Health

Food Systems

We are supporting communities to secure access to seed, land and water to advance food sovereignty and enhance adaptation, as well as helping get healthy, locally produced food into schools and local and regional markets.

We are committed to supporting agroecology as a movement that recognizes Indigenous knowledge and connection to all aspects of the environment.

Grantee spotlight

The Agroecology Fund of the Yucatán Peninsula is a locally managed fund supporting community-led, inclusive and participatory initiatives promoting sustainable agriculture and climate resiliency.

Learn more about the Agroecology Fund of the Yucatán Peninsula.

Health

Midwifery

We see declining maternal mortality in the Chiapas Highlands as a positive sign of the impact of our grantees’ work and our focused investments in:

• Expanding the skilled maternal health workforce and cross-collaboration between midwives and health care institutions, especially those overseeing maternal health care in Mexico.
• Supporting network- and movement-building to inform policies that address structural inequities.
• Advancing research to inform stakeholders.

We plan to continue to support the work of our grantees in this area as they expand their reach.

Grantee spotlight

The Movimiento de Parteras de Chiapas Nich Ixim or The Midwives Movement of Chiapas Nich Ixim (Nich Ixim), a network of several hundred Indigenous midwife members, advocates for the rights of birth workers, mothers and children, while helping them improve their skills and working to strengthen communication with officials and medical system workers. The movement holds workshops to bring together midwives and medical workers so they can learn from one another and collaborate for optimal health outcomes, and educates policymakers on key issues, such as the need for official recognition of the work of midwives.

In April 2024, Nich Ixim held a retreat in New York City for midwives from Mexico and several other countries across the Americas. During their time together, they developed a list of demands and presented them to the 23rd annual United National Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

• Learn more about the Nich Ixim midwives’ movement.
• Read how a marriage of traditional and modern midwifery is transforming lives in rural Mexico.
• Read the future is ancestral: Indigenous and traditional birth workers from across the Americas gather to demand rights.

Mexico

Chiapas Highlands and Inner Yucatán Peninsula

Welcome to our micro-regions of Southern Mexico – Dynamic Indigenous communities from the lowlands of the Yucatan Peninsula to the misty highlands of Chiapas.

From tropical to cloud forests, cenotes to rivers, plains to mountains, diversified systems like milpa and backyard vegetable gardens to apiaries and coffee plantations, from Yucatec Maya to Tsotsil and Tseltal people, The Inner Yucatan Peninsula and Chiapas Highlands represent great cultural and biological diversity but also share important traits.

Communities are reclaiming history long held by colonists, telling their own stories, and writing their own futures, planting the seeds of progress in their ancestors’ earth, growing strong organizations, leadership and partnerships and beginning to reap the rewards: thriving food systems, health systems, education models and income generation opportunities.

Nurtured more every day, the children are rising to lead and harvest a brighter future.

Mexico

Our Commitment Today

Today, our grantee partners build alliances to advance health equity, family economic security and early childhood education. Together, we are:

• Increasing access to quality maternal and infant health services, especially midwifery.
• Driving up family incomes by enhancing agricultural and textile production skills, increasing access to markets and strengthening value chains.
• Promoting potable water to improve health, nutrition and agriculture.
• Improving primary school education, including expanding culturally and linguistically relevant approaches and increasing teacher quality and effectiveness.

At the national level, our grantees are also improving systems to serve children and families. This includes building stronger partnerships between government and non-governmental organizations and increasing racial equity by raising awareness of the long-standing historical and structural barriers faced by Indigenous and Afro-descendent communities and supporting the construction of an anti-racist agenda in multiple sectors.

Maternal and Child Health

Our Funding Focus

St. Boniface Hospital (run by Health Equity International) and the University Hospital of Mirebalais (run by Partners in Health/Zanmi Lasante) are health care beacons, drawing patients from across their respective regions to receive quality care. They also work to strengthen care beyond the hospital walls through primary care strategies such as community mobile clinics, referral facilitation and local workforce development, including community health workers, midwives and nurses.

Grantee spotlight: J9

J9 is a health initiative led by Partners in Health – or Zanmi Lasante, as it is known in Haiti – to give women and their newborns constant holistic care and support throughout pregnancy and the first nine months of a baby’s life. This includes a peer-support network, psychological services, nutrition education, home visits, regular health checkups and more. Since 2018, the integrated model has supported more than 2,000 women. Since 2019, nearly every woman in the program has had a facility-based delivery.

Haiti

Kolektif Arcadins

Kolektif Arcadins, formerly the Sustainable Village and Learning Community, is an integrated community development initiative designed to promote systemic change in Arcahaie and the Arcadins Coast of Haiti.

Kolektif was born through a participatory community visioning process, with local residents and stakeholders sharing their views of local education, health, economic and environmental challenges, priorities and opportunities. With input from 600 local stakeholders, the Bridgespan Group worked with the 12 founding organizations to develop strategic and business plans, prioritizing economic and agricultural development, entrepreneurship (in collaboration with the Haiti Food System Alliance), community health care, education and civic engagement.

A master plan for 40 acres Kolektif acquired in Arcahaie calls for a three-phase process of development, capital construction and program implementation by 2029.

The first anchor program for Kolektif focuses on agricultural and economic development in collaboration with the Haiti Food System Alliance. Leveraging national HFSA networks, will create viable livelihood and entrepreneurial opportunities in agriculture and fishing for local residents, including men, women and youth.

Learn more about Kolektif Arcadins

Food Systems

Haiti Food Systems Alliance

The 15 partner organizations (including the Model School Network, members of Kolektif Arcadins, Health Equity International and Zanmi Lasante) in the Haiti Food Systems Alliance operate across Haiti in three areas:

• Production and entrepreneurship: directly working with farmers and entrepreneurs, connecting to markets, providing seeds and livestock and developing new value chains.
• Service: research and development, monitoring and evaluation, commercialization, marketing, funding and building capacity among institutions, value chains, producers and entrepreneurial families to increase productivity, revenue and production.
• Feeding: ensuring the supply of local food reaches Haitian hospitals, schools and families to address rising food insecurity across Haiti.

Learn more about the Haiti Food Systems Alliance

Education

Model School Network

The Model School Network (MSN) is building a powerful change movement for students in Haiti. Launched in 2016, the network enables sustained, cross-sector collaboration, drawing together a range of Haitian and international partners with a shared vision of change and complementary expertise and resources.

The MSN creates model approaches for quality teaching, learning and governance that can be replicated anywhere in Haiti and scales evidence-based solutions through mutual learning, technical assistance and focused advocacy. The result: program sustainability and a culture of shared responsibility for student success and well-being.

3

School
Networks

200

Schools

50K

Students

360

Committed
Partners

Learn more about the Model School Network.

Education

Haitian Education and Leadership Program

Leadership development and community engagement are embedded in all that we do. Listening to communities and working with local leaders – including youth leadership – are essential in our generational commitment to Haiti.

The Haitian Education and Leadership Program (HELP), based in Port-au-Prince, supports Haitian students, selected for need and merit, as they pursue college degrees and participate in professional development, foreign language classes, leadership training and skill development to make a difference in their communities and country.

Narrative Change

Pockets of Hope

Our goal in this campaign is to broaden support for locally led initiatives effectively working toward a strong and equitable future for Haitian children, families and communities.

Pockets of Hope showcases Haitian organizations carrying out transformative initiatives, while we share effective philanthropic practices and advise on ways to develop partnerships with the leaders and organizations that are doing the work.