By Riccardo During my seven months with CASA Chapulin, I worked closely with EDUCA AC, Servicios para una Educacion Alternativa, in their Community Economies Program. Besides supporting EDUCA’s staff in different activities like the Feria Tianguis, a statewide fair trade fair in Puerto Escondido and the Escuela Campesina, popular education about human rights in indigenous communities, I also conducted research on the local economy of Rancho Nuevo, a Chatino community in the Sierra Sur. Rancho Nuevo is made up of 30 families. It belongs to the municipality of San Juan Lachao, 5 hours away from the state capital. Most, if not all the families, survive on coffee production, and on the goods they cultivate in their own fields. The research took place in the community of Rancho Nuevo during the course of 4 months, during which we organized several workshops and a survey regarding the incomes and expenditures of each family in education, health, agriculture, and general household. The research helped EDUCA evaluate several of its recently established production projects in the community including apiculture and avocado cultivation as well as the impact of the creation of a community general store. Working with EDUCA has provided several very useful insights in the development discourse and how it is handled by local organizations, what their priorities are and how work on the ground takes place. EDUCA was founded by a group of young people working in the Catholic Diocesan Youth Ministry (Pastoral Juveníl) in 1994. Their work was profoundly inspired by Liberation Theology. Their work with poor, rural and indigenous communities in the state of Oaxaca had taught them about the realities of this region: chronic poverty and marginalization generating an almost complete loss of hope. EDUCA consequently came about as a civic association with a political mission to strengthen poor indigenous communities of Oaxaca through building civic awareness and increasing social and political participation in both local and state levels, employing popular education techniques as a tool to generate change and growth. EDUCA carries out its work independent of churches, the government, and from any political party. Nevertheless, they maintain relationships of respect these sectors and collaborate on common initiatives. This approach allows EDUCA to remain autonomous. Its mission aims at promoting holistic community development, social organization and civic initiatives in public policy to improve the quality of life and strengthen democracy in the poor and indigenous communities of Oaxaca. EDUCA, as a civil and independent not-for-profit organization strengthens citizenship, social involvement, and local government. It lobbies government entities to influence public policies which lead to a more democratic state. EDUCA works mainly in three connected areas: Building Active Citizenship, Indigenous Municipalities and Peoples, and the Community Economics. The Building Citizenship program promotes active citizenship oriented towards fulfilling basic human rights and works to guarantee democracy and political stability in Oaxacan municipal districts. It also organizes and participates in public forums of interchange and communication that provide the foundation for the construction of this type of citizenship.

Average: Select ratingPoorOkayGoodGreatAwesome

No votes yet