Educate and Empower Girls in Mexico

Dear GlobalGivers,

After three years following the 4th, 5th and 6th grade girls in rural Acaxochitlán, Hidalgo, we want to take you to Mexico City, and introduce you to high school girls. In Sandra´s school- in the Tlalpan neighborhood at the south end of Mexico City – more than half of her peers didn´t use any form of contraception the first time they had sex, and a quarter of them never use any form of contraception. Which explains why many of her friends have gotten pregnant and had to drop out of school before finishing. How their bodies work and how to be safe isn´t something they talk about often. 

Sandra and her friends also frequently find themselves face to face with violence. School, for example, is one of the spaces where violence is not only suffered but also reproduced. A national survey of public schools shows that violence is a common phenomenon within the educational spaces and is seen as normal. Some days, Sandra prefers to stay home than to face bullying and get jeered at by some of her classmates. They don´t do it out of meanness, it is just how they have learned to interact with girls.

But change is coming. Sandra came forward when we gave a talk at her school, and volunteered to be a youth peer educator. Over the coming year, we will be training her and 119 of her classmates through a 40 hour workshop, so that they can first understand these dynamics in their school and community, and then become agents of change. We will also be involving Sandra’s parents and teachers, because we know that change comes most sustainably when it comes to an entire community. 

Thank you for helping Sandra become an agent of change. We can´t wait to keep you updated over the coming year.

With grattitude,

Shoshana and Yo quiero Yo puedo

Dear GlobalGivers,

Wow, three years have flown by since we started working with the students of Acaxochitlán (pronounced Ah-kah-tzo-cheet-lhan), Hidalgo!

In August, we told you about how much has changed since we started this program and the men wanted us to leave for talking about sexual and reproductive health (even though teen pregnancy is one of the biggest reasons why girls drop out of middle school). From participatory sessions with parents to workshops with teachers, to in-classroom activities with girls and boys, we have been hard at work with the community to reduce the school drop-out of indigenous girls by changing social norms and reducing teen pregnancy, dating violence and addictions.

Since that last report, our evaluation team has been pouring over all three years of evaluation data, and we are excited to share the results with you.

Today, girls in Acaxochitlán have achieved:

• Strong practices that prevent violence
• Strong practices of gender equity
• Strong practices that promote healthy masculinity
• Strong knowledge on pregnancy prevention and STIs.

Listening to how these girls talk about their dreams, you know their world is forever opened. And their male peers now express masculinity in a healthy way and know how to prevent pregnancy and violence. Thank you for making this change possible! You should be proud of what you helped achieve.

Looking to the future, we have results that enable us to us strengthen the program further. The evaluation shows that with each passing year, teachers obtain more and more knowledge on the different risks, and continue to build their skills on how to address them in their classrooms. Parents, however, still need more support. And the evaluation found that students grow a lot in the first two years of the program, but not as much in the final year. This gives us important insights that girls and boys can be reached primarily in the first two years, and then in year 3 work more heavily with those who raise them, lead them and teach them.

We have shared these results with partners across the United States and Latin America. Your impact is reaching girls not just in our program, but in programs around the region. Thank you!

We can´t wait to tell you about what is coming next. Stay tuned!

With gratitude,
Yo quiero Yo puedo