Higher education for indigenous students in Mexico

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.