2020. The 3R-Project

The 3R-Project. Enabling new beginnings for women in distress and their children

The global situation of COVID-19 came to aggravate a latent problem in the Mexican society: the violence against women.

According to the United Nations, the land rates as one of the most violent countries for women in the world. The National Institute of Statistics and Geography in Mexico (INEGI), reports that 66% of all women age 15 and older have experienced some kind of violence in their lives (emotional, physical, sexual, and/or mental abuse).

Our understanding is that the wellbeing of children and their school performance depends not only on them, but a main influencer is the physical and emotional health of their mothers.

Bearing this in mind, in the middle of the pandemic we started the 3R-Project. A program aiming to support the participants to RESTORE their psychological and emotional health, to help them acknowledging RESPONSIBILITY for their own lives and decisions, and to empower them to REINVEST into other’s people’s lives.

The duration of the program is of 3 years. Aiming that the second year becomes a platform for them to either search for better job opportunities with the knowledge and training acquired during the first year. Or in the best case, that they might become entrepreneurs after participating on the 5 day (40 hours) Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, financed by us.

The attended group are parents of students at the primary school Mariano Valenzuela Ceballos, located in the city of Chihuahua, who unfortunately, as a consequence of their backgrounds suffer of addictions, depression, anxiety, and destructive living patterns.

Currently the project focuses on 16 different families in distress. Mothers and children attend separately to weekly sessions with the onsite psychologist and a multidisciplinary team.

As an incentive for participation and punctuality, participants receive a gift card for grocery shopping every month. Some of them were also gifted with a smart phone and internet, so their children can access the school program. Schools are closed since March 2020.

We are thrilled to see the return on investment that this program already shows in the lives of women who:

· Had the courage to move away from lifelong destructive and abusive relationships

· Are taking ownership and responsibility of their lives and decisions

· Came out of depression and suicidal attempts

A good number of children:

· Have improved their performance at school

· Started to turn in homework

· Have significantly improved the relationship with their siblings

The 3-R Project is happening. We are thankful for all the local engagement and new partnerships. The plan in the near future is to expand the number of beneficiaries.