Zapotec Post-Earthquake Reconstruction | Oaxaca MX

Hi there, we are very happy to share what is going on with our community during these days. Although the international situation has been very difficult because of COVID-19, we are trying our best not to suspend every activity. We had to stop most of them, like many others have had, and we are trying to adapt our interventions in the community to the actual needs respecting security measures for personal safety.

That’s why we started the project “Solidary speaker”. We adapted a speaker to the UMPOmovil, and we drive across the community sharing messages of joy, poems, songs, stories and health recommendations, both in spanish and in zapoteco (our native language). All of the shared audios, are sent in by friends from within and without the region. ¡You can send yours too! The objective is to provide courage to people from our community through the confinement, and to strengthen our bonds in spite of the lengthy lockdown and the lack of visits. We believe positive emotions such as humor, love and hope boost our immune system.

You can listen to some of the audios we have shared in the links below.

We are also joyous to tell you that before the confinement started, two of our favorite workshops met their goal. Two groups of women learned a new craft, which could empower them as a new mean of productivity.

The first one was hand making of colorful plastic woven bags and purses. “This technique helps us reduce pollution in our town, since common plastic bags can be substituted by these. I mean, it impacts on the environment and of course on my family finances. I was still taking the workshop when people started buying my designs”, said Karina, one of the most entrepreneurial students.

The second craft was woodwork for women, where we have learned how to make our own wood products without making big investments on tools or machines.

This kind of workshops are intended to help people with low economic resources. They might represent an opportunity to improve their quality of life by introducing them to new means of productivity such as those described.

We will have more good news to share soon. We are planning to continue our learning programs with the help of technology available to everyone. Wherever you are reading this message, we can share this with you: the earthquake taught us that adversity is the fuel of great projects, and resilience our best weapon. Thank you for making UMPO dreams come true.

Links:

• Video Solidary Speaker