Higher education for indigenous students in Mexico

It is the beginning of the new school year here in Juchitan, Oaxaca, Mexico. Our students are all returning from summer vacation. Some spent vacation with their family some spent vacation in practicums. The beginning of the new school year is challenging for all students and in the state of Oaxaca here in Mexico we have the additional challenges of ongoing teacher strikes and turbulence in our educational system. Although the education system in Oaxaca is highly dysfunctional most of the challenges our students face are personal. One student, 21, who has been with us since she was 15 years old has faced family resistance every step of the way of her struggle to get a higher education. Her family pulled her out of school after third grade and sent her to work. Her father, who now lives out of the country, wants her to stay home and work to provide an income for her mother and three younger siblings, especial now that she has finished high school. Her mother does not seem to want to work. This summer when she went home for a visit she had to deal with her father, who from a distance, wants to kick her mother off of the family property, and siblings who are in emotional and legal trouble. Her father has sent family members to threaten her mother, and her mother who has long lived in domestic violence does not have the skills to cope with the situation. Our student had to deal with family protective services, legal services, and human rights services and her own families reluctance to cross their father, with only frequent phone calls to get support from our program. She comes back to us with the ongoing stress and worry about what is going to happen to her family while is studying. Even though she knows, deep inside, that living with her family will not solve any of their problems, as her mother is the one who needs to take charge of her own life, she cannot completely let the emotional stress go. This is a struggle that she faces every day. Nominally our program is to help young women to get an education, to get ahead in life, but our experience and now studies have shown that there are many factors in poverty-stricken families that do not have anything to do with finances that prevent young people from getting ahead even if they're offered the opportunity to study. Studies have shown that young people from impoverished situations often have not developed the skills to reach out for help and have poor decision making skills. (This American Life, Ep. 550, Three Miles, March 15, 2015). Our residential program no only provides access to education for young women but also we are providing ongoing emotional and spiritual support so that they can learn how to deal with the problems that are thrown at them. We are available to the students 24/7 to talk, encourage and support. In US colleges this type of support has been called intrusive advising here we like to call it "family". We thank you for helping us provide a healthy family environment for young women, we consider you to be our extended family and hope you will continue to support these wonderful young women as they walk the road to a different life.