Chiapas, August 2013
Linda and I just returned from our annual visit to Chiapas. We had a heart-warming and productive trip, and I'd like to share some highlights.
We awarded 3 new scholarships. Detailed information will show up on our "projects" page of our website in a few days. Here's a picture of the scholarship recipients who attended the bi-monthly workshop. 5 girls are not pictured.
Two new communities in the municipality of Huixtan have joined the cooperative. We were excited to visit one of them and get better acquainted with the girls and women. They welcomed us by serving us a breakfast of eggs in tomato sauce and homemade tortillas. Below, see them showing us some of their handiwork.
We also made the two hour journey to Ocosingo to visit Viky and her daughter, Gabriela, who are both on scholarship with us. They run the new Saturday Children's Program that just started in January of this year. The number of attendees was a bit down because it is summer vacation but the 13 attending were extremely focused on their arithmetic and writing. The five-year-old shown below was very intent on her work.
In addition, 12 women and children went to the optometrist and had eye exams and are getting glasses; we visited the Zinacantan Children's Program that now meets on Sundays; we accompanied 9 women to the internet cafe to help them with e-mail; and we had an important meeting with scholarship recipients in which we explained how Mujeres de Maiz Opportunity Foundation fundraises for all these programs. We told them how wonderful and caring our supporters are.
Lastly, we presented the cooperative with a plaque that includes everyone's names who contributed specifically to the building fund. The house sale is now completed, and we wanted to honor those who helped make this dream come true.
Thank you!
Judith
We awarded 3 new scholarships. Detailed information will show up on our "projects" page of our website in a few days. Here's a picture of the scholarship recipients who attended the bi-monthly workshop. 5 girls are not pictured.
Two new communities in the municipality of Huixtan have joined the cooperative. We were excited to visit one of them and get better acquainted with the girls and women. They welcomed us by serving us a breakfast of eggs in tomato sauce and homemade tortillas. Below, see them showing us some of their handiwork.
We also made the two hour journey to Ocosingo to visit Viky and her daughter, Gabriela, who are both on scholarship with us. They run the new Saturday Children's Program that just started in January of this year. The number of attendees was a bit down because it is summer vacation but the 13 attending were extremely focused on their arithmetic and writing. The five-year-old shown below was very intent on her work.
In addition, 12 women and children went to the optometrist and had eye exams and are getting glasses; we visited the Zinacantan Children's Program that now meets on Sundays; we accompanied 9 women to the internet cafe to help them with e-mail; and we had an important meeting with scholarship recipients in which we explained how Mujeres de Maiz Opportunity Foundation fundraises for all these programs. We told them how wonderful and caring our supporters are.
Lastly, we presented the cooperative with a plaque that includes everyone's names who contributed specifically to the building fund. The house sale is now completed, and we wanted to honor those who helped make this dream come true.
Thank you!
Judith