Overview 

Mexico’s poverty is concentrated in its rural villages, where there are so few jobs, the only hope to get ahead is to migrate to the U.S. and send money home. The Hunger Project is sparking the creation of a very different future: economically vibrant rural communities that express Mexico’s rich cultural heritage. We do this through 10 priority actions.

  1. Village clusters. Individual villages are too small to have meaningful economic or political power. We create clusters of villages to work together.
  2. Vision, Commitment and Action Workshops (VCAWs). Social mobilization begins with a one-day workshop in which each community creates its own vision, commits to achieve it, and launches campaigns of voluntary action.
  3. A critical mass of volunteer animators within each village cluster. Dynamic volunteers emerge from each VCAW, and are trained to be catalysts for local development activities.
  4. Transforming the way local government works. Through meetings and trainings, previously isolated government employees come together as a unified team to work in partnership with the people to achieve local priorities.
  5. State-level networks of trainers. There are many effective trainers within Mexico’s governmental and nongovernmental agencies, whom we train to deliver our programs.
  6. Participatory rural appraisal. Once the catalysts are organized and government functionaries are aligned, everyone works together to survey local resources and strengths that can be built upon for a better future.
  7. Community development plan. Mexico has a unique system: elected officials can serve only one term, which makes long-term planning almost impossible. We empower communities to develop a plan that is owned by the people, who then elect people to help them achieve it.
  8. Registered women’s enterprises. A top priority in rural communities is for women to establish their own businesses and overcome the bureaucratic red tape to register them, so they can obtain resources and legally sell goods.
  9. Reporting progress. We need to make it undeniable that empowerment is the way to go. This means documenting our impact.
  10. Alliances for advocacy. The Hunger Project works with partner agencies to ensure that the voices of the people are heard at higher levels, bureaucratic logjams are removed, and people have access to resources that are rightfully theirs.

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