Mexico
Community health in Mexico
Despite great development gains in recent years, there are 60 million Mexicans living in poverty. Of those, 20 million live in extreme poverty. 31.8% of children less than 6 years of age in Oaxaca suffer from mild malnutrition (WFA), 8% suffer from moderate malnutrition, and 1.9% suffer from severe malnutrition. Moreover, 38% of Oaxaca households live in food poverty, meaning they do not have enough food to meet the energy and nutrient needs of all of their members. This statistic is the third highest in the country, after Chiapas and Guerrero.
Crime and alcoholism run rampant and septic services are often unavailable. People use pit latrines or nearby fields, which cause unsanitary conditions and increase the risk of diseases like cholera, hepatitis and giardia.
Life is difficult for everyone in these communities, but children suffer disproportionately. Many children lose hope and at a young age succumb to alcohol, drugs, crime, gangs and other similar destructive influences.
Our work in Mexico
Medical Teams International began working in Mexico in 1985 following a devastating earthquake in Mexico City. In 1986, we founded a Mexican nonprofit organization, Manos de Ayuda (Helping Hands), to help meet the physical and spiritual needs of the poor in Mexico City. Manos de Ayuda expanded its work to the state of Oaxaca in 1987. Sixteen years later, Manos de Ayuda transitioned into an independent Mexican nonprofit and Medical Teams International founded a new organization called Manos de Vida (Hands of Life) to provide community health services to the poor in Mexico City and Oaxaca. In 2008, Manos de Vida ended its presence and direct project implementation in Mexico City and turned its operations over to Amextra, a Christian development organization in Mexico.
Since 1985, Medical Teams International has deployed more than 700 volunteer teams to Mexico in partnership with Manos de Ayuda and Manos de Vida to assist some of the poorest communities by providing medical and dental services, building schools, Bible clubs and latrines, pouring concrete floors and providing food baskets for families in need.
Mexico City
In December of 2008, we signed an agreement with Amextra to take over the Tultitlan Community Center and to continue working with the communities around the nearby garbage dump in the community of Sierra de Guadalupe. Over the past two years, with MTI funding, Amextra worked with local church and community volunteers to provide general education and computer classes for children and adults, nutrition workshops for mothers of children with malnutrition, and a savings program. During the first two years Amextra shared costs for program operation. Beginning July 1, 2011, Amextra continued the work in Sierra de Gaudalupe and surrounding communities with 100% of their own funding.
Oaxaca
After conducting a five month community health assessment process, Amextra started a holistic health program in six Central Valley communities, three in which Manos de Vida was working and three new communities (Campo Real, Guadalupe Victoria, La Nopalera, Parajes de Viguera, Tierra y Libertad and Yagay). These communities are highly marginalized and show interest in organizing themselves in order to create a better life for their families. The communities have little to no basic services, such as electricity, drinking water, sewage, educational institutions, paved roads or health centers and the average family budget is between $100 to $150 pesos daily. Moreover, 42% of the children five and under suffer from malnutrition (Weight For Age).
As part of the Community Health and Nutrition and Peace Education Project,we will train mothers of children five and under in nutrition workshops and projects related to improving nutrition. The women will be trained in vegetable garden planting, rain water collection systems, chicken raising and cooking with healthy and affordable foods in order to improve the nutrition for their families, especially the children five and under who are undernourished. In addition to contributing to improved nutrition, the hope is for theseprojects to serve as a model in the community to increase income. . Amextra will accompany the families as they build their projects, while at the same time encouraging some of them to become local promoters so that they will share the acquired skills with other families from their community.
We will also lead Peace Education workshops to women, children and adolescents. This project will provide participants with methodological tools to achieve construction processes of holistic peace and encourage improvements in self-esteem, gender equality, communication and positive actions. Moreover, there will be a focus of forming adolescent promoters who will facilitate these workshops for other children and adolescents. We have funded the program since July 1, 2011. After three years of funding, Amextra will look for donations from other sources to continue its community development work in Oaxaca.
For more information, please see the video of our work in Oaxaca.
Our partner in Mexico
Amextra is a Mexican non-profit organization, which has been operating its own community development projects and continuous service to marginalized communities in Mexico since 1984. It has served over 150,000 people from 325 different communities in 10 states as well as Mexico City, through education, health and nutrition, income generation, emergency relief and environmental sustainability projects. Due to the emphasis on local ownership and sustainable development, all of Amextra’s programs are carried out through the support of local leaders trained by Amextra.
Amextra firmly believes in the idea that a transformational philosophy, “Change your way of thinking in order to change your way of living” and a participatory methodology are indispensable for the improvement of poverty in Mexico. Amextra enables people to value themselves as agents of their own transformation by empowering them to recognize their talents and resources, so that they recuperate their self esteem in the process of family and community change.