Thank you for visiting this fundraising page! This campaign seeks to support programs sponsored by CEDI/Universidad de la Tierra in Oaxaca, Mexico during this turbulent time.
The money donated here will support the following initiatives in the city of Oaxaca:
1) Broadening information dissemination through public media outlets
The first casualty in this upheaval has been the flow of information. Oaxacans are living in the midst of all types of rumors and there is no reliable source of news or understanding of what is going on. Everything disseminated by the media is very biased and untrustworthy.
Through this program we plan to produce:
A daily electronic bulletin, with brief notes at 6pm every afternoon, a full report at 6am every morning. We will be reporting plain facts with no interpretation or qualification. We have access to the pertinent sources and will have a full team collecting and reporting the news. This bulletin will soon become the best possible source of information for both the people and other media.
A series of interviews with ordinary men and women - both those participating in the movement and those rejecting it. We want to allow all voices to be heard. We already have hundreds of hours of tapes covering the stories of those who have been involved in the struggles of the recent months. We need to qualify each of them, edit a selection and add new voices to the mix.
A weekly printed bulletin (with an electronic version) with three sections: A synthesis of the events of the week, based on the daily bulletins; the story of the movement, the voices of the actors - ordinary men and women, not necessarily "leaders" from our interviews; short articles with different perspectives on the process.
Video documentaries based on the current collection of footage that we have and additional interviews taped in the coming months.
2) Children's Programs
The children in our country have been exposed to very intense social confrontation and increasing polarization. The presidential campaign in Mexico was based on propaganda generating hate and fear. In Oaxaca, they have been involved in a very open struggle expressing frustration, rage, hate, even desperation. They hear it at home, on TV, in the streets, everywhere there are variants of such confrontation. For four months they have been without school and exposed to all kinds of tensions. The number of domestic incidents has clearly increased. It is increasingly difficult for the parents to appropriately deal with the situation.
Because of these challenges we are proposing the following programs for children:
A daily program for children. We would like to present an hour-long program with music, stories, contests and a careful selection of messages and information to facilitate the understanding and processing of the situation. The person who will be directing this program has produced a very successful radio program for children over the course of the last 20 years.
Artistic contests to facilitate ways for the children to express their feelings about the situation.
"Educational" excursions/camps to be able to discuss with the children in small groups, the current situation.
Thank you for taking the time to read about our proposed programs and we hope you will be able to offer us a donation at this time.
For more information on the situation in Oaxaca in English, check the following websites:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/426/1/
http://www.traditionsmexico.com/wr2_safe.htm
and if you are a Spanish speaker check into the following websites:
http://www.oaxacalibre.org/libertad/
http://mexico.indymedia.org/oaxaca
Donating through this website is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to support these fundraising efforts.
Many thanks for your support -- and don't forget to forward this to anyone who you think might want to donate too!