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Page last updated 3-27-2015 |
Organization name: Universidad de la Tierra en Oaxaca A.C. (Unitierra)
Location: Oaxaca City, Oaxaca
Website: http://unitierra.blogspot.mx/
A Unitierra workshop.
The University of the Earth (Unitierra) in Oaxaca was established in 2001. Unitierra is a space, an organization and a network of learning, study, reflection, and action. In the words of one of its founding members, Sergio Beltran, Unitierra is” an initiative that facilitates access to learning for all those for whom school is not an adequate place for learing.” The model was heavily influenced by the work and thought of Paul Goodman, John Holt, Gustavo Esteva, and Ivan Illich.
Unitierra was an attempt to respond to the recognition, particularly among indigenous peoples, that the dominant state-supported educational structure prevented their children from learning what they needed to know to continue living in their communities and contributing to the common good of their communities and the sustainability of their territories. Unitierra is committed to reclaiming and regenerating the conditions in which indigenous people traditionally had learned in their own ways.
Unitierra encourages learning traditional skills. In this process Unitierra applies one of Illich’s principles: “True learning can only be the leisurely practice of free people.” Their students learn whatever they want to learn - practical trades, such as urban agriculture, video production, or social research - or they pursue fields of study such as philosophy or communication. They learn their skills from the practitioners of the profession or field of study and by applying these skills through apprenticeships. Students then return to their communities to practice and share what they have learned, and, through this practice and sharing, to understand what it means to be a valued member of their community.
Unitierra was an attempt to respond to the recognition, particularly among indigenous peoples, that the dominant state-supported educational structure prevented their children from learning what they needed to know to continue living in their communities and contributing to the common good of their communities and the sustainability of their territories. Unitierra is committed to reclaiming and regenerating the conditions in which indigenous people traditionally had learned in their own ways.
Unitierra encourages learning traditional skills. In this process Unitierra applies one of Illich’s principles: “True learning can only be the leisurely practice of free people.” Their students learn whatever they want to learn - practical trades, such as urban agriculture, video production, or social research - or they pursue fields of study such as philosophy or communication. They learn their skills from the practitioners of the profession or field of study and by applying these skills through apprenticeships. Students then return to their communities to practice and share what they have learned, and, through this practice and sharing, to understand what it means to be a valued member of their community.
2015 Project
Project Name: Youth Cooperatives (part of the project “Regenerating Our Communities”) Cooperativas juveniles, dentro del proyecto “Regenerar nuestras comunidades”
They received additional funding to extend their efforts to create coops. The cooperatives are helping disadvantaged youth to generate income, continue their studies, reduce emigration and juvenile delinquency, and contribute to economic self-sufficiency in the family and in the community. They expect the new Maguire funds to enable the development of 20 new coops with an average of 7 members in each.
Project Name: Youth Cooperatives (part of the project “Regenerating Our Communities”) Cooperativas juveniles, dentro del proyecto “Regenerar nuestras comunidades”
They received additional funding to extend their efforts to create coops. The cooperatives are helping disadvantaged youth to generate income, continue their studies, reduce emigration and juvenile delinquency, and contribute to economic self-sufficiency in the family and in the community. They expect the new Maguire funds to enable the development of 20 new coops with an average of 7 members in each.
2014 Project Name: Cooperative Seedbed (Semillero Cooperativo)
Project Description: The cooperatives will permit disadvantaged youth to generate income, continue their studies, reduce emigration and juvenile delincuency, and contribute to economic self-sufficiency in the family and in the community. They expect the Maguire funds to enable the development of ten new coops serving 50-100 youth.
Eventually they hope to be able to buy or rent a locale in downtown Oaxaca that could be used for marketing coop products, a small restaurant, a community gathering place, and for processing the cacao into chocolate.
Project Description: The cooperatives will permit disadvantaged youth to generate income, continue their studies, reduce emigration and juvenile delincuency, and contribute to economic self-sufficiency in the family and in the community. They expect the Maguire funds to enable the development of ten new coops serving 50-100 youth.
Eventually they hope to be able to buy or rent a locale in downtown Oaxaca that could be used for marketing coop products, a small restaurant, a community gathering place, and for processing the cacao into chocolate.
Examples of 2014 project activities in Valles Centrales communities
(click on photos to view slide show)
2013 Maguire Fund Project: Regenerating Our Communities (Regenerar nuestras comunidades)
2013 Project Report: The Maguire grant was part of a larger project that enabled the creation of 23 cooperatives with a total of 112 members in highly marginalized communities in the Valles Centrales (Central Valleys) of Oaxaca. Six of those coops were funded with the Maguire grant. The coops serve primarily indigenous and other marginalized youth. They also include some women with families. Unitierra proposed a list of products to the coop groups. Apparently in most cases, they chose something else that they liked better. Productes include chocolate, eco-firewood, artesan processed foods such as dried mushrooms. The eco-firewood (firewood made from compressed, locally available organic materials) has generated the most interest. Unitierra picked 10 communities to help get production off the ground. Each one of them has committed to passing on a set of the necessary equipment to another group.
They are excited about how the coops have taken off, their potential to be self-sustaining, and the boost they have given to prospects for starting additional coops.
2013 Project Report: The Maguire grant was part of a larger project that enabled the creation of 23 cooperatives with a total of 112 members in highly marginalized communities in the Valles Centrales (Central Valleys) of Oaxaca. Six of those coops were funded with the Maguire grant. The coops serve primarily indigenous and other marginalized youth. They also include some women with families. Unitierra proposed a list of products to the coop groups. Apparently in most cases, they chose something else that they liked better. Productes include chocolate, eco-firewood, artesan processed foods such as dried mushrooms. The eco-firewood (firewood made from compressed, locally available organic materials) has generated the most interest. Unitierra picked 10 communities to help get production off the ground. Each one of them has committed to passing on a set of the necessary equipment to another group.
They are excited about how the coops have taken off, their potential to be self-sustaining, and the boost they have given to prospects for starting additional coops.
Examples of 2013 project activities in Valles Centrales communities
(click on photos to view slide show)
Sources and additional information: http://unitierra.blogspot.mx/
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/liberate-your-space/reclaiming-our-freedom-to-learn
http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/liberate-your-space/reclaiming-our-freedom-to-learn