Education Mexico Project #18042

Higher education for indigenous students in Mexico

by Centro de Compartimiento, A.C.

Project Report | May 7, 2024
A Trip to the Beach

By Kristin Lietz | Program Director

Punto Coneja, Salina Cruz

As well as the student scholarship program Centro de Compartimiento has personal development and support groups for women in our community. We love the ebb and flow between these two groups. Our women's reading circle is made up of women from Juchitan, most are professionals or small business owners who met our students and staff over the years. Some because of the services they provide, two of our women are dentists, or when the students are doing their service projects in the community or at local schools. The personal development of our scholarship students impressed the women so much that they asked to participate in the programs and have their own groups. We have been working with women from the local community for ten years now, and when we bring in a workshop the students and women are together learning and growing.

The women and students are mentors to each other. The women are examples to the students of successful professionals. Many are in workplaces with a lot of stress and machismo and share their experiences and support our students. Our students have been examples of strength and willingness to face difficult situations from their pasts.

This past fall and winter we have two students who have afternoon and evening classes, and we have had a hard time finding time to get everyone together. The solution turned out to be mixing the two. Having some of our women and students in each of the two reading circles. The experience was wonderful. In one group we had some of our students with several women who were new to our programs. The topics were from short readings about personal growth and problem-solving. The students, after having been with us for one or two years, now could openly talk about their family and community struggles. Our new women some ten or twenty years older than our students, saw examples of sharing and overcoming past problems by walking with other women. One of our community women shared she had never had a space to talk about her life and problems and was amazed that our students were so open. "My life would have been different," she commented, " if I could have been able to talk like this when I was younger."

As the brutal north winds of winter turned into the gentle southern breezes of spring the womens group decided it would be fun to head to the beach. We are near the ocean, but the north wind makes the beaches a storm of stinging sand. The beaches near us are not nice for swimming. When it came time to organize we looked for a place near the beach but with a small pool. The women did not want to go without the students so the women's group divided the cost of the lodgings between them so we could all go together. We shared the cooking in the small kitchen of the rented beachfront house and hung out in the small pool and at the beach.

One of our women is a triathlon athlete and on the evening of the first day, began to give swimming lessons to our a few of our students who had never learned to swim. It was a joy seeing them all together relaxing, swimming, playing in the waves, and playing board games in the evening. The exchange between all the women, young and young at heart was wonderful and we had a time to share joy and relaxation together.

We are very grateful for all the support that our donors give to us through GlobalGiving. Without your support, our work would not be possible. We hope you can continue to support our work in the years to come. This month is the end of our school year, and most of the students will be heading home to spend some time with their families, but we will be here in the fall when the new school year starts, thanks to you.

This summer GlobalGiving is having its July Bonus Day on Wednesday, July 10. Here major donors, of 100 USD up to 1000 USD will get a percentage match on their donations. So we hope you can join us on that day for one our our major campaings of the year. More information to follow.

Thank you again. We hope you have a wonderful month.

Sunset over the dunes

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Jan 7, 2024
Unbelievable Program

By Kristin Lietz | Program Director

CDC Students and Staff

Here at Centro de Compartimiento (CDC), we are celebrating a New Year and continued service to our community. Our students have finished the first semester of their school year and are currently home with their families celebrating the holidays. The will be returning during January depending on their school schedules. Some have two weeks off and some up to a month. Our programs usually go into full swing again in February.

This past semester one of our students did her practicum at the Federal Electric Company (called CFE here in Mexico) During one of the breaks in the work day she sat talking with her direct supervisor, a longtime employee of the company. He asked her about her life and how she had decided on her major in renewable energy. She told him her basic story adding that she had live at CDC for the past seven and a half years and had explained our program to him.

She told him that here is no high school near her home town and her parents could not afford room and board out of town to let her attend high school. Through a cousin she had heard of CDC and was accepted to the program. She received room, board, supervision, and counseling during her high school and college years, at no cost to her family. She told him how nice our program and facilities, how they live like a family, share the chores and support each other are and how she got emotional support after the death of her grandmother and aunt.

Her supervisor’s response was blunt. "That place cannot exist." He could not believe that she could get seven years of support with no cost to her family or herself and that there were no strings attached to her stay. This is a common response when we tell people about the program and when they come and visit. Our program is so out of the ordinary that people here find in unbelievable. Yet we do exist. And we exist because of the generosity of donors who support our programs. As we do with anyone interested we have invited her stupervisor to come and visit us and see for himself.

Today there is another young woman, graduating from college because of your support. We are very grateful for all of you who continue to walk with our young women in their journey to dream a new life.We here at CDC, students, staff and board members want to wish you a very Happy New Year. We hope your year is full of joy and blessing.

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Sep 11, 2023
Involved Dads

By Adela Toledo Luis | Director General

Aided graduation from college

Involved Dads

By Adela Toledo Luis

Last June, Centro de Compartimiento celebrated eighteen years of work supporting the education of women in Oaxaca. I can remember the work involved in getting the word out to the public about our programs for high school and college students. It was not easy. The first young women arrived accompanied by their mothers or sisters. Elizabeth was one of these mothers who brought her daughter to study high school. She walked the streets of Juchitan for hours looking for a room to rent, until someone told her about the CDC.

Over time, the young women who graduated recommended us to family or friends, Maylit to Aided, Yudi to Dilma, Naty to Tita and so on... the list is long. It all started with women, empowering women.

From the stories that we began to hear from our students, we were aware that many did not have the support of their father. It has been a tough job to involve the fathers and convince them to support their daughters' dream.

One father, after seven yens of his daughter in our program, finally acknowledged the benefit of education for women and went as far selling one of his cattle to pay his daughter's graduation and professional license fees.

On Sunday June 18 "Father's Day" we received the visit of Esteban, Antonio and Max the fathers of three of our current scholarship students. Each one arrived for different reasons, one of them traveled nine hours to reach Juchitan to travel with his daughter.

It was gratifying to see Antonio talking with his daughter about the upcoming decisions for the next school year. Seeing Esteban accompanying his daughter with her pre-graduation events holding a bouquet of flowers and beaming with pride and seeing Max with a big smile hugging his daughter after finishing her first year of university.

It was satisfying to receive these fathers at CDC, getting to know each other, sharing with each other and supporting their daughters' dreams.

Thanks to your generous support you have teamed up with our dads to see their daughters succeed and reach their dreams of completing their higher education. We hope you will continue to support these families that are working so hard to build a better life for their daughters but still need your support.

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