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.

Labels: Chiapas, DESMI, EduPaz, Mexico

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