Microcredit and Food Sovereignty in Veracruz

At the end of January, I visited Self-Managed Development (AUGE) in Veracruz, Mexico. Over the past 14 years, the Coffee Kids/AUGE partnership has promoted personal entrepreneurship through a microcredit and savings project called Groups of Women Saving in Solidarity (GMAS). Check out photos from my trip at our Flickr page.

My first stop on the trip was in Teocelo, where AUGE’s headquarters are located. I stayed at the educational center that AUGE built with Coffee Kids’ support in 2005. It’s a great place to visit because there are a lot of young people coming and going. They participate in many projects, from radio broadcasting, to food sovereignty courses, to leadership training. Families also come to visit the traditional doctor who has an office here.

The main goal of my visit was to work with AUGE on a strategic plan to help maximize the effective use of resources for the following years. AUGE has extensive experience in grassroots projects that help hundreds of families and their spirit of solidarity motivates them to make decisions that best serve the region.

For an entire day, I met with representatives from the different departments and groups that make up AUGE to identify key areas where funding could be directed in the short and medium term to help them become more effective.

At the end of the day, AUGE’s director Norma Alcántara mentioned, “It was a long day, but I know that the time we are taking now to plan things is going to be worth it in the long-term. The time that we use to plan is going to help us avoid many problems in the future”.

The next day we visited to the municipality of Ixhuacán de los Reyes and the town of Ixhuatlán del Café to meet with women participating in the GMAS project.

The women I met told me that life in coffee regions is difficult because they are dependent on the coffee harvest and it’s not enough. But many of them pointed out that they have fewer worries thanks to the savings and the possibility of borrowing money in time of need. In a region where banks charge extremely high interest rates, savings groups are a great help for these families.

“I have participated in microcredit and saving groups with AUGE for four years. I use my savings to help my two sons who are attending high school,” said Yolanda Vázquez Colorado, a 54-year old mother from the village of Cetlalpa.

The way the women use their savings and loans varies from town to town. Many use it to create or improve small businesses, but some borrow money to pay for hospital visits or funeral costs. Without the support from the saving groups these women could rarely afford to pay such expenses. In times of need, access to money at a fair interest rate is a great help.

In the past two years, AUGE has also developed a comprehensive food sovereignty project. Food sovereignty differs greatly from food security, the more common term used in development circles.

Whereas food security is concerned with ensuring access to food to all people, food sovereignty takes it one step further and considers where the food originates. By promoting local systems of production and healthy choices, communities can become more independent and less reliant on international aid or cheap imported goods.

In this project, AUGE provides training in nutrition, herbal medicines, and organic family gardens, and promotes local, natural foods instead of nutrient-deficient processed foods. Using a combination of radio broadcasts and workshops, AUGE reaches thousands in the state of Veracruz. Many of the women in GMAS groups also have joined the food sovereignty project.

“I am already part of a savings group and it has helped me a lot, but I really like the food sovereignty project because I learn to grow my own food and now I know where my food comes from,” Vázquez said. “Many women in my group want to do this project because it is healthier for our families and we can save money by producing our own food.”

In a region where coffee often seems to be the only option for income, women and their families here are finding avenues to improve their quality of life based on trust and solidarity.

Check out photos from my trip at our Flickr page. And learn more about AUGE’s work here.