Red Wind Councils
P.O. Box 15
Maynard, MA 01754-0015
Board of Directors
Honorary Board of Directors
Help the world achieve its destiny
in order to remove the continual
danger of being collectively
destroyed.
RED WIND PROJECTS:
Seeds of Hope
There is a chain of aspects relating to the poverty and cultural devastation of the Maya people who have been marginalized and impoverished for centuries. RED WIND COUNCILS seeks to provide support at many levels in order to foster hope for a better future for the children.
INDIGENOUS REALITY:
7th Generation Projects
In the U.S., we take social services for granted, but in rural Maya indigenous communities, there is a scarcity of help at all levels. Ill people need to be carried by family members on foot to distant medical facilities where they may die in the hallways while those with money or lighter skin are attended. Women in labor must walk for miles to get help, as there is no transportation to take them to the hospital. Funds from Red Wind Councils have helped to provide a truck for one community that could carry goods to supply the communal store, carry ailing people to the hospital & carry extra produce to sell at the market.
While so much effort is needed to respond to the immediate needs of the people, Red Wind Councils also seeks to engage in projects that will bring long-term stability to the communities. One such project is the planting of trees. Through donations from other organizations, Red Wind Councils has been able to bring trees to the communities so that they can plant them & help to create a healthier environment for all. In the long term, through sustainable forestry practices that the people are learning from Red Wind advisors, these trees may also provide another source of income & support for the people.
Animal Husbandry:
Ending Malnutrition
Red Wind volunteers also provide technical assistance in the area of animal husbandry. Red Wind Councils has helped the communities by providing pigs, chickens, cattle, sheep & turkeys. These animals provide wool for weaving projects, eggs for the community & meat that can be sold to provide other necessities that the community could not otherwise afford. Through careful tending, the Maya communities increase their herds & therefore increase their chances of long-term improvements in the lives of everyone in the community.
A key Red Wind effort over the past 20 years is the Visiones de la Tierra / Visions of the Earth Arts & Culture projects. As the supportive infrastructure necessary for a return to indigenous arts & culture grows, communities are given funds, materials & training to begin expressing their hopes, dreams & visions again through textiles, masks, carving, weaving, beading, music, pottery, & ancient ceremonies.
A greenhouse built with Red Wind funds has become an educational center where members of the communities can come to learn about organic gardening techniques, seed preservation and growing a wider variety of foods for a healthier diet for the community.
Red Wind Councils also periodically hosts representatives of the indigenous communities who conduct seminars and ceremonies thus providing educational opportunities for people in the U.S. to explore Maya culture and ancient indigenous traditions.
HOPE FOR WOMEN:
Reviving Ancient Dignity
Weaving a Better Future
As the women are freed from the time-consuming tasks of grinding corn & hauling water from long distances, they are able to take up the ancient ways of craft-making which not only helps them to reclaim their culture but also provides a means for the women to feed their families that brings self-sufficiency & empowerment. Through the Visiones de la Tierra / Visions of the Earth projects, Red Wind Councils supports women's weaving & embroidery efforts that produce beautiful, high-quality items for the market. Red Wind advisors encourage the women to create unique items that call upon the ancient Maya culture in their designs & that bring a higher price in the marketplace. Creating these items is a time-consuming task that requires skill & artistry. Red Wind Councils volunteers work to help these women bring their crafts to market at Fair Trade prices that reflect the true value of the work that goes into each & every item.
AGRO-ECOLOGY:
Growing Sustainable Changes
The Spirit of the Maya:
People Made of Corn
Red Wind Councils provides the seed money to begin projects that become self-sustaining over time, as well as guidance & encouragement to project volunteers within the communities who provide essential services. This creates positive changes, not only for the individuals involved in the project, but also for the whole community.
In several communities, Red Wind Councils provided seed money to build a communal store. The profits from the sales made at the stores are returned to the communities in various ways including reinvesting in the project, being used for emergency health care costs, as well as being applied to other projects the community chooses to put forward such as buying pigs, cattle, sheep for wool, or growing organic vegetables to provide healthier meals for the families in the community with the excess being sold at the market. The funds generated at the market are then used by the community for seeds, for future plantings & other supplies that the people need.
PEOPLE MADE OF CORN:
Organic Solutions to GMO Threats
Preserving the People's Subsistence
Maize, corn, has been cultivated by the Maya since antiquity. Their ancestors developed wide varieties of corn capable of growing at many different altitudes, & in many different climate conditions. Yet this widely diverse inheritance is increasingly threatened by contamination from genetically engineered corn plants that produce sterile seed. As the indigenous Maya, who consider themselves literally "a people made of corn," have learned of this threat, they are searching for ways to protect their legacy of seeds & food.
Red Wind Councils is proud to support this growing consciousness, most recently through supplying funding for the establishment of an organic greenhouse. A long-held dream of the indigenous people, raising this into reality is nourishing both the bodies & spirits of many. The greenhouse project is now a learning center for the Maya to find out more about cultivating organic crops, using & preserving ancient seeds, & expanding their diet to include the wider range of foods that their ancestors enjoyed. This means less people will suffer from the malnutrition caused by a lack of multiple, healthy food sources. The skills the people learn at the greenhouse are then taken back to the communities where they are put into practice, building more greenhouses & organic gardens & helping to create a better life for the children & all the people. This not only brings about better physical health, but also helps to foster the dignity that self-sufficiency brings. It is a living example of how people of the earth are providing leadership in these times. As Red Wind listens to the dreams of the people, we are inspired to participate in this re-balancing by gathering the funds to bring such dreams into reality.
HEALTHCARE:
Birthing a Foundation for Life
Caring for the Coming Faces
The Maya people often die of curable diseases such as fevers, parasites, diarrhea, tuberculosis & bronchitis. Funds are collected to help purchase the medicines needed to treat & cure these diseases. But there are never enough funds to meet the needs of such a large population of impoverished people, so the communities that Red Wind Councils works with have developed self-sustaining projects from which they take the profits & use them for emergency medical situations & other projects that in turn serve to raise the standard of living for the whole community. Over time, this process can bring an end to the cycle of extreme poverty & malnutrition that underlie ill health, & this brings hope back to the people.
Medical resources are available in Mexico but unfortunately they are out of reach to most people in the indigenous communities - both financially & physically. Red Wind Councils provides funding to support indigenous men & women in becoming healthcare workers who, after a training period, return to provide basic health care in their communities. Funds from Red Wind Councils are used for subsidies to community health care workers & their families, as their labor is entirely voluntary. Red Wind also provides funds to purchase medical supplies & to help build or repair the modest community clinics. Red Wind Councils is currently supporting the work of seven healthcare workers & has helped to build three small clinics in three communities. Two hundred families are served by each of these clinics.
In addition, Red Wind Councils provides funding for emergency health care (blood transfusions, surgeries & hospitalizations) that the people are unable to afford on their own. For example, a young woman needed to have gall bladder surgery but was unable to pay for it. Through an emergency fundraising effort, Red Wind Councils was able to raise the necessary funds for the woman's surgery. During her recovery, the woman, her 3 young children & her husband were provided with a place to stay at "La Casa del Pueblo/House of the People," a community building renovated & maintained by Red Wind Councils that is used by the people for meetings & as a place to stay when they are unable to make the long trip back to their communities or, as in this case, when they need a place to receive medical care during their recuperation before returning to their village.
EDUCATION:
Better Tools for the Future
Building Schools:
Reclaiming Maya Education
Education is also difficult for the Maya people to obtain. Typically children in the Maya communities are unable to attend the public schools, as none is close enough to the communities where the children live, & transportation is not available for them as it is in other parts of the world. Government schools don't offer education in the peoples own languages. Also, the people are very poor & the children work hard by carrying wood & water & by selling crafts & other goods in the streets to help their families, so there is no time for them to attend school. Red Wind Councils funds support the building & repair of schools in the indigenous communities as well as purchasing books & supplies. In one community, there was a school, but the children had no books, nothing to write with & no paper to write on. Red Wind Councils was able to raise the funds to provide paper, pencils & books so the children can learn to read & write both Spanish & their own languages, & break the cycle of illiteracy.
Your purchases at Amazon.com can help raise needed funds for our work with the Maya people in Chiapas. Just click on the Amazon.com button on this website every time you want to shop at Amazon.com and a portion of your purchases will be donated to Red Wind Councils.
Red Wind Councils
PO Box 15
Maynard, MA 01754
pathways@redwindcouncils.org
Tax ID#: 20-3633955
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