GlobalGiving.co.uk: Sustainable Chicken Farm for Guatemalan Women

Photo Update from MUIXIL

Elizabeth Droggitis — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 14:48:42 GMT

(c) MUIXIL

Thanks to your generous support, MADRE was recently able to send funds to MUIXIL in support of their programming with local, Indigenous Ixil women. The donation went towards maintaining the chicken farming project, organizing a human rights training, and holding a meeting for the women to learn important business and technical skills. Ana Ceto, leader of our partner organization MUIXIL, sent us new photos from the chicken farms project and the recent trainings and meetings. We’d like to share those photos with you now.

Captions:

Photo 1: Women participants in MUIXIL’s chicken farming project proudly show off their chickens. The chicken farms offer food security and a source of income for these women and their families.

Photo 2: In their recent human rights training, Ixil women from Muixil were trained on women's political participation. At the trainings, the women discussed the importance of actively participating at the community level on issues related to women and families as well as how to be an example to children and youth.

(c) MUIXIL

MUIXIL Weaving Cooperative

Elizabeth Droggitis — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 18:35:11 GMT

Ana Ceto, the leader of our Guatemalan sister organization MUIXIL, visited MADRE this year and brought with her many beautiful, handcrafted items made by the Indigenous Ixil women she works with in her community. In collaboration with her chicken farming project, this local weaving cooperative allows for additional income-generation and enables women to feed their families and send their children to school. The project also serves as a way to preserve local Indigenous history and cultural identity, using designs that have been handed down over thousands of years and that convey generations of stories, mythologies, spirituality and history. Currently, 45 women between the ages of 15 and 60 participate in the weaving cooperative.

Ana's Story

Elizabeth Droggitis — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 14:48:32 GMT

As a very young child in the northern highlands of Guatemala, Ana Ceto grew up at the height of a civil war, in an area where that war was most fiercely fought. Human rights abuses, especially against Indigenous Peoples, were widespread. She saw fields rich with produce and effort burned to nothing. Food was scarce and violence everywhere.

At 18, Ana began her work to demand human rights. She struggled to document the identities of displaced people rebuilding their lives. She worked with organizations to identify victims. She collected testimonies from survivors of massacres.

At 23, Ana, along with other community members, founded Muixil, a grassroots organization of Indigenous Mayan women working together to promote the health, well-being and rights of their families and communities.

Today, the vibrant colors of traditional weaving dance before her eyes when she gathers the wares produced by the women’s weaving cooperative in her home of El Quiche. Chickens cackle and cluck in the yards of Indigenous women in the community, many of them widows and single mothers. With help from Muixil, these projects help women build independence and economic self-sufficiency. They sell their weavings at market, and chickens produce eggs to sell and for their families to eat. Many mothers use the money they raise to send their children to school.

Ana herself is a mother of three small children. She knows how important it is to be able to provide for her children, put food on the table and send them to school—a right Ana had to fight hard for.

MADRE and Muixil also work together to help Indigenous women participate in political processes.

Recently, Ana testified before the United Nations Human Rights Committee, as they reviewed Guatemala’s human rights record. She described flagrant violations inflicted on Indigenous Peoples and women. She lent an impassioned voice to the findings of the “Report on Violations of Women’s Human Rights in Guatemala” submitted to the Committee by MADRE, Muixil and other human rights groups.

“MADRE has given us strong support. You gave us the first funds for the weaving cooperative and made this trip to New York possible. We are very thankful,” she told the MADRE staff after her testimony at the UN.

Bonus Day for our Sustainable Chicken Farm Project

Erica Hellerstein — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 14:45:21 GMT

Want your donation dollars to have the greatest possible impact?

On June 13, starting at 12:01 am EST, GlobalGiving is sponsoring a special “Bonus Day,” where every donation you make to MADRE and Muixil’s “Sustainable Chicken Farm for Guatemalan Women” project will be matched by 50 percent— greatly increasing the impact of your generous donations!

MADRE works with Muixil, a grassroots group of Indigenous Ixil women in Guatemala. Together, we created Farming for the Future, establishing small chicken farms as a source of income and nutrition for Ixil women and their families.

Your support of this project will enable us to continue our crucial work with Muixil. Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to make your donation go even further, and donate today!

Amplifying the Voices of Ixil Women

Erica Hellerstein — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 21:57:08 GMT

Before the war, Dona Catarina Matom lived peacefully with her two daughters and husband in Nebaj,
Guatemala.

But escalating violence and war soon spread to her village. Soldiers brutally plundered homes and then
set them ablaze. Escaping violence, Dona and her family fled to the mountains—where they faced
disease, sickness, cold and extreme hunger.

After weeks of hiding, they relocated to Caba Chajul, Guatemala. “We were chased by soldiers, we
always tried to hide. There were constant bombings. My daughter Rosa was good and healthy but one day
I can not remember which, a bomb fell near my daughter Rosa and now she is currently deaf,” said Dona.

In Caba Chajul, Dona’s husband was captured by soldiers. She struggled to raise her daughters on her
own, constantly worrying about how to provide them with food. Often, they were forced to subsist off a
meager diet of wilted herbs and plants.

But Dona no longer has to worry about how she will feed her children. Now, she has the essential skills
and resources to provide for her family, thanks to your support through GlobalGiving’s Sustainable
Chicken Farm for Guatemalan Women project.

MADRE works with Muixil, a community based organization of Indigenous Ixil women in
Guatemala. Together, MADRE and Muixil created Farming for the Future, a collective income-
generating project that provides the Ixil women living in poverty with economic independence
and food security and empowers them to demand their political rights.

When the sustainable chicken farming project began in 2007, Muixil and MADRE were
able to provide 30 women with chickens, but over the years the project has increased
substantially. Over the past year, at least 48 women (16 from each of the three communities)
have participated in and benefited from the chicken project. Additionally, the sustainable chicken
farms have provided food security, better nutrition, and a means of generating small amounts of
income for the families involved.

“Before, I was very poor and scared, I never spoke…But Muixil accepted me and I participate in
trainings, meetings and now participate in the community and I have no fear. I know I have the same
rights as men. I received the support from MUIXIL and I thank all the women who help us in other
countries far away,” said Dona.

Project Update from MUIXIL

Erica Hellerstein — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:08:26 GMT

“We represent Ixil women living in poor communities. We don't have enough money to send our children to school, but we have benefited from the chickens. More women from the community would like to be able to receive chickens and feed their families. Many of the women who see how the chicken project is improving their lives and would also like to be able to be a part of the project.” – Doña Maria Victoria, from Chajul community - El Quiche, Guatemala.

Indigenous Women Organize around Guatemalan Elections

Maria Trimble — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 20:19:29 GMT

After last Sunday’s elections in Guatemala, the top presidential candidates are heading for a run-off—and MADRE is working with our sister organization Muixil to make sure that Indigenous Mayan women’s voices are heard. With the MADRE support that you made possible, Muixil held voter education workshops for women in the geographically isolated region of El Quiche, to teach them about their opportunities for political participation.

Indigenous Peoples, particularly the Quiche region, were deliberately targeted with violence and human rights violations during Guatemala’s decades of civil war. Thousands of women and families were displaced. These communities have long been cut off from political decision-making, denied the education, resources and access to participate fully in elections.

In these voter education workshops, our partners at Muixil informed participants about each presidential candidate and their policy proposals. They provided Indigenous women with vital information about the documents they would need and the steps to take to cast their vote.

As Guatemala moves to elect a new president, women are organizing to make sure their needs are met and their demands are heard. Thank you for helping give them the tools to make their voices heard!

Photo Credit: MADRE

How a Chicken Can Send a Girl to School

Yifat Susskind — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 19:47:53 GMT

When MADRE staff recently traveled to Guatemala, we spent time with our sister organization MUIXIL, an Indigenous women’s group in the rural highlands. Since 2007, with your help, we have supported a women’s chicken farming project, helping to meet women’s need for sustainable income in deeply impoverished Indigenous communities. We’re happy to announce that the project is growing!

With the generous support of MADRE members, we were able to send a contribution to MUIXIL, enabling them to purchase 48 baby chickens and the supplies to build new chicken coops. The chickens and coops will help create a new future for women and their families in three different communities. With the eggs, women can give their children protein-rich meals, selling extra eggs to raise money.

For one woman named Rosa, who never went to school because of turmoil caused by the decades-long civil war, the chickens have meant that she is able to break the cycle and send her own young daughter to school. "Because of the war I never went to school for even one day. My biggest hope now is that my daughter will finish school. I have the chickens from MADRE now and that means better food for my daughter. We get a little money from the eggs each week. I put it in my secret place and I use it to buy pencils and books for her. I know her life will be better."

Links:

How a Chicken Can Send a Girl to School