Without any possibilities of Vision, there can be no true social justice.
— Ohki Forest
Chiapas is the southernmost state of Mexico, bordering Guatemala, a region known for its natural wonders. It is the richest state in Mexico — abundant in coffee, cacao, fine woods & oil, & producing 80% of Mexico’s hydroelectricity. Despite being considered part of North America, Chiapas is among the poorest regions of the 3 Americas. The systematic exploitation of these natural resources has enriched a few & left the large majority of Maya natives in grinding poverty. Additionally, NAFTA treaties & globalization, together with flagrant neglect by the government, have increased & accelerated the deprivation & impoverishment of Native communities.
Chiapas registers one of the highest levels of illiteracy & malnutrition on the continent & slavery was still a common practice until the uprising of 1994. This is a great paradox for a people whose ancestors had one of the most advanced civilizations & highest levels of spiritual development. Indigenous populations are the first to be affected by globalization & economic destabilization. A male laborer in Chiapas does not earn enough to provide food & basic provisions for an average family of 6 children. Most of the time the children could not attend school but must work hard in the fields, or sell crafts in the streets for almost nothing in order to meet the family needs. Until the uprising, there was no creative future for women except serving their families.
The poor of Chiapas cannot afford medicines when there is a family illness. At times there is little food, if any. Many times they live truly far away from any clinics or health centers & die of curable disease. This is most current for children even today. Our indigenous brothers & sisters survive day-to-day, not knowing if there will be a tomorrow. Always being poor & having to count each bit of money at every moment creates constant depression, for the evolution of a people can only be based on a natural sense of abundance in life. Yet when you visit them, they offer with a big smile & great heart the little food they have.
In the Western world, we take social services for granted, but in these rural indigenous communities, there is a shocking scarcity of help. People who are ill need to be carried by family members on foot to distant medical facilities where they may die in the hallways while those of lighter skins or richer status are attended. Women in labor must walk for miles to get help, as there is no transportation to take them to the hospital. Children have to walk miles every day, alone, to fetch wood & water. In response to these extreme inequalities, Red Wind Councils offers vital support, financial, technical & spiritual, to help ensure the self-determination of people through our projects so they find cooperation & self-sufficiency, & develop responsibility for themselves & their communities.
At Red Wind Councils, we believe that it is the strength of women at the core of the community that creates the deep transformation of the outmoded values of machismo & abuse of women & children as well as of our Mother Earth in all its forms. Based on Ohki Forest’s teachings on the Era of Woman (visit ohkiforest.com), the vision of our organization offers projects to empower women & their daughters in the renewal of their ways with the Maya Craft project, the Corn Mill project, the Wood-saving Fogones & traditional Medical relief & assistance as well as educational programs such as birth control & many others in order to free women from their intensive labor most often only confined to the kitchen & the raising of large families.
The tremendous moral, economical & spiritual support that Red Wind Councils provides helps create the strongest protection many Maya can have in their lives.
Sustainable Projects
Our Social Justice Projects include:
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- Women’s Development: Sewing, weaving, embroidery, bread making & corn mills, literacy, employment, family planning, legal assistance
- Healthcare Development: Funding for emergency medicines & surgeries, food & transportation subsidies for local volunteer health promoters, building & supplying local pharmacies & clinics
- Educational Development: Building materials for alternative schools, school supplies, food & transportation subsidies for local volunteer educators, shoes & lunches for the children
- General Community Development: Food supplies in situations of natural disasters, water systems, solar systems, communication systems, community meeting buildings, community stores, community transportation solutions, Fogon wood-saving stoves, organic farming, greenhouses & other ecological efforts
- Land & Nature Preservation: Legal recuperation of land for protection & conservancy, tree planting.
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3 Areas of Support
Health: Birthing a Foundation for Life
The Maya people often die of curable diseases such as fevers, parasites, diarrhea, tuberculosis & bronchitis & more recently COVID. Red Wind is always in need of funds for medicines to prevent, treat & cure diseases. In the past decade, Red Wind Councils has subsidized the training of several dozens of healthcare volunteers, & built several small clinics in communities, reaching thousands of families.
Food: Ending Malnutrition
Food Projects are at the heart of Red Wind’s concern for the people. Not being well fed is one of the worst aspects of poverty & illness. Seeing young children who never receive adequate sustenance for their proper development is heart-breaking. Besides sending corn where urgently needed, we have, over the years, implemented several options to bring decent nutrition to the people.
Integral Farming projects include greenhouses built with Red Wind funds to grow a wider variety of vegetables for a healthier diet. The main diet in poor communities is often only tortillas & salt, thus the need for encouraging the indigenous to grow vegetables has been pressing. Members of communities learn from our Red Wind project about organic gardening techniques & seed preservation in the face of GMO threats.
Education: 100% Maya Today
Proper education is difficult for the Maya to obtain. Government schools don’t offer education in the children’s own languages & usually scorn Native culture. Red Wind Councils has built alternative schools & helps provide educators with basic books & supplies for the children. As a result, indigenous girls & boys are learning to read & write in their original tongue, as well as the official Spanish language, thus stopping the brutal cycle of illiteracy & marginalization. There is a clear difference nowadays between mothers & their daughters who have learned to break the cycle of shame & lack of self-confidence through a sound education infusing respect for women’s rights.
