Third Regional Forum Unites Over 200 Indigenous Leaders with Civil Society and Government

On March 24, PSYDEH and women partners produced the third in a series of regional meetings to unite the Region’s women around shared challenges.

This Forum, produced with funding by global citizens via our US-based Global Giving “Fruits of Change” crowdfunding campaign and the Mexican federal Instituto Nacional Electoral (INE), was hosted by the newly installed local government of Tenango de Doria.

In line with the 1st and 2nd Forums, our March 24 event empowered indigenous women to:

• LEARN from national and regional women leaders on why and how they can participate in Mexico’s democracy,

• PRESENT their own development agenda defining local problems and their ideas for solutions to local government leaders, and

• PROMOTE their growing network of indigenous women-led NGOs who use their development agenda as the basis for their own projects to solve local problems.

In all, the Forum brought together regional indigenous citizens and friends from three countries–Mexico, Canada and the United States–and throughout the Republic and the Region, including 200 indigenous leaders from 23 communities in the Otomí-Tepehua, Hidalgo region (184 women and 19 men) and 9 leaders from five Mexican states, including el Distrito Federal (Mexico City). In addition, we linked these citizens with twelve Mexican NGOs, including the 6 NGOs led by our indigenous women partners. As important, the event served as bridge between these citizens and NGOs and officials who run local government and represent federal institutions.