Impact Spotlight
Solar energy to power 11 digital resource centers serving Indigenous women in rural Mexico
First time access to internet for hundreds of women and their families
Digital training hubs facilitate and empower women entrepreneurship
About
In the Sierra Madre mountains of Hidalgo, Mexico, up to 86% of the population lives on $80 USD or less. Hidalgo is one of the most marginalized regions in Mexico; it’s also the most biologically and linguistically diverse.
Here, PSYDEH works with women in the zone’s four majority indigenous areas — Acaxochitlan, Tenango de Doria, San Bartolo Tutotepec, and Huehuetla. While reliable economic data is hard to find, PYDEH’s experience and research shows that there is no industry. Eco-tourism attractions are plentiful, but the region has little infrastructure to attract and support any sizable tourism trade. With minimal opportunities for economic mobility, the Region’s citizens frequently migrate to urban Mexico and the USA.
Corrupt politics, low education levels, and little apolitical leadership training, especially for women, perpetuates generations of gender disparity and discrimination. Combatting decades of disenfranchisement, PSYDEH invests directly in these Indigenous women as community leaders to propel local, social and economic development.
“I believe that spaces for women built by women are necessary and urgent. We need more circles like of work-support like PSYDEH offers... that listen, embrace, promote and strengthen empowerment and understanding between women.”
HF Partnership
In 2022, the Honnold Foundation Partnered with PSYDEH to bring 6 solar-powered digital resource hubs to rural communities in Hidalgo, Mexico. These centers serve women partners in ongoing in-person and virtual training while also harnessing the skills to lead projects addressing social, economic, and gender inequality in their marginalized communities. Notably, centers powered by renewable energy ensure uninterrupted electricity and internet connectivity, overcoming regular regional electrical cuts and infrastructure challenges. For many women partners, digital literacy training with PSYDEH has been the first time they have used a computer. Now, women are gaining computer and internet literacy, leading their cooperative-run businesses online, and participating in virtual modules at PSYDEH’s leadership school.
In 2024, the Honnold Foundation is supporting PSYDEH to enable the expansion of the digital training hub model to 5 additional remote facilities identified by Indigenous women in PSYDEH’s growing network. These hubs will bring new resource centers, tools, and training opportunities powered by solar energy, close a critical local digital divide, and advance gender equality through community-led sustainable development.
In the News
