U muuk´il xch’ ́uupalo’ob/ Iniciativa La Fuerza de las Niñas / Strength of Girls Initiative
Global Fund for Children supports a diverse network of 10 grassroots organizations based in Yucatan, Mexico that promote the rights and agency of Mayan girls and adolescents and increases their access to opportunities and services.
By supporting ten diverse grassroots organizations based in Yucatán, Mexico, GFC promotes the rights, agency, and advocacy skills of Mayan girls and expands their access to opportunities and services.
The U Muuk’il Xch’úupalo’ob / La Fuerza de las Niñas / Strength of Girls Initiative supports Mayan girls and young women to exercise their voices and rights, nurtured by communities that listen to them, accompany them, and offer significant opportunities to enhance their leadership, assert their right to education, and overcome structural, sociocultural, and gender barriers.
The initiative provides multi-year flexible grants and capacity development opportunities to grassroots organizations that are investing in the holistic development of Mayan girls and young women. Initiative priorities include intersectionality, feminist advocacy and youth leadership, culturally appropriate education, community-driven systems change, and gender-transformative approaches.
In keeping with GFC’s commitment to power-shifting, participatory, and collective decision-making, a partner selection committee that included civil society leaders, youth leaders, and activists from Indigenous communities in the region participated directly in choosing the initiative’s partners.
Project partners
APIS SURESTE FUNDACIÓN PARA LA EQUIDAD A.C.
Mérida, Yucatán, México
APIS Sureste Fundación para la Equidad A.C. provides psychological and legal assistance to women, adolescents, and children in situations of violence. The organization seeks to contribute to the eradication of violence against women and children by focusing on the impact of violence on people’s lives and carrying out preventive actions that encourage good treatment of people and promote a peace culture.
CENTRO ALTERNATIVO PARA EL DESARROLLO INTEGRAL INDÍGENA A.C.
Mexico | Halachó
A Mayan-led organization, Centro Alternativo para el Desarrollo Integral Indígena works with women and girls in Mayan communities to improve holistic health, promote equity and equality between men and women, and strengthen Mayan identity and children’s rights. The organization runs a center where women and children can access traditional Mayan medical treatments, as well as wellbeing support through active listening and other approaches.
GIRL UP RESISTENCIA FEMINISTA
Mexico | Mérida
Girl Up Resistencia Feminista is a collective of young women who are pioneers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) in Yucatán and advocate for education among their peers. The founders participated in Girl Up Mexico, leading to a focus on education and gender equity. The organization promotes training spaces for young women to encourage teenage girls to study and to choose a career, which is not traditional for girls in the area.
INVESTIGACIÓN Y EDUCACIÓN POPULAR AUTOGESTIVA A.C.
Mexico | Mérida
Investigación y Educación Popular Autogestiva defends children’s and adolescents’ rights and promotes popular education and play pedagogy as methodologies that advance meaningful learning and develop young people’s creative potential.
KANAN DERECHOS HUMANOS
Mexico | Mérida
Kanan Derechos Humanos is a youth-led collective that seeks to transform the structures of inequality and consolidate respect for human dignity. The organization promotes and defends human rights in the Yucatán Peninsula through strategic litigation, communication for social change and the strengthening of organizational processes and social actors, and human rights education.
LAS HIJAS DEL RAP
Mexico | Mérida
Las Hijas del Rap is dedicated to achieving social transformation through art, especially hip-hop. This multidisciplinary feminist collective is guided by hip-hop’s commitment to share what is learned and a belief in a rap pedagogy that values language and being irreverent as processes for social transformation. Las Hijas del Rap runs a school of rap for girls and, through visits to area communities, uses hip-hop to address social issues that girls are facing.
MEJEN T´AANO´OB PEQUEÑAS VOCES A.C.
Mexico | Cholul
Mejen t’aano’ob Pequeñas Voces A.C. advocates for education that listens to children, involves them, and encourages them to express their emotions, reflections, and opinions through art and interaction with the land. Through mutual-learning workshops with children at its community center and family-inclusive programing, the organization works to recover traditional Mayan knowledge in caring for the land; care for native Melipona stingless bees, which produce medicinal honey; revitalize the Mayan language; and reconnect with other traditional Mayan practices.
MUJERES PROMOVIENDO LA IGUALDAD DE DERECHOS
Mexico | Kinchil
A grassroots collective of Mayan women, Mujeres Promoviendo la Igualdad de Derechos is part of the Network of Mayan Promoters of Justice. The collective’s members work mainly with women in their community to promote gender equity, prevent violence against women, and advance women’s and children’s rights. The organization holds workshops on sexual and reproductive rights for adolescents in secondary school and carries out activities such as fairs that prioritize children’s participation.
RADIO TUKLIK
Mexico | Cholul
Believing that digital activism by young Mayans is a way to preserve their language and elevate their voices, Radio Tuklik utilizes community radio to promote the leadership of young people and the revitalization of the Mayan language. Radio broadcasting booths are located in three communities in Yucatán and are coordinated mainly by young people. The doors of the broadcasting booths are open, inviting more young people to be part of this project in their communities.
U YICH LU´UM
Mexico | Sanahcat
Founded in response to the loss of identity and uprooting from the land experienced by the Mayan community of Sanahcat, U Yich Lu’um focuses on recovering Mayan practices, knowledge, language, traditions, customs, and ways of life. Through activities such as community learning and defending human rights via gender, intercultural, intergenerational, and transdisciplinary approaches, the organization promotes holistic wellbeing for families in Sanahcat.
At Global Fund for Children, we create inclusive spaces that power growth and equal access to education. This initiative creates opportunity and new pathways to education so that Mayan girls and women reach their fullest potential – and in the process transform the narrative around gender justice in their community.
Project partners
