Ixchel is a non-profit organization, founded in Guatemala. Our members are women and children from rural communities. Its purpose is to have members participate at an individual level as self starters. To devel op a sense of our identities, with mutual respect for our differences, within a multicultural and multiethnic framework, which puts a high value on our culture and develops ethics for the apropriate care and management of renewable and sustainable natural resources.

IXCHEL S.C. develops a space for the construction, growth, maturation and enrichment of life.

IXCHEL's objectives

• To create and maintain a support center for sustainable productive activities, facilitating participation in development programs which generate funds for individuals or groups.
• To reivindicate women's rights over land and the use of natural resources.
• To develop programs that will help solve the economic, educational, social, health and self esteem problems of women and children in rural communities by promoting women and children as individuals that need education that will enpower them to make th e decisions that best suit them.
• To create and maintain the POSADA GRANJA YAXNI'K-MALLOL.

HOW DOES IXCHEL WORK?

Development of the Posada Granja components:

a)AGROECOLOGY:

• Development of a model farm for wildlife (flora and founa) breeding programs. Its purpose is to educate and to initiate research and repopulation through management and breeding programs of endemic, endangered wildlife such as:
  • Tepezcuintle (Agouti paca)
  • Venado cola blanca (white tailed deer)(Odocoileus virginianus)
  • Cabro (goat) (Mazama americana)
  • Faisán o Pajuil (Great Curassow, Cracidae) (Crax rubra) (K'ambul)
  • Cojolitas (Crested Guam; Cracidae) (Penelope purpurascens) (Ah Cox)
  • Gucamaya (macaw) (Ara macao)
  • Iguana verde (green iguana)
• Acuaculture: turtles, snails and native species of fish.
• Apiculture: native bee species (Tacub doncella)(probably Trigona).
• Domestic animals: chickens, geese, goats and others.
• Management and cultivation of wild flowers such as orchids.
• Agroforestry: developoment of mixed cultivars, nurseries, live fence posts, usage of lunar and solar calendars, natural pesticides and insecticides, medicinal and edible plants, usage of water recycling and reusage systems, vegetable residue ba sed fertilizers.

b)CULTURE

• Support and stimulations that lead to the ethnodevelopment of women.
• Rescue and support of ancient cosmovision through the elders, relearning our Mayan languages, literature, traditional medical practices, botany, ecology, music, cooking, ceremonies and festivities of our ancestors, and childrens games.
• Exhibition and sales of culturally based art at the local museum.

c) LOCAL SUSTAINABLE RURAL ECONOMY

• To strengthen women's access to credit and factors that will enable her to become an active participant in the production system, at the individual and group level. IXCHEL S.C. has a small loan fund that can be used to start and support sustainable m icroenterprises.

d) CULTURALLY BASED ECOTOURISM

• As a fund generating alternative that will allow IXCHEL S.C. to become a selfsufficient entity and in order to generate economic alternatives for women and their families, IXCHEL S.C. has established a small shop in which hancrafts are s old. These include: traditional regional Petén clothing; necklaces and wrist bands made out of tropical seeds. These crafts integrate the natural and cultural environment and generate consciousness about the value of environmental and cultural co nservation among producers and buyers.

e)VOLUNTEER WORK AT IXCHEL S.C.

• IXCHEL S.C. is supported through voluntary paticipation in the activities it has developed in this area. Volunteers decide in which of the above activities they want to participate. IXCHEL S.C. provides volunteers with ethnoknowledge about its surro undings.

f)HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT IXCHEL S.C.

IXCHEL S.C. is located in the caserío Nueva San José, in the department of Petén, Guatemala. All volunteers are welcome.

If you are interested in collaborating and supporting IXCHEL S.C. in its conservation efforts for the fauna and flora of Guatemala, the Mayan Culture and in working with women and children, please contact us by phone at the community center (# 011-502-50 8-135) or by writing to:

Feedback

Your comments, corrections, and suggestions on the computer materials are always welcomed. Please send electronic mail to:

Carlos R. Solís solis@rice.edu

url="http://www.rice.edu/~solis/bioesfera/bioesfera.home.html"

last updated on June 30 1995 by CRS