CHILDREN OF MIGRANT FARM WORKERS IN TODOS SANTOS

In 2003, I learned of the plight of the migrant workers in Baja, mostly Mayan and Zapoctec families who come from mainland Mexico to work in the tomato farms.

There are four encampments surrounding Todos Santos where more than 4,000 men, women, children and grandparents (Families stay together no matter what.) living often under cardboard without sufficient, food or warm clothes and blankets for the cold winter nights.

The children work too, but the 1 3 year olds are left at the encampments, basically caged, without the stimulation or attention so necessary at this critical developmental stage.

I began putting up flyers, raising both awareness and $$, and soliciting donations of food, clothing and blankets almost immediately when I arrived and wrote an article which was published in the local English-language magazine. Other expats had also been bringing warm clothing and blankets from the US for several years, but the need continued.

In the fall of 2005, I held a sale in Taos of many of my personal belongings and published an updated, Spanish version of the same article in "El Crepusculo," the Spanish language section of the Taos News. The profits from that sale went primarily to buy educational materials to use with the young children, along with some food and beverage treats for them.

Much has changed since 2003 and many wonderful and generous people have been responsible for fundraising to see that basic needs are met. We now have a program headed by an amazing woman and teacher, Elena Ascencio, to go regularly into the camps with educational toys and games to play with the children. It has been one of the most rewarding (and sometimes heartbreaking) things I've ever taken part in doing.

If you would like to help keep this program alive, please email me:

O0-00-NAH

The Taos Pueblo Children's Art Center, Oo-oo-nah, is a wonderful organization which provides creative outlet for young Native American youth. In 1994, the non-profit All One Tribe Foundation held a major fundraiser to benefit this worthwhile program during the Pueblo-Japan Youth Cultural Exchange.

Young Japanese children, who have the highest suicide rate in the world for the ages of 3 6 years old, came to Taos to live for several weeks with the Pueblo children, who have a much more spontaneous and in-the-moment lifestyle, living close to nature on the Taos Pueblo's 97,000 acres of sacred land.

That year, the annual "All One Tribe Fall Drumming Fesival" raised $$ to send Native American kids from Taos Pueblo to Japan to complete the exchange. The lives of these young people were forever changed by the insights gleaned in both host cultures.

SAN MIGUEL ELDERS

While I lived in San Miguel de Allende during the spring of 1991 and 1992, I served food at the Parroquia to the mendigos (beggars) who populate the streets of San Miguel. This program of free mid-day meals was anonymously paid for by a Phillipina healer who lived there. During my time of service, I fell in love with the abuelas who were mostly elders from 70 to 90 years old, who begged daily on the streets.

They told me they badly needed clothing, especially sweaters, as the nights there can be quite chilly. After getting permission from the parrish priest, I arranged for some local drummakers to build a free box which would reside behind the church, made sineage, and wrote an article for the local English-speaking paper so the wealthy Anglos living there would know of its existence and donate to it. The photo was snapped on the day I was leaving to go home by one of the other volunteers after food service.

TAOS PUEBLO HEAD START PROGRAM

The Taos Pueblo Headstart Program was one of the top 10 programs of its kind in the country in the 90's. Its director during this period, Carmen Lieurance (on right in photo), had a wonderful combination of heart, vision and gusto for details, along with a managerial style that made her both a good teacher and a great boss. The kids benefitted greatly from her skills.

We donated to this program on various occasions through profits from our retail store, Southwest Moccasin and Drum, when they needed computers for the children, and though my company All One Tribe®. In 1993, when the non-profit All One Tribe Foundation brought legendary Nigerian Drummer Babatunde Olatunji to Taos to give workshops and performances during the Fall Drumming Festival, he received an unprecedented invitation to the Pueblo and met all the children and their families. This moving tribal interchange had a deep effect on everyone there.