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.

Labels: Chiapas, cooperatives, DESMI, Mexico, Sustainable Agriculture

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