We are very busy these days preparing for our project launch the week of March 14th in Tizapan el Alto, Jalisco.  While Laura and Nate were doing their site visit with Dr. Roberto Martinez of UVM (Universidad del Valle de Mexico) just before Valentine’s Day, we had the great pleasure of meeting Dr. César Octavio Solorio, the director of the health center for the municipality.  He was very excited about the project and connected us to everyone we needed.

We spent a very productive half hour with the Presidente Municipal José Santiago Coronado Valencia and were then introduced to Lic. Gerardo Barba from the health department where we really hammered out all the details of the project, including food and lodging for the brigades and where classes and graduation would be held.  Stay tuned for more…

Tia will be bringing the newest fact sheets on Zika in Spanish to disperse in while we are in Mexico next week, thanks to Hesperian Foundation, who also are the publishers of the health care worker manuals we distribute to every Promotora.  Click here for the English language version: English Zika Fact Sheet.  And here is the same in Spanish: Spanish Zika Fact Sheet.

Unfortunately, Zika is harming the already most vulnerable populations in Latin America, where women have been asked to avoid pregnancy, but have not been given broad access to contraception.

This was just published by Jill Filopovic in the Washington Post [click on the quote to read the whole article], “According to Gallup polling, people living in Latin American are less likely to say that women are treated with respect and dignity than people living anywhere else in the world. Violence against women is endemic — in Peru, for example, half of women say their first sexual experience was forced. Poverty remains feminized. Contraception access is improving, but remains low for adolescents and low-income women in particular.”

We surpassed our goal for Tia’s 10×10 Campaign for our 10th Anniversary!  Thank you all so much for your kind words, well wishes, and your donations!  Everyone’s donation was matched by our dear friends at Sechler CPA, so if you donated $10, Sechler matched it so your donation was worth $20, enabling 4 people to have access to lifelong healthcare!

Our goal was $1,000 and we raised $1,020, so 204 of the poorest farmers in Mexico and their families will have a greatly improved quality of life because of your support.

An immigration study with Thunderbird School of Global Management volunteers found that programs like Tia’s can drop cross-border immigration by as much as 400%.  Our ‘teach them to fish’ models enable people stay with their families by helping them improve their own communities.  Help us celebrate 10 years! Our matching donation campaign ends Sunday! Click here and help 4 people have healthcare for life with just $10!