Proyect 1999-2000.

GOAL
To make a Project 1999-2001 to consolidate and to extend services and activities of integral development to women in need in our region and to offer a consultant's office to national level in the processing of a Social Pastoral from and for the women.

BENEFITTED PEOPLE
The people of the popular neighbourhoods nearer downtown of the mexican city of Torreon, mainly women, boys and girls.

At the moment approximately 200 people go to activities in the CEDIMSE facilities. Other 1,000 people receive some direct service of the collaborating people of CEDIMSE in other spaces of the diocese.

With project 1999-2000 we thought that we can improve the present and to extend services in order to help teengagers, young people, and women in the maquiladora factories.

A new activity that complements the above mentioned is the one to participate in the organization of the Social Pastoral from and for the women looking to create collaboration networks at national level.

Local Level

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
We have seen a very good will in the most of the women we have collaborated with, to grow in their self-esteem and sense of personal dignity, frequently damaged by the conditions in which they live.

In addition, the necessity to work in the human development with boys and girls to give them the opportunity to educate in the self-esteem and in the mutual respect from a very early age. For the women we offer three workshops each year with a progressive programme.

INFORMATION SCIENCE
In the schools that are located at the sorrounding areas of the city, boys and girls sitll do not have access to the world of computers. We want to give them the opportunity to introduce themselves in this reality, extending our computer center.

READING CLUBS
Mexico generally speaking, faces an enormous challenge for the development of the habit of reading. Ever since we established the benedictine center at Torreon, we have lent books to the local community. Now we are forming a small library for boys and girls and youngsters to motivate them to read, promoting weekly reading clubs. We counted on some volumes donated by the Colegio Guadalupe, S. C. down in Mexico City and other state schools.

MEDITATION GROUPS FOR WOMEN WHO WORK IN THE MAQUILADORA FACTORIES
In Torreon, maquiladora plants have been multiplied, mainly in the textile branch. Many women, the most of them young and middle-aged unmarried mothers, that are seeking to complete their family income with their work in these plants.
One answer is to support his spiritual life on the one hand, and by the other, to promote the improvement of their understanding of the labour laws in Mexico and their rights like workers.

In a second stage, from the contact with their reality, we will look for communitarian supports against the difficult situation that they live in (for example, a kitchen in common, a day-care center, etc.)

EDUCATION ON SEXUALITY AND AFFECTION WORKSHOPS
We have stated the necessity to work in this field with teenagers and young people. It appears to be a lack of formation, in subjets like teenager pregnancy, problems of behavior in the teenagers, etc. Workshops are three times a year and there is support in special cases.

INTRA-FAMILIAR VIOLENCE AND THE GENERATION OF RIGHT ANDWORTHY INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS WORKSHOPS
The contact with the women of the area, forces to look for alternatives to help to heal and to transform this cancer so rooted in the domestic scopes.

To coordinate with other organizations that give us some advice on legal matter and/or psychological consultant's offices, refuges for battered women, etc.

AN INFORMATION CENTER ON THE FULL DEVELOPMENT OF THE WOMEN
In this region of Mexico, exists little material on the situation of the women. It will be the first center in the Diocese of Torreon specialized in the Teaching of the Church with respect to the women in the area of the Social Pastoral. We will offer some publications and magazines on the mentioned subject.

A RESEARCH AND BROADCAST CENTER
All the project requires of an area of research and broadcast to make decisions and to act with solid basis, to offer a permanent qualification to the CEDIMSE collaborators and to generate new knowledge from the pastoral practice.

WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION IN ORGANIZATION NETWORKS
It allows to share resources, to enrich our studies and experiences and to open to our horizons and those of the other people benefitted by this project, towards a new reality and perspective.

COLLABORATION WITH THE MEXICAN BISHOP'S COMMISSION ON SOCIAL PASTORAL IN THE AREA OF A PASTORAL FROM AND FOR THE WOMEN
We have accepted to serve in the process of a Social Pastoral from and for the women. In a first stage, it will be a work of dialogue and consciousness. Later, from an analysis of the different regions within the country, we will collaborate in the design of this pastoral, to put it at the reach of the other dioceses in Mexico.