When I arrived at the office of FOCA I was surprised not to see their name displayed outside their door. Usually the organizations have some kind of sign to show their names, even if it is just piece of paper. Once inside, Diana, FOCA's co-founder and director, explained to me that their organization name wasn't displayed because they didn't want to have people think they were offering a general service. But because their work belongs to the community, there is always a debate whether to put the name out or not. I'm not surprised as their name, FOCA, stands for Formación y Capacitación (Professional Development and Training) which might make people think it is a general service.
FOCA was established in 1996 focusing on two programs: education and health. FOCA started their education program in one community in the Los Altos region, and offered classes to students because the one professor that community had had, decided to leave suddenly. From teaching the students FOCA went on to teach community members to become teachers so they could build their capacity and offer children education in other communities. After 12 years, FOCA has been able to train teachers in more than 24 municipalities in the region of Los Altos.
FOCA works with community members in all aspects of their programs. With education, FOCA has been working exclusively with autonomous municipalities, teaching literacy classes and a curriculum developed by the communities themselves. FOCA is continually expanding their program as they are planning to train 80 teachers this October on gender issues so they can develop interactive games that talk about gender equity with children from their first grade.
They are also focusing on encouraging their students that graduate from elementary school to continue their studies and register for middle school. This isn't easy as students finish elementary school at 12 years-old and therefore, are considered old enough to be part of the community and need to help their families. So FOCA has to be constantly talking to the parents and community leaders to demonstrate the necessity of their children continuing their education.
With their health program, FOCA initiated with traditional plants, but over time they saw that a missing component in health issues was sexual and reproductive health, an issue that is related more with women. To address this issue, FOCA has organized training workshops on gender issues and trained 5 indigenous women intensively to become health promoters so that they could train other indigenous women on these issues as well.
In order to have success with training indigenous women on sexual and reproductive health, FOCA realized with experience that they needed the full support of the community leaders. FOCA has focused particularly on the issue of maternal mortality as many community members can relate to this. No one wants their mom to die. Unfortunately there are a high number of mothers who die due to poorly performed abortions that can cause heavy hemorrhaging. These statistics are not documented as these women are not considered part of the census population.
It has been a struggle but FOCA have now been able to get the full support of community leaders to train women in sexual and reproductive health. This was necessary because even though it is crucial that indigenous women know their own rights, it is also important that they still feel they belong to their community. Now with the support of the community leaders, the women being trained aren't being expelled from the communities. They are still subject to criticism, especially by men, but because FOCA’s training and approach, they are learning to have a voice, while staying part of the community.
Diana does part of the health training, and focuses on information about the Mayan cultures before the Spanish conquest. This is essential as it teaches women that indigenous cultures did not traditionally accept women to be in a subordinate role or to allow men to beat them up, which is unfortunately all too common. Being half indigenous, half mestiza, Diana understands the context of living in a small community where traditions prevail over everything. I can tell she is a great trainer as she has been explaining everything to me at great length. Eventually I needed to raise my hand to excuse myself to the bathroom.
FOCA gives training to health promoters once a month and like CIAM, they plan out all their activities in January. Activities are based on the monitoring and evaluation tasks they carried out throughout the year before. Once a month health promoters come to FOCA's office for training and they bring with them a report of how many women they have trained, what themes they covered and how successful they were. By constantly training women to train others, FOCA has been able to increase from 2 indigenous health promoters to a network of 120 indigenous women specializing in sexual and reproductive health over the course of 12 years.
"Many people can't believe all the work that has been accomplished with such a small staff," Diana commented, "but what I always tell them is that this hasn't been the work of FOCA, it has been the work of the women and their communities. They are the ones that have carried out this work and have shared their knowledge with other women so that there are more women experts in sexual and reproductive health. This is why the impact is so big."
FOCA was established in 1996 focusing on two programs: education and health. FOCA started their education program in one community in the Los Altos region, and offered classes to students because the one professor that community had had, decided to leave suddenly. From teaching the students FOCA went on to teach community members to become teachers so they could build their capacity and offer children education in other communities. After 12 years, FOCA has been able to train teachers in more than 24 municipalities in the region of Los Altos.
FOCA works with community members in all aspects of their programs. With education, FOCA has been working exclusively with autonomous municipalities, teaching literacy classes and a curriculum developed by the communities themselves. FOCA is continually expanding their program as they are planning to train 80 teachers this October on gender issues so they can develop interactive games that talk about gender equity with children from their first grade.
They are also focusing on encouraging their students that graduate from elementary school to continue their studies and register for middle school. This isn't easy as students finish elementary school at 12 years-old and therefore, are considered old enough to be part of the community and need to help their families. So FOCA has to be constantly talking to the parents and community leaders to demonstrate the necessity of their children continuing their education.
With their health program, FOCA initiated with traditional plants, but over time they saw that a missing component in health issues was sexual and reproductive health, an issue that is related more with women. To address this issue, FOCA has organized training workshops on gender issues and trained 5 indigenous women intensively to become health promoters so that they could train other indigenous women on these issues as well.
In order to have success with training indigenous women on sexual and reproductive health, FOCA realized with experience that they needed the full support of the community leaders. FOCA has focused particularly on the issue of maternal mortality as many community members can relate to this. No one wants their mom to die. Unfortunately there are a high number of mothers who die due to poorly performed abortions that can cause heavy hemorrhaging. These statistics are not documented as these women are not considered part of the census population.
It has been a struggle but FOCA have now been able to get the full support of community leaders to train women in sexual and reproductive health. This was necessary because even though it is crucial that indigenous women know their own rights, it is also important that they still feel they belong to their community. Now with the support of the community leaders, the women being trained aren't being expelled from the communities. They are still subject to criticism, especially by men, but because FOCA’s training and approach, they are learning to have a voice, while staying part of the community.
Diana does part of the health training, and focuses on information about the Mayan cultures before the Spanish conquest. This is essential as it teaches women that indigenous cultures did not traditionally accept women to be in a subordinate role or to allow men to beat them up, which is unfortunately all too common. Being half indigenous, half mestiza, Diana understands the context of living in a small community where traditions prevail over everything. I can tell she is a great trainer as she has been explaining everything to me at great length. Eventually I needed to raise my hand to excuse myself to the bathroom.
FOCA gives training to health promoters once a month and like CIAM, they plan out all their activities in January. Activities are based on the monitoring and evaluation tasks they carried out throughout the year before. Once a month health promoters come to FOCA's office for training and they bring with them a report of how many women they have trained, what themes they covered and how successful they were. By constantly training women to train others, FOCA has been able to increase from 2 indigenous health promoters to a network of 120 indigenous women specializing in sexual and reproductive health over the course of 12 years.
"Many people can't believe all the work that has been accomplished with such a small staff," Diana commented, "but what I always tell them is that this hasn't been the work of FOCA, it has been the work of the women and their communities. They are the ones that have carried out this work and have shared their knowledge with other women so that there are more women experts in sexual and reproductive health. This is why the impact is so big."
Labels: FOCA, gender issues, indigenous women, women's health
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