Don't Forget About your Hometown

by Corbyn

Tequios (tech-key-os), 'is a form of communal work which is unpaid and done by community members for the public benefit.' Tequios, I learned today, is a rural indigenous custom that is still practiced in the Mexican state of Oaxaca where Plant With Purpose has worked for over 11 years. It is because this piece of cultural history is still in existence that Plant With Purpose has adapted its programs in Oaxaca to conform with the local tradition.

Every Tuesday at our office here in San Diego we have staff training. Today our training was led by Milmer Martinez Vergara, our Mexico and Haiti program officer. I was captivated as I sat and listened to the strategic thought process that our 16 Oaxacan staff go through to develop longterm relationships with the rural indigenous Mixteco people in 52 communities throughout Oaxaca.

It is always interesting to think about how I can take the stories and testimonies we receive from the field and translate them (figuratively) into dialogue that will be relevant and engaging here in the US. One thing that has become increasingly popular in conversation here in the United States is sustainability. Are we driving cars that emit less emissions, using energy more efficiently, looking for cleaner ways to power our cities, reusing everyday items like plastic bags and water bottles etc.? Well, sustainability is something that has been around since the beginning of time, and when we look at the situation in Oaxaca where families are being forced to migrate because they can no longer provide for their basic needs, we have to enter into a relationship that allows each party (Plant With Purpose and the farmers) to learn from each other and adapt.

Oaxaca has one of the highest migration rates of any Mexican state. Families are leaving the land they have grown up on for generations to try to find some other sort of opportunity. Take a look at this picture of a sign on the way out of one of the communities where we have started to work. It is a sobering reality of the situation in Oaxaca. Translated, the sign says, 'Thank you for your visit- if you emigrate, don't forget about your town.' Plant With Purpose is committed to being a part of the long term development in Oaxaca, and it is so encouraging

to see families benefitting and growing stronger in their communities as they partner with our organization. Whether it be greenhouses, family gardens, chicken and rabbit coops, ecological latrines, cisterns, business training, savings groups, tree nurseries, goat and sheep pins, or any other of the many programs that help families to have the ability to live sustainably and provide for the needs of their loved ones, there is a lot of good work that is being done in Oaxaca.

The programs have been developed specifically with the long term in mind, and they have used the cultural history of community (Tequios) that already exists in Oaxaca as the foundation to build upon. We have to thank those of you who are supporting the work in Oaxaca; without your commitment, the exciting advancements would not be possible.

We would love to have you join the transformation that is taking place. Through our Sponsor a Village program, for as little as $30 a month you can commit to supporting the work of an individual village in Oaxaca. You will receive updates and testimonies from families like Godofredo's (pictured here with his Wife Luisa and their three children) about the progress being made and the barriers being

overcome.

When you sign up to sponsor a village your recurring donation will be matched for an entire year, doubling your donation! Please take a look at the villages that are available for your partnership here.

Village Spotlight: Rio Comal, Mexico

The “ranchita” of Rio Comal is a small community made up of small clusters of families who depend on the neighboring town of Ojo de Agua for services such as schools and churches. There is little rainfall, and during the dry season the steep, barren hills are dusted brown and desolate. The people of Rio Comal make a meager living by selling charcoal to city dwellers to use as fuel wood for cooking. Desperate to feed their families, farmers cut down more and more trees for charcoal, destroying the land and further entrenching themselves in a vicious cycle of poverty and environmental degradation.

Plant With Purpose’s community projects such as a building a cistern to store up rain water to use during the dry season can literally transform an entire community, helping farmers get back on their feet with sustainable long and short-term solutions. Give today, and you can be a part of the transformation that is taking place in the hearts and lives of the people of Rio Comal.

When you sign up to become a monthly donor, you'll help Plant With Purpose sustain community‑based efforts that improve the lives of rural farmers. And, if you sign up for a recurring donation, your gift will be matched for the first year! To learn more about Rio Comal or to sponsor this village, click here.

Meatless Mondays

by Stephanie Rudeen

Nutrition is a vital component of Plant With Purpose’s programs in developing countries around the world. In Oaxaca, Mexico, one of the regions where Plant With Purpose works, a vast 76.9% of the population suffers from malnutrition and doctors estimate that as many as 90% of children younger than age five suffer from malnutrition due to the poor Mixteco diet. The devastating effects of malnutrition in children include stunted physical growth, arrested brain development, and inability of the body’s immune system to effectively combat disease.

We at Plant With Purpose are proud to share our school partnerships program in Oaxaca that helps spread valuable nutritional education and practice to children in Oaxaca. Plant With Purpose’s successful family gardens program has been incorporated into the curriculum of many of the local schools in Oaxaca. The family gardens project empowers women to set up family gardens composed of vegetables, medicinal plants, fruit trees, nitrogen-fixing trees, and small animals such as chickens, sheep, and rabbits. These family gardens diversify the family diet and help to reduce malnutrition among children. This successful and empowering program has now been applied to local Oaxaca schools through the creation of demonstration family garden plots.

Plant With Purpose has also teamed up with elementary schools to equip teachers to teach environmental education classes that supplement sustainable projects such as the family garden demonstration plot that the students can then implement at home. Students are taught how to grow a diverse supply of vegetables including onions, radishes, lettuce, chile, cilantro, cabbage, broccoli, green beans, and squash.

Many Oaxacan children have now been able to improve their nutrition and become more prepared for the future. Plant With Purpose hopes that this program will help the children of Oaxaca pass down the legacy of Plant With Purpose to their own children, even after Plant With Purpose is gone.

While the children of Oaxaca are learning the skills to improve their nutrition and their lives, what can you do? Of course, this transformation was only made possible by the continuous help and support of donors who care about community development and environmental restoration. Yet, while we often preach about the importance of nutrition and a healthy diet for individuals and communities in impoverished countries, how often do we actually practice what we preach?

That’s why I’m excited to branch out on my own journey towards a healthier me—a journey that can be easily replicated by any of you! Meatless Monday is an international campaign that encourages people to cut out meat on Mondays to improve their health and the health of the planet. Deciding not to eat meat once a week lessens the risk of chronic preventable illness and has a strong positive impact on the environment. Check out MeatlessMonday.com for more information!

I’m not a huge carnivore so I’m sure I will easily be able to overcome this challenge; yet, I view it as one step closer to a healthier me. Just as Plant With Purpose helps to transform lives in the communities where we work, try to take a moment and transform your own!

Oaxaca Wednesday: Cinco de Mayo Especial

by Stephanie Rudeen

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Cinco de Mayo has become an almost exclusively U.S. holiday, often observed through consuming excessive amounts of tequila and margaritas. Cinco de Mayo was originally meant to commemorate the 1862 Battle of Puebla, the victory of Mexican troops against Napoleon III’s French army, although Cinco de Mayo is often confused with Mexico’s Independence Day, which is actually September 16^th.

In Mexico, there is little celebration of Cinco de Mayo, and it is usually limited to the town of Puebla. This stems partly from the fact that shortly after the Battle of Puebla, the French army captured Mexico City and held their government there until 1867. Although Cinco de Mayo has become more of a U.S. holiday, that doesn’t reduce the significance of celebrating our neighbor to the South, or the many Mexican-Americans that reside all over the United States.

This Cinco de Mayo, try something new and celebrate the culture and rich history of Oaxaca, Mexico! I’m always a fan of food, especially because I believe food is a great look into the traditions and history of a place. Authentic Mexican cuisine is the result of Aztec, Mayan, and Spanish influences with sub-tropical ingredients like chili peppers, chocolate, jicama, and guava. Oaxaca itself is famous for its mole sauce, which is thick, sharp, sweet, with notes of smoke, sometimes clove and citrus, and always with heat from dried chiles. Oaxaca’s mole comes in at least seven basic varieties including negro, amarillo, almendrado, verde, coloradito, rojo, chichilo negro, and Manchamanteles.

Aside from its extraordinary food and mole sauce, Oaxaca has 16 formally registered indigenous communities and more speakers of indigenous languages than anywhere else in Mexico. Although we at Plant With Purpose often stress the help that Oaxaca

desperately needs, which is true, we can also celebrate Oaxaca’s rich diversity and traditions. We’ve been excited to witness community members in many of the villages where we work translate stories and prayers into their Mixteco language as well as teaching their children Mixteco oral traditions and folklore. Plant With Purpose empowers Oaxacan communities to not only restore their land and overcome poverty, but also to preserve their culture, enrich their communities, and build a better future for their children.

Although facing many problems, Oaxaca is an interesting and complex state with a fascinating story to share. So this Cinco de Mayo, put aside the margarita for a moment, and truly learn about our neighbor to the South.

Oaxaca Wednesday: Food for Families

by Aly Lewis

For Oaxaca Wednesday I’d like to tell you about my favorite Plant With Purpose project: family gardens. Family gardens grab me from the get-go. I like families. I like gardens. What’s not to like?

What is a family garden?, you ask. Well, a family garden in the Plant With Purpose context is a small vegetable plot that families (usually women) garden in order to provide food for their families and income from the vegetables they sell. These gardens consist of vegetables, medicinal plants, fruit trees, nitrogen-fixing trees, and small animals such as chickens, sheep and rabbits.

For this project, Plant With Purpose teaches women how to create gardens that will diversify the family diet, better use the limited space available for growing food, and improve the fertility and production capacity of their plots. Our agronomist, Raul, conducts the training on topics such as composting and fertilizing, grafting, crop rotation, animal care, soil preparation, nitrogen-fixing plants, harvesting, and food storage. Plant With Purpose also partners with local health clinics, which have unmatched credibility in rural areas, to conduct nutrition seminars. Those topics include the importance of having a balanced diet and the nutritional value of vegetables.

Since the first family vegetable gardens were implemented in Oaxaca in 2002, hundreds of Mixteco families have benefited from the increased nutrition of a more varied diet. Four hundred and fifty-four family gardens have been established to date, producing a wide variety of vegetables supplemented by proteins from meats.

This all sounds well and good—because it is—but I didn’t understand the radical impact of this project until I visited Oaxaca and saw for myself what a difference they’re making in the lives of the farmers and their families. Without family gardens, most farmers only grow corn and beans, meaning they’ll only have corn and beans to eat unless they produce enough to sell extra. If that doesn’t sound unvaried enough, last year a drought caused farmers’ corn and bean crops to fail—dead cornstalks haunted the steep hillsides—and the price of corn and beans skyrocketed. Farmers didn’t grow enough to eat or sell and they couldn’t even afford to buy their staple crops. Even before the drought, doctors estimated that as many as 90% of Mixteco children younger than 5 years old suffer from malnutrition. The devastating effects of malnutrition include stunted physical growth, arrested brain development, and inability of the body’s immune system to effectively combat disease.

But there is hope. Plant With Purpose’s family garden projects make a huge difference in the lives of these children who would otherwise only have corn and beans to eat. To combat drought, Plant With Purpose works with families to construct cisterns to collect and store rainwater during the rainy season so that there is water available to nourish the plots and ensure vegetables—and improved nutrition—year round!

So there you have it, my favorite Plant With Purpose project. Families. Gardens. Improved nutrition. Better lives. What’s not to like?

To donate toward family gardens and help a family improve their nutrition and quality of life, Click here.

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Aly Lewis is Plant With Purpose’s Grant Writer. She researches funding opportunities, writes proposals, and submits progress reports on funding received. She also writes the content for Plant With Purpose's Sponsor A Village program.

Oaxaca Wednesday: A Knack for Knitting

by Aly Lewis

I used to love to watch my grandmother knit. “Knit one, pearl two…knit, pearl, pearl,” she’d murmur, as the needles quickly clicked together. A few years ago I attempted to knit my mom a scarf for Christmas, but absent my grandmother’s expertise and guidance, the red yarn refused to weave itself into a stylish, neck-warming accessory without a fight. To my horror, the scarf continued to grow widthwise at the same rate as it grew lengthwise. I think I unraveled and reknit that scarf at least ten times. Trust me, knitting is a skill.

On my recent visit to Plant With Purpose’s programs in Oaxaca, Mexico I saw something even more impressive than knitting—knitting not with yarn, but with pine needles. Pine needles knitted into baskets! Those things aren’t even pliable!

In 2003, in the village of El Oro, a women’s credit group, eager to take on a new entrepreneurial project, was taught how to make baskets from pine needles gathered in the local forests. They sell these amazing baskets at the local market to supplement their income and provide for their families. Since the first group in El Oro, Plant With Purpose has joined with many other women’s groups to teach them the craft of basket making, along with other handicrafts.

When visiting the village of San Isidro Trementina, I learned from a woman named Feliciana—a member of the women’s handicraft group—that, indeed, the pine needles aren’t pliable until they’ve been boiled for two hours. And the boiling comes after the needles are dried in the shade to keep their green color. The baskets take two full days to make or can be completed over the course of a week.

More than just the explanation, I got to see Feliciana in action. She quickly and masterfully spun a bundle of pine needles around a small button-like object to get the basket started. Then she threaded and shaped the needles, steadily adding additional needles as she went—like knitting, or French braiding, and the sturdy bottom of a basket began to appear before our eyes. Not quite underwater basket weaving, but impressive nonetheless.

The finished products are truly a sight to behold, and Feliciana is grateful for the opportunity to provide additional income for her family.

This year I would have bought my mom a pine needle basket for Christmas instead of clumsily knitting another scarf—but she came on the trip with me and bought a pine needle basket herself. I guess it’s back to the knitting needles for me.

The finished product--told you they're pretty impressive.

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Aly Lewis is Plant With Purpose’s Grant Writer. She researches funding opportunities, writes proposals, and submits progress reports on funding received. She also writes the content for Plant With Purpose's Sponsor A Village program.

Oaxaca Wednesday: No Small Tomatoes

by Aly Lewis

As the sun set over the hills of Rio Plaza, my world was about to be rocked—by a tomato greenhouse.

Earlier in the week our friend Godofredo of Llano de la Canoa showed us his family’s tomato greenhouse. I had been impressed with the size and production of the greenhouse; it produces almost 2,000 pounds of fresh, high quality tomatoes a year that Godofredo sells for a good price to his community. Little did I know Godofredo’s family business was small potatoes—or in this case, tomatoes—compared to what I was going to see.

The large, community-operated tomato greenhouse in Rio Plaza was huge. The tomatoes where suspended on vines, as if they were hanging from the ceiling, not growing up from the ground. I was reminded of a cornfield, but instead of rows and rows of corn, the place was sprawling with tomatoes. Lost in my own tomato admiring reverie, I couldn’t even hear—or see—the group talking on the other side of the building. It was that big.

We had been later than expected when we finally arrived in Rio Plaza, and almost everyone had left for home. Everyone except one patient farmer, Claudio. He patiently answered our questions, explaining that the plastic covering the mounds of soil is to keep the weeds out and the water in. When Graciela, one of our Oaxacan staff members, asked him how business had been, he responded with a simple “Try one” and a twinkle in his eye.

More striking than the massive scale of the greenhouse and the time and care and knowledge the abundant crop represents is the remarkable impact the greenhouse has on the community of Rio Plaza. Without a greenhouse they can’t even grow tomatoes in the chilly mountains of the Mixteca Alta. Most families grow—and eat—only corn, beans, and squash and malnutrition is a serious problem.

With PWP’s technical expertise and the community’s hard work, they are growing enough to supply the entire village with fresh, nutritious tomatoes year round. The greenhouse also brings in around $3,000 a year, providing a huge supplement to local income. With the added income, families can receive adequate nutrition, invest in other sustainable businesses, and even send their children to school.

Congratulations, Rio Plaza, you’ve put my Tomato Terror to shame.

Don Claudio smiles as he packs up tomatoes from the greenhouse.

The greenhouse in Rio Plaza, photo courtesy of David Overturf.

Top Right photo courtesy of Ruby Coria.

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Aly Lewis is Plant With Purpose’s Grant Writer. She researches funding opportunities, writes proposals, and submits progress reports on funding received. She also writes the content for Plant With Purpose's Sponsor A Village program.

Oaxaca Wednesday: Building a Better Life

by Aly Lewis

With Plant With Purposeʼs help, the people of Ojo de Agua are literally building a better life for themselves and their families. Community members have joined with Plant With Purpose to install a carpentry shop to manufacture furniture. Now, what on earth does a carpentry shop have to do with restoring the environment and lifting people out of poverty? A lot actually.

I recently had the opportunity to meet with an innovative group of five men—all related—who are now making diverse, quality pieces of furniture that they can sell in the community to supplement their income. With the goal of simultaneously providing vital income sources and decreasing the family’s environmental impact, Plant With Purpose provided eight weekly sessions of professional carpentry training to this hardworking family. The family contributed 40% to the cost of the

professional machinery, and it has been well worth the investment. Selling firewood or other types of unprocessed wood provides little return on investment, forcing farmers to cut more trees or undergo the harmful process of making charcoal to feed their families. A nice piece of furniture can be sold for $100—much more than the $8 for a bundle of charcoal.

Unlike the smoky haze, dirt, and grime of charcoal making,

the shop was clean and orderly, a safe, healthy place to practice a craft. For Edén Miguel López, the youngest of the relatives, the carpentry shop has been a dream come true. Edén beamed with pride and gratitude as he shared that he had “dreamed of becoming a carpenter since I was a little boy.”

Edén and his hardworking family is an inspiring example of the innovative ways people are teaming up with Plant With Purpose to utilize their resources and talents to transform their communities.

Edén and his family have also started an agroforestry farm with Plant With Purpose's help.

Eduardo, Plant With Purpose staff member, explains how the project provides vital jobs and quality wood products to the community. It was probably a good thing their newest armoire wouldn’t fit in my duffle bag…

Oaxaca from a different point of view

by Corbyn Small

Now I know it's not Oaxaca Wednesday yet, but since I also spent a week in Oaxaca a few weeks ago, I wanted to share with our faithful bloggers some of my reflections as Plant With Purpose's Outreach Coordinator.

On October 21^st, myself and some members of the PWP staff and about 10 individuals interested in learning what Plant With Purpose does internationally went to Oaxaca, Mexico for 5 days. This was my first trip out of the country as an employee of Plant With Purpose and it was everything I could have imagined and more. I had been sharing stories and testimonies with everybody that I met to get them excited about the transformational development taking place through PWP staff. However, everything I shared was second hand, either from reports, updates, or fellow staff, and all that I knew and shared was based on my trust in the 25 years of impeccable historical credibility that is Plant With Purpose today.

Well I am glad to be another source of encouragement to the rest of you as I say now that my experience was exactly what everyone said it would be. I saw the cisterns, latrines, chicken coops, and wood saving stoves. I met the families, students, rural farmers, and Plant With Purpose staff. It was all just as I had read and heard about! Hundreds of Plant With Purpose programs being implemented successfully by communities!

Over the course of our trip we visited communities in the mountainous Mixtec Alta region about a three hour van ride north of Oaxaca city. We intentionally started by visiting communities who have been working with Plant With Purpose for only 1-2 years. Then over the next 2 days we visited communities that had been participating in programs for 3-5 and 9-10 years. Plant With Purpose's overall strategy is to reach "transformational development" in 10-12 years. To explain very simply what this means, I want to share the differences between the 1st and 3rd day of our visits.

On the first day I saw many of the aforementioned projects, including cisterns and latrines. We

met many people who were happy to see our Plant With Purpose Mexico staff and each community hosted us most graciously. Throughout the day we received many thanks and blessings from community officials and leaders. On our second day we met a farmer named Claudio and his wife Milsa, whose current occupation was making charcoal. They were participating in Plant With Purpose programs and were very eager to be involved in anything else that PWP had to offer. On the third day we traveled to Loma Chimedia, a community who has been working with us for 10 years. Here we sat in a community center, which was planned and executed primarily by Loma Chimedia residents, and read timelines for the historical progress achieved by the community. We saw a vision statement that ultimately said their goal as a community was to work together to make it possible for their children to stay and not be forced to migrate.

I saw the difference between the first day, where there was more focus on individual projects that were being taught by PWP staff, to the second day where a family living in poverty was trying to transition from the harmful and difficult life of a charcoal maker to a more sustainable and healthy source of income, to the third day where a community of empowered local individuals was the driving force behind everything they did. Each of these communities were eager to participate, but it takes time and teamwork to create community change.

I saw our Mexico national staff coming alongside these individuals, each at different stages of their 'transformational development' and I saw the active engagement of community officials as there is a team effort to improve the quality of life for entire communities.

I loved seeing the expertise of our staff in every different capacity from teaching sustainable agriculture techniques like composting and agro-forestry to helping increase economic opportunity through women's craft groups and micro-credit groups. I could go on for days (and if you know me well enough I probably already have), but the main point is not that I went on a trip and had my whole world changed. The main point is that this trip took my faith and trust in Plant With Purpose and reinforced everything I have learned about transformational development and effectively restoring relationships between people, the land, and God.

As Plant With Purpose's Outreach Coordinator it is my job to reach out to students, volunteers, churches, and individuals with the goal of raising awareness, involvement, and funds. All of these increase our ability to continue service in the 220+ communities where Plant With Purpose works worldwide. I hope that you all are enjoying our blog and that you use it as a resource to learn and share what is being done in so many lives all around the world.

Make sure you don't miss Oaxaca Wednesday when Aly, Plant With Purpose's grant writer, dives into details about our programs in Mexico!

Oaxaca Wednesday: Firsthand Ripple Reporting

by Aly Lewis

I’d like to take this Oaxaca Wednesday to tell you about the time I became Buddy the Elf. It was mid-afternoon in the village of Monteflor in the Mixteca highlands of Oaxaca, Mexico. We were standing in a circle listening to the Plant With Purpose local staff introduce the town’s community leaders. I was in my own world, rapidly scribbling down every last quote and name and description of the place so that I would have an ample supply of writing material to use once I returned to my job of elaborating on Plant With Purpose’s programs from my pseudo-cubicle. I was just completing a page of Spanglish scrawl when a new community member was introduced: Senor Gumersindo.

My Buddy the Elf transformation was instantaneous as it took everything in my power to not jump up and down yelling heatedly, “I KNOW HIM! I KNOW HIM!”

Now I know Senor Gumercindo is no present-delivering, elf-befriending Santa Claus, but I sure did feel like it was Christmas morning. You see, a couple months ago for one of my Ripple Reports I wrote about this mysterious man named Senor Gumersindo who had introduced his neighbor to Plant With Purpose and subsequently transformed his life. I had received a few line testimony from the field mentioning Senor Gumersindo’s pivotal role, but that was it. I wrote the blog post and hardly gave him another thought. I never imagined I would get to meet him.

So back to my Elfish excitement. I couldn’t believe this modest man with his smoothed slack, pressed white shirt and backpack was the Senor Gumersindo I had written about. His identity was confirmed as Raul, our Family Garden and Greenhouse director, described him as “la voz de Misión Integral”—the voice of Plant With Purpose. Not only was he the man I had written about, he was even more influential in the Plant With Purpose story than I had imagined.

After the introductions ended and we began touring the village, I pounced on the opportunity to learn more about my legendary Plant With Purpose promoter. At first Senor Gumersindo hung back shyly, but when I approached him and asked him about Plant With Purpose’s projects he wasn’t shy at all. It turns out Senor Gumersindo is from the village of La Muralla, a two hour walk from Monteflor. Plant With Purpose has been working in his community for a number of years and he told me about all the direct and indirect benefits of Plant With Purpose’s projects. He told me about his family garden that is producing amazing vegetables and how his cousin grew the biggest onion he had ever seen. He talked about the lack of economic opportunities in La Muralla and the ways community members are finding sustainable ways to conserve resources and make money. As he explained the details and benefits of an ecological latrine better than I ever could in a grant application I could see why Raul would coin him the voice of Plant With Purpose. He was genuinely beaming as he talked about Plant With Purpose’s expansion to the community of Monteflor (at his suggestion) and how the number of participating families has grown from six to 70 in the past year!

So thank you, Senor Gumersindo and all of the farmers I met who are spreading the word about Plant With Purpose’s transformational program and projects. It turns out the multiplier effect really is alive and well in our Mexico program (and I can rest assured that my whole career hasn’t been a lie). Farmers really are sharing the knowledge they learn with their friends and neighbors. They’re multiplying the scope and depth of our work and encouraging others to do so as well. This is just one of many examples of Plant With Purpose’s ripple effect that is fostering long-term transformation in communities around the globe.

I’ll eat some candy corn to that!

Oaxaca Wednesday: Envisioning a Better Future

by Aly Lewis

Makeshift houses carved into steep banks, corn tortillas sizzling on the grill, Mixteco faces staring back at me. If I didn’t know any better I would have thought I was back in Oaxaca. But I wasn’t. I was at photo exhibit at the Institute of the Americas at UCSD. The exhibit by David Bacon was meant to highlight Indigenous Mexican Farmworkers in California and I expected to see a few familiar Mixteco faces, but I was surprised to see that almost all of the migrant workers in the vibrant photo exhibit were Mixtecos from the highlands of Oaxaca. I often write that Oaxaca has the highest emigration rate of any Mexican state, but it hasn’t really meant anything to me personally until now.

Just over a week ago I sat in a half-finished concrete brick building in the community of Loma Chimedia. Our motley crew of Plant With Purpose USA staff, Oaxacan staff, and various Plant With Purpose supporters who joined us on the vision trip sat in awe and rapture (and slight nausea as a few of us had gotten sick) while a Mixteco man talked about his cultural heritage. A member of the Loma Chimedia community group (Xe’e Xiki in Mixteco), Don Alier, shared with us about his community’s values and vision for the future.

The group originally formed over 20 years ago, Don Alier explained, but things really began to change when they first teamed up with Plant With Purpose to establish a tomato greenhouse and participate in reforestation projects in 2001. These initial projects sparked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration with Plant With Purpose that has literally transformed the very fiber of the community. Taped to the brick wall of the new community center’s conference room, was a timeline highlighting the group’s key milestones since 1989. Another sheet of paper reflected on their history and greatest accomplishments, which included closer access to water, learning ways to improve family health, nutrition, and income, improving community relationships (especially among women), learning to construct cisterns, ecological latrines, wells, wood saving stoves, and drip irrigation systems, producing tomatoes in greenhouses, and gaining capacity that they didn’t have before.

But that’s not all. In addition to reflecting on how far they’ve come, the group has big dreams for the future. The entire community—men, women, and children—came together to create a vision statement. Their vision is to be a transformed, organized, self-managed group working to improve their quality of life in social, spiritual, and economic aspects, instilling values in their children and the young people of the community so they don’t emigrate. Wow.

I was blown away by their clarity of vision. I was blown away by their confidence in themselves and their abilities. I was blown away by the pride they take in their culture and in their accomplishments. And the best part is, they’re really making it happen. They have been successful in implementing community projects that have restored relationships, improved quality of life, and increased their self-sufficiency—so they aren't forced to leave their village looking for hope and opportunity elsewhere.

And if the posters and presentation weren’t enough to make me green with envy for their community spirit and pride, they began to tell us about the ways they’re preserving, protecting, and enriching their culture. How they’re translating stories and prayers and even the New Testament into their Mixteco language. How Don Alier was the voice of John the Baptist in the Mixteco dubbed “Jesus Film.” How they’re teaching their children Mixteco and carrying on their oral traditions and folklore. And then—by far one of the highlights of the trip and possibly one of the highlights of all of my travel experiences—Don Alier sang us the Mixteco national anthem in his native language. His rich voice resounded throughout the room and I even forgot that I had been feeling sick as he proudly sang. He told us it was a song of homesickness and longing for their native land. It was beautiful. When he finished singing the song in Mixteco, the entire room joined in for the Spanish version—a musical testimony of their dedication and commitment to their culture, their people, and their land.

So when I saw familiar Mixteco faces peering back at me at the UCSD farmworker photo exhibit last week, I was struck by their misplacement and displacement. It’s tough to fathom how difficult and hopeless life must be for Mixtecos to leave their homes and families in search of a better life in Northern Mexico, the United States, or right up the road from us in Del Mar, California. But I’m encouraged by the hope and courage of the people of Loma Chimedia and how they’re joining together to make their community a place where young people want to stay, and, more importantly, a place where young people can stay and survive and even flourish.

I’m proud to be a part of an organization that is coming alongside communities like Loma Chimedia to preserve their culture, enrich their communities, and build a better future for their children.