Programs
Comunidad’s goal is simple: to improve the lives and living conditions of the Nativos of northern Mexico. We accomplish these goals through our core programs: Salud (Health), which supplements the basic health care available to the indigenous communities with programs that focus on health education, disease diagnosis and prevention, and inoculation; Escuela a Escuela (School to School), which provide scholarships, school upgrades and cultural exchanges; and Infrastructure, which focuses on water supplies, sanitation and heating systems, and economic self-sufficiency.
Salud (Health)
Health education and prevention are at the foundation of Comunidad’s Salud programs. Our goal is to educate the children and adults of the tribal communities in the areas critical to their particular health needs. We also offer periodic medical service trips and bi-monthly dental clinics through a partnership with the One Thousand Smiles Clinic in Ensenada. Because quality and continuity of care are critical, we document our work in both pre- and post-studies and in medical and dental charts for each patient. Our philosophy of ’symptom to source’ translates into treating severe cases first, looking at contributing infrastructure factors, such as contaminated water systems, and working with local authorities and the tribes to address them. The focus of our medical services is as follows:
- Medical:
- Education to encourage healthy lifestyles and prevent chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension
- Clinics on women’s health care, drug abuse, neonatal care and basic dental hygiene
- Screening to identify those with chronic diseases and track their progress
- Supplemental services (tools and supplies) to manage these diseases
- Specialist treatment for acute cases
- Dental:
- Preventive care and education
- Screening (X-rays)
- Basic treatment and restorative care
For more information about the Salud Program, Please contact Comunidad’s Director of Medical Services via our contact page.
Escuela a Escuela (School to School)
Comunidad’s Escuela a Escuela program is an educational outreach effort that establishes relationships between tribal and Bay Area schools. Comunidad works with each sponsoring Bay Area school to select a tribe to support and identify specific needs of the tribal school. Then the sponsoring school decides how best to interact with the tribal school community.
There are three ways to become involved with Escuela a Escuela:
- Beca: This is a scholarship program which helps the families of tribal children pay the additional expenses of their schooling. The government is required to provide K-6 education within the community, but Middle School (Secondario) and High School (Preparatorio) are not provided and are often located far from the tribal communities. Nativo families must pay tuition expenses and buy school supplies as well. If they don’t receive help with these expenses, they are often unable to continue with their education and begin working in the nearby factories and fields at the age of 12.Comunidad is committed to providing all tribal children who have the desire to finish school with the financial support to meet their educational goals. Costs for Prepatorio are $200/year; Secondario and Universidad cost $300 per year. Sponsoring schools or families receive a letter and picture from each child they sponsor.
- School upgrades: The school facilities of the tribal settlements are often in dismal condition. Children attend classes in rooms with no heat in the winter, broken windows, poor lighting, leaking roofs, and insufficient supplies. Most schools cannot provide functioning restrooms; often the only restroom available is an outhouse.Comunidad’s goal is to repair and upgrade school buildings to improve the learning environment for tribal children. Bay Area schools and individual donors can help this effort through monetary and in-kind contributions for construction materials, or by volunteering construction expertise on building projects. Comunidad will provide the construction expertise and materials while each tribe provides volunteer workers to help with the labor.
- Cultural exchange: Bay Area schools can enhance their social studies, foreign language, and community involvement curricula by establishing a cultural exchange program with a tribal school. This exchange might include trading letters or videos with tribal classrooms; conducting fundraising programs to supplement tribal educational materials and classroom equipment; participating in school upgrade trips to Baja; promoting tribal arts and crafts at school fairs; exchanging Spanish-English language materials; or setting up an Internet cultural exchange project.Comunidad’s goal is to promote global awareness and community involvement in Bay Area school children while expanding the educational horizons of their tribal counterparts. Escuela a Escuela gives each sponsoring school the flexibility to design a cultural exchange program that fulfills all of these needs.
Specific sponsorship opportunities for Escuela a Escuela can be found on the Comunidad Services Grid. For more information about the Escuela a Escuela program, please contact Comunidad’s Director of Escuela a Escuela, Pamela Pearson, at ppearson@bajacomunidad.com.
Improving the Infrastructure
At Comunidad, our interpretation of ‘community’ extends to the limited infrastructure that hampers the well-being and future of the Nativos, especially the children. It could be the lack of potable water that causes repeated illness in children. Or the absence of medical and dental databases, including health and dental records for each patient. Or the lack of a ’secondario’ program that forces children into the fields and factories at the age of 12. When we encounter these problems, we dedicate a medical or facilities team to determine the most cost-effective and lasting solution to the issue. We then collaborate with local agencies and organizations with expertise in these areas to address them, using as much tribal labor as possible in the process.