Recent community work has focused on Food & Income Security During the Pandemic

Despite challenges, PML is continuing our community development work in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.  We are partnering with the villages of San Carlos and La Gallina to address the economic instability due to lost employment in the pandemic.

Rosa and Gabriela in solidarity with Minnesota.jpg

In 2020 PML completed a successful Covid-19/Food Security Fundraiser in Minnesota and raised $10,000. The funds will support a number of initiatives that residents prioritized through a series of community meetings, facilitated by PML’s Project Coordinator, Rosa Lira. The community’s immediate reaction to combat the crisis was to plan for a distribution of food baskets. But upon further reflection, the community members opted for an approach that would provide long-term solutions for economic and food stability. 

First, they enrolled vulnerable senior citizens in an existing government program for food.  Then they canvassed residents, mostly women, about their interests. Out of those conversations they decided on multiple avenues to improve the economic situation of their families:

  • taking classes to learn new job skills, particularly work that can be done from home

  • enrolling in baking and sewing courses

  • starting or expanding small home businesses (selling tortillas or other food and clothing, and raising pigs, chickens and vegetables)

The two communities of San Carlos and La Gallina plan to combine leadership into a joint council of OMEGAS (Organization of Women Entrepreneurs Advocating and Assessing Solutions). In this way they can address mutual concerns. By registering as a legal entity they will be able to open a bank account and formally represent the communities. 

Read more about these initiatives in San Carlos here and La Gallina here.