Mexico

The "HA-O-MEK-KA" is a community where all the people work together, sharing knowledge about different topics such as nutrition (preparing natural local food, most of that vegetarian), herbal medicine (gardening, tailoring tinctures and ointments), vegetable planting, preparing compost, promoting the use of dry toilets, fruit harvest for transformation, seed and local plant conservation, domestic animal maintenance (chicken, sheep), experimental beekeeping, mushroom cultivation. All this within an integral vision for environmental sustainability.

The Museum of Mayan Medicine and the Organisation of Indigenous Doctors of the State of Chiapas A.C. (OMIECH, A.C.) are jointly responsible for an area that presents different aspects of Mayan traditional medicine. This center houses different areas of the Association: the Museum of Mayan Medicine, Women and Midwives, Herbalism, Communication, Administration, and General Counseling. The small museum is very illustrative and the pharmacy where traditional medicines are sold, occupy the main buildings.

Eight churches were built in the sixteenth century under the leadership of the Dominican missionaries, who intended to convert the Zoque people, one of the oldest cultureS in Central America. The buildings had originally a European design, but soon acquired local characteristics of Mexican colonial art. The presence of these churches started the development of a school of sculpture and painted gold. The former convent of St. Michael is one of the focal points for the recovering of the use of the Zoque language .

Volunteers will be doing minor restoration work on the sixteenth century convent of Zacualpan as well as some cleaning and renewal guided by a professional restorer. These tasks will be complemented by activities to raise awareness of the local historical heritage organised for local children and youth: workshops on the identification of heritage values, heritage site tours in town, presenting some heritage sites in their countries and states with high school students, secondary and primary, animations with children, cleaning campaign around the village and systematization of experience.