Maya Women's Medicine Collective

Earlier this week, on March 8th, countries around the world celebrated International Women's Day, a global day recognizing the economic, political, and social achievements of women around the world past, present, and future.  Such a day turns our attention also to women's needs, which are not being met and to the inequalities being faced by women internationally, in particular women in the indigenous communities around the world.
 
Remedia works with indigenous women in Toledo, the southernmost district of Belize, which is both home to the largest indigenous population in the country, and the highest poverty rates in Belize.  Indeed, Toledo is often referred to as "the forgotten district."  Indigenous women in Toledo face particularly limited income-generating opportunities, though their daily work seems to never cease.
 
Women in the Maya communities have long been the keepers of certain areas of traditional knowledge, including medicinal plants and traditional medical treatments for women's health and home remedies for children's ailments.  These days female Maya healers are numbering very few in Belize.  The women most knowledgeable are getting late in their years, and young Maya women rarely have the opportunity to study with knowledgeable elders remaining in the community.
 

Meet Ms. Francisca, one such Maya elder from the Toledo District of Belize.  She is typically referred to as "Nachim" (Grandmother) by those close to her.  She believes herself to be around 75 years old, and she has been living as a widow for nearly 50 years.  She gave birth to 14 children and 6 are living today.  She is the grandmother and great grandmother to many!  Ms. Francisca is a wealth of knowledge of traditional home remedies and traditional Maya culinary practices.  She is a keeper of knowledge that is held by very few and likely in some instances of traditional knowledge not known by anyone other than herself anymore. 
 
Discussions with Ms. Francisca about her medicinal plant knowledge have been limited to what we can find growing in the area around her home and the photos of other known medicinal plants we bring to show her.  She laments every time that she knows so many more medicinal plants, but cannot travel to the forest any longer to show us due to her age and trouble with her knees.  One days she told us this as she applied her topical knee treatment with "tyut it," a plant from the black pepper family.  Moments like these make us realize how immanent the traditional knowledge loss is in the Belizean Maya communities.
 
Remedia is facilitating the "Maya Women's Medicine Collective" with monthly meetings held in Punta Gorda.  Meetings of the Collective provide the opportunity for members and guests to share knowledge of traditional home remedies, as well as space for elders such as Ms. Francisca to teach and pass on some of their wisdom to the younger indigenous women in the community.  Also, meetings are great opportunities to share seeds, plants, and traditional food recipes!
 
Contact us if you are interested in more information on the Maya Women's Medicine Collective!  Remedia needs your support to continue aiding the development of the Collective, a project which is greatly needed for the conservation of traditional women's knowledge and the continued education and empowerment for women in the indigenous communities of southern Belize.  If you would like to help, please consider donating to support the continuation of our programs!