Grant Recipients 2012
Amigos Awards 2012 Grants to Eight Projects
We believe that all our donors will be pleased that their gifts to Amigos will be going to eight strong education, health, and economic development projects in 2012.
This year, with direction from the Amigos Board, the Projects Committee recommended that Amigos give larger grants to fewer organizations in order to make a greater impact on projects and to enable more committee and board members to personally visit all the projects.
Amigos received 19 applications this year from organizations that are making a significant difference to the marginalized communities in San Cristobal and Chiapas. It was not an easy task to narrow the group down to the following eight grant recipients for 2012.
Escalera
Foundation Escalera focuses on education, working to ensure that more marginalized students in the ten poorest municipalities of the highlands of Chiapas are able to enroll in high school. Through the Star Program, Escalera has offered scholarships and other grade-based incentives to more than 7,000 students, such as a 15 year old student who wants to be a nurse when she grows up, but her parents cannot afford the 300 peso enrollment fee to send her to high school. With an Amigos supported scholarship from Escalera, she can attend high school, gain the knowledge necessary to continue her studies, and hope- fully one day be able to send her own children to high school.
K’inal Antsetik
K’inal Antsetik’s Program for the Long-Term Formation of Young Indigenous Women supports nine young women from Chiapas in their academic studies and leader- ship skills. With the support of Amigos this year, these women will participate in workshops in radio and audiovisual broadcasting and will be able to return to their com- munities of origin to share their knowledge with other groups of women. In doing so, they will empower women in rural communities who already experience discrimination in their access to resources by helping to develop l e a d e r s h i p and c o m m u n i t y - organizing skills. These nine women and the community groups will thus be able to actively participate in the confrontation and resolution of health, human rights, gender equity, and other problems in their communities .
Mujeres y Maíz
Since 2008 Mujeres y Maíz has provided healthy cooking stoves, electric food mills, and other tools that help reduce women’s work in the kitchen and improve their working conditions. In late 2011, the women of Mujeres y Maíz opened La Milpa community kitchen, which benefits 30 
women and 10 low-income college students. With a grant from Amigos, the kitchen will enable the women to sell their traditional products, with a focus on sustainable, local foods. The women learn about hygiene and food preparation, as well as small business administration, all while earning an income to support their families. The project will award scholarships, also supported by Amigos, to 10 university students who come to live in San Cristóbal for their studies but are unable to afford nutritious meals, given the high costs of rent and transportation. The students will also attend work- shops to learn how to cook inexpensive and healthy meals.
Banco de Alimentos de Chiapas
Amigos will renew funding to pay for a nutrition training program for family groups eligible to participate in a food bank program managed by Banco de Alimentos de los Altos de Chiapas (BACH). Aimed at combating widespread malnutrition, the Amigos supported workshops are expected to reach 7,000 people in 2012. The program includes follow-on home visits to measure progress in sanitary conditions and food storage as well as improvement in individuals' health. In addition to providing food at significantly reduced prices to families, BACH also serves nursing homes and orphanages.
Melel Xojobal 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012
Melel Xojobal works with impoverished indigenous children and adolescents in San Cristóbal to help them exercise their rights in a way that will improve their quality of life. With support from Amigos, in 2012, Melel will be able to provide academic scholarships to 8 indigenous children from San Cristóbal: 6 primary school-age children, and 2 middle school–age children. Melel’s program to support indigenous children in enrolling and staying in school targets socioeconomic factors that prevent families from enrolling their children, including educating families on the importance of school for their children and help- ing secure birth certificates required by schools for enrollment.
Madre Tierra 2007 - 2012
With help from Amigos, in 2012 Madre Tierra will be able to continue its project “Mi Casa Es Tu Casa.” As part of its broader community health-care initiative, Mi Casa Es Tu Casa will work to rehabilitate homes with floors, roofs, latrines, and stoves in the Sierra Madre to improve the overall health of residents. Madre Tierra works in Chiapas’s Sierra Madre, the most marginalized region of the most marginalized state of Mexico. Devastated by Hurricane Stan and living in extreme poverty, residents of the region are unable to pro- vide for their families’ basic needs. More- over, many communities do not have drinking water, electricity, or other basic services. The nearest towns often are 4-8 hours away by foot. As a result, residents do to not have access to health care, and current living conditions in the region result in many respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses, particularly in children.
Amigos will renew funding to pay for a nutrition training program for family groups eligible to participate in a food bank program managed by Banco de Alimentos de los Altos de Chiapas (BACH). Aimed at combating widespread malnutrition, the Amigos supported workshops are expected to reach 7,000 people in 2012. The program includes follow-on home visits to measure progress in sanitary conditions and food storage as well as improvement in individuals' health. In addition to providing food at significantly reduced prices to families, BACH also serves nursing homes and orphanages.
12 Guayacanes del Sur
In 2012, the organization 12 Guayacanes del Sur will use the financial support from Amigos to build a demonstration plot, including plants and animals, to help communities in the border region of Chiapas return to a sustainable way of life. The entire region faces problems related to health (particularly malnutrition), dependence on single- focus agriculture, and the inequality of women in communities. The program Pan para Todas, or “Bread for All,” directly benefits forty indigenous Mam families in the region by strengthening knowledge and skills with respect to sustainable agriculture and economic self-sufficiency.
Casa Las Flores
This year the Projects Committee recommended to the Amigos Board that Amigos “adopt” a special project to become more involved with as it develops. La Casa de las Flores serves the street children of San Cristobal. Support from Amigos will enable the director to hire a teacher to develop a curriculum, guide the volunteers who help out, and conduct classes. La Casa de las Flores provides a safe place where the children can eat, bathe, and learn skills they need to better their lives. At Casa de las Flores they are valued, listened to, and supported. Within colorful walls and with caring adults, the children spend time being 
children and young adults in a respectful environment before they go back into another reality where their rights are not always honored.
During 2012 the members of the Projects Committee and the Board will visit each organization to ensure that donations from our members and friends are helping the organization meet the goals of their project and to support the programs through encouragement and connections to resources.
