Empowering women and girls in Mexican communities

We are very grateful for your trust in Fondo Semillas this year. The donations received will help fund groups and collectives that work with girls, women, trans*, and intersex populations to prevent and respond to violence in rural and urban contexts. The issues supported range from women defending their territories to organizations promoting economic autonomy as a way out of violent realities. 

 Here are some examples of the progress made in the last three months:

Thanks to organizations that have spaces for feminist training and awareness workshops around gender violence, more than 700 women increased their knowledge and awareness of their rights. One example is the Feminist Political Leadership School of the Red de Mujeres Violeta, which promotes women's learning about their rights, such as sexual and reproductive rights, including the right not to be raped.

Six organizations expanded and improved their services to girls, women, trans*, and intersex people. Among the support offered by these groups are food services, education and culture, health, recreation, legal accompaniment, self-care workshops, self-defense workshops, and psycho-emotional care for women who have experienced violence. An outstanding program is Retoño Lab of Fundación Cauce Ciudadano. This program benefits female artisans and entrepreneurs between 15-46 years of age in Mexico State who are trained in technological issues and acquire digital skills not only to grow their businesses but also to find solutions to problems in their communities.

The funded organizations have also enabled more than 150 women to increase their influence in decision-making in their communities. An example of this is Las Mujeres Rurales de la Frontera Sur, in Tenosique, Tabasco. This group participates in spaces called “Local Learning Communities”, where diverse regional voices are heard to reflect on the culture of good treatment of indigenous communities. Women are increasing their presence in this space. Mujeres Rurales de la Frontera Sur provides women with the tools to occupy community positions and make their voices heard.

The collective work has had results, the organizations have made important achievements and above all are increasingly strengthened to generate strategies with great impact on the lives of girls, women, trans*, and intersex people. Thank you for continuing to support us, we hope to continue working together for many more years to come.

Testimonials:

The founders of Nääxwiin, an organization dedicated to helping indigenous women who experience violence recall, “Women in the community avoided talking about violence in the family environment; they considered violence ‘normal’, along with not being recognized at home or even in the village; they were the ones who even justified their perpetrators. But as a result of our perseverance in our work, women who experienced violence came forward to tell their stories, they learned to trust other women who spoke the same indigenous language, this facilitated companionship and allowed us to do work similar to embroidery, we embroidered rights.” (Rubí, member of Nääxwiin).