Empower 1,200 Mayan girls and youth from Chiapas

Violence prevention to indigenous girls Covid time (50360)

Hello, dear ally. It's a pleasure to greet you again!

We share with you the actions we have carried out in the last quarter to prevent gender-based violence against Mayan girls and young people from Chiapas.

First of all, let me tell you that in Nuevo San Juan Chamula our team continues to give soccer training to 25 girls from that community who find in sports a form of expression and personal fulfillment. At the same time, we continue to strengthen their leadership, promoting their participation within their own communities. We share, at the same time, useful knowledge and tools to prevent pregnancies and early unions that during the Covid-19 pandemic increased exponentially.

The context of the Coronavirus pandemic led to an increase in different types of violence in the indigenous communities where we work. It is for this reason that at Rufino Tamayo 247 Telesecundaria School we continue working to eradicate and prevent violence against women, promoting, in parallel, harmonious coexistence among all people. We accompany the students of this campus to carry out a campaign to eliminate gender violence and these are some of the informative posters to make to raise awareness in the student community. Four students shared with us that the greatest learning obtained was managing to generate respectful communication between classmates and classmates in order to, together, make agreements in favor of gender equality.

At the beginning of October we held a discussion to strengthen youth leadership in Cobach 328 of the Chiapas ejido, located in the municipality of Las Margaritas. We had the participation of 33 young women and 15 young men who talked about how to promote the continuity of studies among Mayan youth and prevent school dropout. They analyzed the consequences of not having medium-long and term goals, the factors that prevent youth from carrying out their life plans, and the importance of getting involved in issues that affect them as a population group. In addition, it was reinforced how to promote non-violent communication, contributes to strengthening safe and peaceful spaces for children and youth.

On September 13th., we held a youth leadership seminar to prevent school dropout and promote healthy habits at the Cobach 337 School in the Francisco Sarabia community, municipality of Comitan de Dominguez. It was attended by 33 adolescent women, 39 adolescent men who, in different work groups, analyzed the importance of not abandoning their studies, having a life project, avoiding early unions and strengthening habits that keep them away from addictions.

On September also the actions to eradicate gender violence at the Telesecundaria Rufino Tamayo 427 school in Nuevo San Juan Chamula were the main topic of the discussion where 60 young women and 60 young men participated. We spread the tool called "Violentometer", a useful graphic and didactic material to visualize the manifestations of violence that are often confused or unknown in everyday life. The youths analyzed how, in dating, greater violence is exerted towards women, and what are the protective factors against it.

September was the month in which face-to-face classes finally began to resume in various educational establishments where we work. Given the increase in school dropouts, we greatly reinforced the issue of how to prevent school dropouts. Our operational team held a forum at Cobach 164, in the Plan de Ayala community in Las Margaritas, and we had a large participation of young people: 74 young women and 67 young men who shared their experiences during the long period of confinement where different rights of youths were blurred since before the closure of schools, young people were fully incorporated into care work or to contribute to economic support. Among the most vulnerable groups are women and girls, hence this quarter the reflection on how to recover and strengthen their rights.