Teaching children in Chiapas how to grow forests

2021 was a huge challenge for us. 

Not only the pandemic and the economics have made it harder, the insecurity  on the roads in Chiapas made visits to the communities more dangerous and difficult. So it was necessary to adapt and find other ways to continue with the project. Schools are still closed, so we have been collaborating with adults and families in small groups.

We keep visiting the nurseries in Mitontic and Zinacantan. In Zinacantan. We work at the premises of the Yo'onik association that has an afterschool program for children. 

The kids are so interested in learning new things, that even though the seeds are  already growing into plants, they keep on bringing other species so we need to keep teaching them how to grow and take care of them.

At the same time we continue learning other techniques and improving the ones we already know. Thanks to volunteers with other expertises such as soil preparation, we are learning other ways  to prepare a richer earth to plant our seeds.

We bought the materials to build another 4 nurseries in schools in the Lacandon Forest area, but unfortunately we don't know if we will be able to go and start the project as the schools are closed and the roads have been blocked constantly, so in the next days we will decide if we should pick campuses closer to San Cristobal. We are convinced that every action matters and even if we are not able to follow the plan exactly as we were hoping the most important thing for us is to keep working, but in a way that is safe and secure for our team and the communities during these troubled times of pandemic and violence.

We need to grow more money to continue this amazing project. We will highly appreciate if you can share our project with your friends.

Dear donor:
We are very happy to inform you what we have been able to do thanks to yoyr help.

Eventhough pandemic changed the project's pace as the schools are not completely opened,  we were able to continue thanks to the parents who agreed to help and take their children, and thanks to your donations that have been used to visit the communities and set the area in Na Bolom to open a seeds bank.

We signed an agreement with the state highschools in order to start 4 nurseries and one bank seeds in the are of the lacandon forest, close to Montes Azules. 

We opened the first seeds bank in our venue so we can start gathering seeds and teaching the visitors how to do it. The result is a growing interest from other communities to get involved.

We also renewed the nurserie at Zinacantan as it stayed closed for almost a year beacuse of the pandemic. We work there with the Organization Yo'onik who has an after school program for kids. The children are already attending so we are working with them. The seeds season is already starting so we have done the first campaign to collect seeds and will have more in the next months as every species has its season.

In Zinacantán Vicky decided to take the nursery in her hands and started teaching the children how to gather the seeds and keep them in order to start the germination project. While de nursery was closed she continued taking care of the plants and gave them to children to plant them in their parents' properties. We have been training her to continue with the project and helped her to grow it.

So this year we will have 3 Seeds banks working and 7 nurseries.

We have already finished the reforestation season and planted around 60,000 trees in the highlands of Chiapas. We are already working in the production for next year.

With your help we will be able to do more and continue working.

Links:

• Know more about Na Bolom's projects.

• Report in English (PDF)
  
• REPORTE EN ESPANOL (PDF)
  
• NURSERY IN ZINACANTAN (PDF)