Just like the life cycle of a flower, the life cycle of a woman is a journey of growth, transformation, and blooming.
This year’s annual campaign is an invitation to invest in the soil and watter that support women’s journey, and to see them bloom to create more opportunities for them and their communities.
…yet, their access is limited. This situation is more critical for women living in underserved communities where gender inequality is deeply entrenched.
In Oaxaca the growth of a woman, in education, economic autonomy, and community leadership, has a multiplier effect that transcends the individual, as it profoundly impacts her family and community.
From coffee growers sowing hope to recyclers caring for the future, we see women as entrepreneurs creating opportunities and using savings to make their aims a reality. This year’s annual campaign is an invitation to support and accompany their development. With your help, we can multiply the impact of your donation, ensuring project continuity and sustainability while including more women in their growth.
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When women grow, opportunities bloom because, with skills and resources, they recognize themselves as capable of step into positions of power, they create more opportunities not only for themselves but for everyone around them.
Help us multiply the reach of every donation: plant a seed that grows dreams and harvests futures.
The Mixteca and Sierra Sur regions, with 10 of the 12 poorest municipalities in the state, are characterized by high marginalization, low human development indexes (4th and 2nd regions with the highest population living in poverty, respectively).
Poverty is intensified by remoteness from the state capital. Accessing vital services, benefits or social programs becomes extremely difficult when a 200 km driving distance can easily turn into a 6-hour commute across rural and mountainous terrain.
Given these travel difficulties, high related costs, and women’s given essential roles in family care and mandatory commuity service, traveling to Oaxaca for training or project participation is virtually imposible.
To address this, our teams go on the road, directly saving the physical and symbolic distance between women and their dreams.
Despite their central role in the community development, women’s rights, especially land rights, remain restricted, hindered by discrimination and limited participation in communal assemblies.
Traditionally, indigenous political systems (Usos y Costumbres) have played a predominant role in the designation of local authorities. However, with the consolidation of the political party system and the implementation of electoral reforms, there has been a transition towards a more institutionalized model, yet tensions persist between the traditional and the modern. Even though progress has been made in terms of inclusion, women and young people continue to face obstacles in gaining access to elected office.
The Oaxaca Women’s Secretariat highlighted the attention given to 54 cases of gender-based political violence (43 in 2023, and 11 so far in 2024), which were mainly concentrated in the Central Valleys, the Coast and, particularly, in the Mixteca. It is worrying to note that the victims, mostly female councilors, have suffered violence at the hands of their own colleagues in the City Council.
Agriculture remains rooted in tradition and food sovereignty, yet it faces growing challenges such as climate change, limited access to resources, and the lack of agroecological practices that could make cultivation more resilient.
Both regions are characterized by a rich diversity of ecosystems that offer favorable conditions for the production of high-quality coffee. The rugged topography, fertile soils and humid temperate climate, with significant altitudinal variations, create a mosaic of microclimates ideal for the cultivation of coffee. However, these regions also face environmental challenges such as deforestation, soil erosion and especially climate change, which affect the sustainability of production and local biodiversity.
In 2023, Hurricane Agatha had a devastating impact on the region’s forests and coffee farms, especially in municipalities such as Pluma Hidalgo in the Sierra Sur regions. This situation, aggravated by the effects of climate change, caused a dramatic drop in production, reducing the harvest by 90% in some areas.
We are providing our expertise in sustainability, agroecology, and entrepreneurship to help growers adapt, recover coffee production, and rebuild a more resilient future.
In the Mixteca region of Oaxaca, family economies and women’s rights are deeply intertwined within a context where subsistence agriculture coexists with migration. Here, the land sustains not only livelihoods but also culture and identity.
In many communities, family economies are dual: while men migrate in search of income, women shoulder a double workload, managing both the home and the fields and often engaging in trade or other small-scale economic activities.
Their main activity is home care work, but they are also largely engaged in agriculture, particular in coffee production, cleaning plots of land, and some have micro businesses (selling food, desserts, and catalog sales).
Their knowledge of agriculture is extensive; however, they have little or no access to professional training in entrepreneurship, agroecological and commercial production techniques.
Through Women of Coffee Project, SiKanda supports women farmers in improving their income, accessing fairer markets, and achieving greater autonomy.
Faced with economic, community, and climate challenges, women have stepped up, breaking into a traditionally male-dominated market and taking on the generational role to lead the family business in new territories.
Approximately 80% of women living in coffee growing areas in Mexico have limited education, which influences their business management and economic planning.
Through a set of strategic actions, Women of Coffee seeks to:
85% of the participating women report feeling confident in making decisions for the sustainability of their businesses and family economy linked to coffee production.
At least 50% of the participating women report an increase in their average monthly income as a result of implementing what they learned in the training and an improvement in marketing strategies.
Meanwhile, Puente implements the MARES Project Women Saving in Solidarity, where participants gain access to financial skills and learn collective savings strategies that help improve their families’ nutrition, stability, and well-being.
Through the savings groups, women unlock their potential, overcome the barriers imposed by traditional gender roles, and strengthen their economic and social participation—both within and beyond their communities.
In MARES, women exercise full autonomy and leadership, collectively managing finances, from setting share prices (max savings amount per session) and loan rates to safeguarding funds.
This self-governed microcredit system enables them to invest in vital projects, creating a cycle of solidarity that multiplies their agency and economic capacity.
Women build deep bonds of trust and sisterhood, discovering untapped strengths and skills within themselves.
Feeling more confident and valued at home and in their communities, most participants begin to acknowledge themselves as providers and decision-makers, directly contributing to the diversification of family income.
In fact, 9% of participants have sucessfully created or strengthened their micro-enterprises usingtheir savings.
Through the project’s dynamic roles, women learn to lead, communicate, and take responsibility. This experience has encouraged many to see themselves as leaders and changemakers, mobilizing their communities to advocate for improvements in education and health services.
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Saving and income
In MARES, women become shareholders by purchasing shares whose value is defined by the group itself. Members can buy up to five shares per session, fostering both flexibility and inclusion. Autonomously, each group decides the price of each share and the interest rate to be paid for the microcredits. Participants share the responsibility for safeguarding the community’s cash safe-box.
The microcredit system, allows women to invest in small projects that improve their quality of life, while the interest generated is reinvested in the group, circulating solidarity and autonomy.
Through regular meetings, the women have begun to build deep bonds of trust and sisterhood, discovering strengths and skills they hadn’t recognized before.
Many participants share that joining MARES has helped them feel more confident and valued—both at home and in their communities.
The combination of dialogue, mutual support, and daily saving has also strengthened the recognition of women as providers and decision-makers, contributing to the diversification of family income.
Currently, 9% of participants have created or strengthened their micro-enterprises through their savings.
By taking on different roles within their groups, women learn to lead, communicate, and take responsibility, both individually and collectively.
This experience has encouraged many to see themselves as leaders and changemakers, expanding their participation and influence in community spaces.
Every woman is a unique story of awakening, strength, and success:
“My father was a coffee farmer and we used to harvest coffee with him from a young age. It has been very meaningful to return to this work because our coffee doesn’t grow anywhere else in the country. The production is challenging and poorly paid because we have no place to sell or distribute. I liked the SiKanda project because it helped me discover what I want and how to achieve it. At the personal level, it has helped me a lot. It’s a motivation to value what we have in our community.”
“Thank you so much for supporting women coffee farmers… the workshops helped us learn how to establish a fair price for our products. Thank you for the workshops, they help us a lot.”
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