In February, I made a short trip to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico and
was delighted to meet one of the coordinators of Mujeres en Cambio.
This NGO plays the critical role of helping girls from the countryside
attend and complete high school. Some go on to college. An
education changes a campesina's life. Please read about the fine work of
Mujeres en Cambio in our featued NGO for May.
When I was on vacation in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, I was pleased
to discover Mujeres en Cambio, a 15 year old, all volunteer, grass roots
organization committed to helping girls in the campo (countryside) finish
school and, in a number of cases, attend college. Girls in the campo are
more likely than city girls to drop out of middle or high school because
of the expense. While public education is free through sixth grade, middle
school and high school are costly for the indigent, especially the $40
per semester tuition that must be paid up front.
Families in the campo are desperately poor, often making only $5 per day.
They lack the funds to pay for school fees, books, transportation, uniforms
and shoes. Without scholarships, most girls have to leave school to work
or help out at home.
Through Mujeres en Cambio, girls receive $25 per month or $275 per year,
college students, $1000 per year. To qualify for the program, girls are
closely monitored – they must attend school regularly and maintain a grade
point average of 8.5 out of 10.Mujeres en Cambio grew from supporting 8
girls in the beginning to 150 girls today and 43 in university. The girls,
from 8 small communities, are chosen by their teachers and principals. The organization’s funds are raised through individual contributions
and through ten luncheons held in San Miguel each year where the food is
prepared by volunteers and Mexicans and foreigners buy tickets.
What impressed me most about the organization was its commitment to working
in the campo and raising the status of women. The state of Guanajuato,
surrounding San Miguel, is one of the poorest in Mexico. Although some
local workers have access to new opportunities in the tourist sector in
San Miguel, campesinos are stuck in farming, mostly growing beans, in a
rugged agricultural environment. Mujeres en Cambio reaches those at
the bottom, in terms of both poverty and gender. Over 97 percent of the
scholarship students are the first in their entire extended family to have
the opportunity to study beyond elementary school. For a Mexican campesina,
education makes all the difference between a life on a struggling farm
and a job as a skilled worker in a town or city -- and personal independence.
When I was on vacation in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, I was pleased
to discover Mujeres en Cambio, a 15 year old, all volunteer, grass roots
organization committed to helping girls in the campo (countryside) finish
school and, in a number of cases, attend college. Girls in the campo are
more likely than city girls to drop out of middle or high school because
of the expense. While public education is free through sixth grade, middle
school and high school are costly for the indigent, especially the $40
per semester tuition that must be paid up front.
