Social and Economic Development for Indigenous Mexicans (DESMI)

Located in Mexico - Founded early 1970’s - IDEX partner since 1992

Photo: Cecilia Monroy

The women of San Francisco Teopisca with their bakery oven.

Social and Economic Development of Indigenous Mexicans (Desarrollo Económico Social de los Mexicanos Indígenas – DESMI) is one of the oldest and most reputable community-based organizations in Chiapas. Through the provision of financial, organizational and technical assistance, DESMI helps community groups to run their own projects and to work together to resolve their communities’ needs.

DESMI works in 183 communities and is one of the oldest and most reputable community-based organizations in Chiapas.

DESMI works in 183 communities. The organization provides small loans and training to groups for income-generating projects including grocery stores, livestock rearing projects, weaving collectives and organic farms.

In addition to training in financial management and women’s rights, DESMI provides workshops on sustainable agriculture, environmental education, and ecological management of livestock. In the process, families improve production yields and soil fertility. DESMI also works with farmers to organize and sell their products collectively at the scale they need to sell their products directly to exporters.

The training programs also helps cooperatives obtain organic certification for their commodity crops (such as coffee), and grow a wide variety of organic food crops for consumption and local sale.