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Mexico

Niño a Niño, Mexico (Oaxaca)
Address: Privada de Rancho Escondido No.5, INDECO, Santa Cruz Xoxocotlan, Oaxaca
Tel: +52 (9) 5474622 Fax +52 (9) 5144505
E-mail: ninoaninomex@hotmail.com
Contact: Alejandra Esperon Gutierrez (President)
Carlos Faustino Perez Cruz (Director)

Organisation

Child-to-Child activities began in February 1990 and continue vigorously. The activities are implemented via a training team and a local voluntary organisation. Funding for the activities is provided by various organisations, including annual funding provided by Neighbours Abroad, Sister City Programme and the Maryknoll Fund for Sisters. Small-scale funding is continually sought and received. The programme reports:

“The contexts we work in are sub-urban (colonias on the outskirts of the city) and rural. Approximately 500 children and 40 adults are involved in the programme. The children are aged from 5 to 15 years and zapoteca, mixe and huaves ethnic groups are represented. The participating children are from marginalised situations. The adult workers are health workers, social workers and community development workers.

The Child-to-Child Activities

“We work to benefit children who live in marginal (economically poor and excluded) and indigenous communities of Oaxaca. We aim to educate these children in the area of preventative health and empower them to be agents of change in their communities. Gender is an issue in our communities, as the sexes traditionally tend to live separately. We emphasise that girls and boys can all do the kinds of activities outside of the traditional stereotypes.

Child-to-Child (Niño a Niño) activities are introduced through weekend activities coordinated by community guides. We attempt to let all our themes arise from within the group of children. Often through the context of games, we try to encourage the children to work together to find solutions to the problem, and to determine the course of the action needed. We use the Child-to-Child process, but use four steps rather than the alternative of six: Recognise; Analyse; Act; Evaluate. The Niño a Niño methodology, revolutionary in the Mexican traditional system, includes different child-centred teaching techniques such as games, songs, skits, storytelling, drawings, and puppetry to invite the participant, be they children, parents or guides, to think critically and creatively about their environment and to decide how they can participate in changing that which is detrimentally affecting them.

The activities of Niño a Niño encourage the children to work on the problems at home and often require the parents' help. When the theme involves some family problem, all the family can participate in the action to solve the problem. If the parents need some information on the topic, we prepare and present appropriate workshops for them.”

Monitoring and Evaluation of Child-to-Child Activities

“We monitor and evaluate on three levels:

1. Observation of the accomplishments of workshops, children's encounter groups, and visits to the communities;

2. The children do an analysis at the start of a project and again at the completion, to see what changes have been brought about through the work of their project;

3. On the organisational level, the guides do two evaluations each year – to see what problems have been resolved and what adjustments need to be made in their work. As a result of our programme, there have been a number of changes:

1. In a particular mountain area, the Sierra Juarez, women with children are now working as Niño a Niño guides, where formerly women never worked outside of the home.

2. We are seeing integrated groups of boys and girls, where formerly this was not part of the culture;

3. Niño a Niño groups often have volunteers taking part in the work, whereas in the past no one worked unless it was for gain;

4. Parents are allowing their children to go to the groups, away from their families, something that was never permitted before, showing a new confidence in the guides; 5. Children are taking part in activities integrated with children of other communities, which also points to more openness than in the past;

6. Children have new knowledge, and are often initiating the topics for the projects themselves.”

Training

Training is provided for: The volunteer community guides; the regional coordinators, who provide follow-up to the guides; parents. Training is focused on a methodology which is participatory, fun, and in which themes originate from the children's experience.

Use, Adaptation, Translation and Production of Child-to-Child Materials

“We use the guide materials as a point of departure. The booklets for the guides are based on various topics, such as methodology, family gardens, diseases of the mouth, and food preparation (for the mothers). We have adapted materials to suit our particular needs here. For example, we use only one subject a year with each group. Also, we have had to adapt the language considerably. The Spanish language of the materials is city language; we find that many words must be changed and sometimes explained, since we are dealing with rural village people who in many cases speak an indigenous language as their mother tongue. Often what is suggested in the guide books is in reality a whole process here: for example, the suggestion that the child talk with the adults. That is happening little by little here, as a complete change in a culture where adults and children did not talk with each other.”

Date: 2000. Updated information awaited.
Source: CtC Website Directory 2000