We’ve talked a lot about CEMIK, a bit about ACEFOMI, and celebrating the completion of a community Center in Chajul. If you haven’t been with us through the whole journey (or if you just need a refresher), you might be aware that we are supporting women empowerment and the education of impoverished kids but otherwise wondering “What exactly is this all about and how is it all connected?”
You can look at CEMIK as a branch of ACEFOMI. ACEFOMI is a certified women’s NGO in Guatemala, and they are a group that Mundo has been partnering with and supporting since our inception in 2006 (but our director Dr Joan Williams was partnering with them since 1996, 10 years before Mundo began!).
The women of ACEFOMI hold educational workshops to promote community development, give safe spaces for women to meet and become empowered, and created and currently run CEMIK, a tuition-free school that allows Maya Ixil children aged 3 – 12 years old to attend school who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford tuition. Our recently completed community Center provides the community and ACEFOMI with the space to hold these workshops and lectures, and it has finally given the students of CEMIK a permanent classroom space.
The educaitonal model of CEMIK is based on Paolo Friere’s popular education theory of teaching meaningful education to adults and children, teaching them how they are shaped and defined by their environment and challenging them to become agents of meaninful change in their communities.
Every year there are around 60 students attending school at CEMIK – learning literary skills in both Ixil and Spanish, as well as learning about their ruch Maya heritage, their indigenous rights, what happened during the 36+ years of violence in their community, the importance of caring for the land, natural medicine, edible plants, and the importance of respecting ones elders and families. The school has been active since the early 90’s and many of the children who began their education here have gone on to be leaders within the Chajulense community.
The Center acts as a space for CEMIK’s classroom, a place for women to gather together to discuss important issues in their community, a “safe house” for those in domestic crisis, and a model for entreprenurial and agricultural endeavors.