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page last updated 12-12-2013
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About IF
IF is a nonprofit humanitarian, educational and social change organization located in the Santa Cruz, CA, area. We are a community of friends seeking hopeful alternatives to the violence, greed and destructiveness of our world. more about IF's history and mission
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IF Fiscal Sponsorships
IF offers Fiscal Sponsorships to qualified groups to facilitate their fundraising.
more information about Fiscal Sponsorships |
Information on some of IF's supported projects
Supporting Active Nonviolence in Mexico:
On the Frontlines with Pietro Ameglio
IF is raising funds to support the crucial work of Pietro Ameglio, who for decades has promoted active nonviolence in Mexico and across Latin America. An activist, popular educator, university lecturer, and author, Pietro is a co-founder and leader of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD) that emerged in 2011 to challenge drug-war violence, increasing militarization, and human rights violations in Mexico. His nonviolence education programs are in constant demand across Mexico, and he has helped organize and lead numerous nonviolent direct action campaigns.
He is a co-founder (1987) and leader of Servicio Paz y Justicia (Peace and Justice Service/SERPAJ) in Mexico. SERPAJ is a Latin American network working in 13 countries to promote human rights, social justice and nonviolent culture and struggle. Your contributions make possible the modest stipend that allows Pietro to dedicate himself to the nonviolence education and organizing work. more information on Pietro
On the Frontlines with Pietro Ameglio
IF is raising funds to support the crucial work of Pietro Ameglio, who for decades has promoted active nonviolence in Mexico and across Latin America. An activist, popular educator, university lecturer, and author, Pietro is a co-founder and leader of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD) that emerged in 2011 to challenge drug-war violence, increasing militarization, and human rights violations in Mexico. His nonviolence education programs are in constant demand across Mexico, and he has helped organize and lead numerous nonviolent direct action campaigns.
He is a co-founder (1987) and leader of Servicio Paz y Justicia (Peace and Justice Service/SERPAJ) in Mexico. SERPAJ is a Latin American network working in 13 countries to promote human rights, social justice and nonviolent culture and struggle. Your contributions make possible the modest stipend that allows Pietro to dedicate himself to the nonviolence education and organizing work. more information on Pietro
Report from Pietro Ameglio and the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity
(November 29, 2013) Pietro Ameglio continues to keep a very busy schedule as a nonviolence educator and organizer in Mexico. In the following year-end report, he describes a number of the projects he has worked on this year, and some significant victories. But the bulk of the report is a sober analysis of the deteriorating situation in Mexico amid stunning levels of violence and the hard choices it poses for those who embrace active nonviolence as the surest way of building peace on a foundation of justice. If reading this stirs some reflections in you, we would be pleased if you would share them with us, at: if.integrities@gmail.com
Dear Friends,
For any report or analysis, we need to remember that Mexico is a territory marked throughout by acts of war, albeit not with the same form and intensity in each region. Nowhere can anyone go out on the street or to work without worrying. Nor is any campesino community secure from the threat of being stripped of its natural resources for the benefit of transnational corporations. This war has at least three central characteristics: it is a civil war; it is of massive extermination; and it is of selective extermination. Please let me explain ...
continue Pietro's update letter on Mexico Nonviolence Movement
(November 29, 2013) Pietro Ameglio continues to keep a very busy schedule as a nonviolence educator and organizer in Mexico. In the following year-end report, he describes a number of the projects he has worked on this year, and some significant victories. But the bulk of the report is a sober analysis of the deteriorating situation in Mexico amid stunning levels of violence and the hard choices it poses for those who embrace active nonviolence as the surest way of building peace on a foundation of justice. If reading this stirs some reflections in you, we would be pleased if you would share them with us, at: if.integrities@gmail.com
Dear Friends,
For any report or analysis, we need to remember that Mexico is a territory marked throughout by acts of war, albeit not with the same form and intensity in each region. Nowhere can anyone go out on the street or to work without worrying. Nor is any campesino community secure from the threat of being stripped of its natural resources for the benefit of transnational corporations. This war has at least three central characteristics: it is a civil war; it is of massive extermination; and it is of selective extermination. Please let me explain ...
continue Pietro's update letter on Mexico Nonviolence Movement
Update on Sergio Castro/Yok Chij
(New York Time article August 2013)
Sergio and his work in Chiapas was the focus of a New York Times article on August 14. The online article also includes a short video and slide show. To access the article click on this link "In Mexico, a Healer Who Asks Nothing in Return".
(June 2013)
For over 45 years Sergio Castro (Yok Chij) has been working within the indigenous Mayan communities of San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas, one of the poorest states of Mexico. Sergio spends most of his time providing medical and wound care to burn victims, and this work is the subject of an inspiring documentary film, El Andalon.
(See Trailer http://veremosproductions.com/el-andalon-2/)
Sergio Castro has also built schools and water catchment and filtration systems for the indigenous villages and poor neighborhoods in the San Cristóbal area. Sergio wants to build new classrooms for a large elementary school near San Cristóbal. The classrooms that had been used in the past were poorly constructed out of adobe and the supports for the walls are inadequate. Because of the danger to the children, the school director has closed the rooms and they are meeting in a space that is not large enough for separate classes to be conducted very easily. A grant he has received from the Rotary Club in Whidbey Island, Washington, will assist him in this project.
We recently received a new update on Don Sergio's activities from Mary Murrel, Yok Chij's finance person in Mexico. http://sergiocastrosc.blogspot.mx
She emphasized the importance of the funds that Sergio has recently received through IF for some of Sergio's clients who are most in need.
(New York Time article August 2013)
Sergio and his work in Chiapas was the focus of a New York Times article on August 14. The online article also includes a short video and slide show. To access the article click on this link "In Mexico, a Healer Who Asks Nothing in Return".
(June 2013)
For over 45 years Sergio Castro (Yok Chij) has been working within the indigenous Mayan communities of San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas, one of the poorest states of Mexico. Sergio spends most of his time providing medical and wound care to burn victims, and this work is the subject of an inspiring documentary film, El Andalon.
(See Trailer http://veremosproductions.com/el-andalon-2/)
Sergio Castro has also built schools and water catchment and filtration systems for the indigenous villages and poor neighborhoods in the San Cristóbal area. Sergio wants to build new classrooms for a large elementary school near San Cristóbal. The classrooms that had been used in the past were poorly constructed out of adobe and the supports for the walls are inadequate. Because of the danger to the children, the school director has closed the rooms and they are meeting in a space that is not large enough for separate classes to be conducted very easily. A grant he has received from the Rotary Club in Whidbey Island, Washington, will assist him in this project.
We recently received a new update on Don Sergio's activities from Mary Murrel, Yok Chij's finance person in Mexico. http://sergiocastrosc.blogspot.mx
She emphasized the importance of the funds that Sergio has recently received through IF for some of Sergio's clients who are most in need.
Sergio at the school in Cruz Quemada
With the assistance of funds donated through IF Sergio is building a school room at Cruz Quemada, a village in San Juan Chamula municipio. He hopes to finish the school room before the start of the school year. That way the community can request a teacher from the education authorities for the 5th and 6th grade. They will only send a teacher when there is a classroom with windows, a door, lights, blackboards and furniture.
Accompanying photos show how engaged Don Sergio is in every single aspect of the construction.
read more about Don Sergio's work in Chiapas, Mexico
Accompanying photos show how engaged Don Sergio is in every single aspect of the construction.
read more about Don Sergio's work in Chiapas, Mexico
Crucible: Timor Leste Rising from Crisis (May 2013)
 Pam at a meeting of groups to strengthen civil society.
IF is supporting a project focusing on Grassroots Capacity Building and Science Education in Timor Leste.
Community organizer and parent educator Pam Sexton has been a committed human rights advocate, speaking to US groups about East Timor for 15 years. Pam is an executive committee member of the US-based organization, East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (www.etan.org). |
 Curt at one of his math teaching seminars.
Science educator Curt Gabrielson of Watsonville has spent several years developing a way to use local materials and cultural knowledge as a basis for hands-on science education in Timor Leste. Collaborating with local science teachers (whom he trained) he has produced two breakthrough educational resources written in the local language.
read more about the Timor Leste project activities for updates, access Pam and Curt's blog at http://timorrising.wordpress.com |
