The Yucatan Kindness School: Learning to be kind to ourselves, to each other, and to the planet...

In 2015, community activists in the Mayan communities of Tekax and Oxkutzcab organised into a colectiva mujeres (women's collective) and established Operation Kindness Mexico. With support from the Mandala Trust, OK Mexico have since renovated a small building which acts as a community centre from which to offer a range of activities, including regular yoga sessions for mothers and their children and a daily breakfast club which ensures all local children have a nutritious meal before going to school. The Mandala Trust has also funded a community permaculture project organised by the women through which they teach their children how to cultivate organic food and also provide the community with year-round fresh organic fruit and vegetables grown by the project.

For a number of years now, the OK Mexico group have been interested in consolidating this work by obtaining land locally, constructing a kindness school building and preparing more substantial and sustainable permaculture gardens. They therefore went back to the drawing board and have been visiting a number of local Mayan communities to discuss it. And after a long process of discussion and co-imagining, the group now believe the time is right!

The kindness school will be built using local ecologically sound materials and using traditional Mayan techniques (the picture below gives you the idea). The building work will be done entirely by people from the communities involved in the project.

As a result, the Mandala Trust has recently funded the purchase of a piece of land as a site for the kindness school and permaculture demonstration gardens measuring 30 X 60 meters (with the option to buy more land and extend the permaculture project and other initiatives in the future). Work has already begun on clearing the land and preparing the ground for the gardens.

This appeal is therefore attempting to raise the remaining funds required for the construction of the Kindness School building.

The Kindness School and permaculture project will act as a centre for the children (and their parents) from these communities to learn permaculture practices which can then be used on their own land (these communities have plenty of land, but currently lack the knowledge and equipment to cultivate it). The centre will also offer the kind of projects OK Mexico have previously provided including early childhood development, mindfulness sessions, kids' yoga classes and breakfast clubs. They envisage 4-5 communities will be involved and they will share the harvests/produce between them all.

We therefore invite you to join us in supporting this wonderful grassroots community project, by making a donation yourself, or even considering organising your own sponsored event with your own family and friends.