I saw and learned back with me to San Francisco to do a better job in raising more funds and working harder to make my small contribution to supporting the various groups that IDEX supports there.
I hope you have all enjoyed reading about my trip and has encouraged you to visit Chiapas and/or learn more about the work that is being done there.
Until the next trip…. Peace out!
Kat
Katherine Zavala is IDEX’s Programs Coordinator. Katherine is currently in Chiapas, Mexico visiting our long-term partners, DESMI and K’inal Antsetik, plus 5 new grantees, to meet with staff and the local communities and evaluate their progress.
August 9 2007:
As my flight left Mexico City today I saw endless buildings and houses below me. It was a beautiful sunny day to fly and I could see the diversity of bright colors from the buildings’ rooftops. As the plane reached altitude, I saw the layer of snow on one of Mexico’s famous volcanoes called Popocatépetl, rising just above the clouds.
One hour later, I see a completely different picture – large green patches of land everywhere! This was my first introduction to Chiapas.
Driving towards San Cristóbal de las Casas, the people I shared my taxi with fell asleep while we traveled through the green landscape, the fog and again through the green mountains as the sun shone through.
“What are those?” the lady next to me had woken up.
“Those are milpas [cornfields],” I said. There were miles of them!
“Maize, correct?”
“Yes, if you prefer it that way.”
After an hour of thinking I was heading towards Emerald City, we came upon the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas.
August is high season for foreign travelers, especially from Europe and the US, so finding a place to stay was not so easy. But I finally found a room in a posada just north of the zócalo (central plaza). As I walked with my suitcases to the posada, a new friend I made accompanied me. She had originally tried to help me find another posada but apparently, it no longer existed. We passed a group of indigenous women and children on our way. One of the women was wearing a black woolen skirt or “fur” skirt with a fairly plan white blouse. “Than woman is from San Juan Chamula,” my friend tells me, “see the skirt.”
I know I have just arrived but I have yet to see many indigenous people. I feel I have been here before, though this is my first time to San Cristóbal and I haven’t had time to explore this beautiful colonial town. But I think that feeling is related to how close this place looks to Antigua, Guatemala.
Tomorrow, I’ll be going to the outskirts of San Cristóbal to a training center called CIDECI, place that helps indigenous communities by coordinating seminars and meetings there. One of IDEX’s catalyst grantees, COMPITCH, is having its final day of its regional forum for indigenous midwives of Chiapas. I can’t wait to be there!
Katherine
