Higher education for indigenous students in Mexico

I am not sure exactly whaI am not sure exactly what Socrates meant when he said, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” I looked it up briefly online and got too many ideas to sort through. But I do know for sure that real growth and change happens in our students when they first start talking about their lives and then began a process of examination. In our students, this usually occurs about a year into the program when the feel safe enough to start looking at the hard parts of their lives. To foster this process, these past few months, we have been working on a personal growth exercise with the students. Each student was asked to write a two-page autobiography based on an outline that we provided. We asked the young women to write about their family, any significant role models or forming events in their life up to now, and their faith and spiritual environment while growing up. Staff and students wrote their autobiographies.

At our weekly group meetings on Thursday, a student or staff member was given a chance to read her autobiography out loud. The sessions were scheduled so that everyone knew when it was her turn. The responses from the students varied considerably. Some wrote only a short page, most wrote several pages, one seemed to have notes but just spoke free form about her life for almost an hour and one refused to write or read, allowing us to have a discussion on the value of sharing our lives with others. Not one session ended without tears and hugs.
It is amazing and scary to hear the stories of these young women´s lives. Common themes abounded; alcoholic families, fathers and brothers working abroad, abuse, community violence and lack of hope as girls in the community. These are all stumbling blocks for the young women to get ahead in life and if they do not face them, they can get tripped up and drop out of school.

We often visit the families of our students and in March we went to visit the family of one of our high school students whose father had injured his back at work, and the doctors had told him he would never walk again. He told us of his faith and conversion and what seems to be a miraculous healing. We were awed. His daughter told us a similar story but also shared how after his recovery her father took a new job where his co-workers drank a lot after work, how he fell into alcoholism and nearly left his family, and how her mother held the family together for years until her father got help and returned. She did not read, she just told us the raw story, crying most of the time, letting her pain and sadness flow out to the group to be shared and accepted. These are the precious moments in our program.  This is the beginning of healing that is needed for our young women to succeed.  

We thank you for helping us to provide a place where young women can come and heal as well as continue their education. We are closing out the school year now and looking forward to summer vacation.  We now have three opening available for new students next school year but already have five applicants. Our annual budget is around 60,000 USD, of which we have pledged around 40,000 USD from foundations and local donors. We invite you to give to the program over our summer break so that we can be sure to be fully funded for the upcoming school year.  

This summer on July 12, GlobalGiving is having a bonus day where donations will be matched.  Please mark your calendar.  Together we are making a difference in the lives of young women and their families here in Mexico.