Leadership in Action 2024 – Reflective Report

Re_action for Impact – by makesense Americas

(Mexico City, July-Aug 2024)

Vaibhav Pramode Nair, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds

The month and a half were nothing short of transformative. When asked by my fellow scholars to use just one word to describe my time in Mexico City while putting together our little video recap (check it out here :), I did not have to think for a second before I said - “Grateful.” That’s it. As I write this, I am overcome with gratitude for all the people, things, and situations that came together to make this experience of a lifetime a reality for me. Over the 6 weeks I learnt so many things big and small, subtle and practical, and it happened through several unique experiences! 😊

Week 1 & 2

We arrived in Mexico City at the beginning of July and started working with our organization, IRRI Mexico, immediately. IRRI Mexico is a not-for-profit organization working across Mexico to deliver food, water, and energy security to rural and indigenous communities, particularly in the remotest parts of the

country. Right from week one, we started engaging with the organization by meeting Macarena, our supervisor, for the first time. The aim of the project was to deliver a multi-stakeholder interest event, where

 we would invite actors from across various sectors to learn more about the breadth of work IRRI Mexico undertakes, its track record of impact, and its plans for the future. The idea was that this, along with the screening of a documentary showcasing IRRI’s work, would encourage these individuals to be part of IRRI’s journey and potentially contribute financially to projects. We started the planning of our deliverable by preparing a list of possible invitees and editing it according to relevance and feasibility.

During the week we had a site visit by the team of scholars supporting Rennueva, an organisation actively recycling plastics in CDMX. We visited their recycling facility where we learnt about the recycling process for Styrofoam and plastics, hearing from the 2 awesome founders - Hector and Enrique. They shared how they came up with the design of the machine as part of their master's thesis, to use friction to compress plastics into pellets instead of inputting energy as heat. I found that very cool.

We also had our first visit to Huerto Tlatelolco, which was the urban green space we were going to be gardening in and taking care of for the weeks to come. I instantly loved it,😊 as we started planting lettuce, harvesting fresh produce, and preparing a salad out of it that we had all together. Delish!

On the weekend, I had the chance to connect with some friends from India living in CDMX, and they showed me around the city. They took me to the only Indian store in the city center, and I purchased several Indian spices and groceries so I could cook up a storm in the upcoming weeks at the airbnb! They also showed me around Socalo (downtown) and I saw the presidential palace, and learnt about the dark history of the Spanish invasion of the region, and how they made the local communities break down their own temples to build churches out of the same stone. It was an eye-opening end to the week.

Week 3

This week, our team working on the IRRI project started getting busy with the volunteers, and we quickly learnt that they were super enthusiastic and easy to work with. Our main forms of communication for the project were Whatsapp and Gmail, and towards this, the admin of the IRRI Mexico team were kind enough to generate official email IDs for each of us scholars, which proved greatly beneficial in official communications to external parties. With the volunteer group, we organised 4 virtual sessions and 2 in-person meet-ups, along with the opportunity for them to come garden with us every Thursday at Huerto Tlatelolco.

Internally, we met far more frequently, with meetings happening on a daily basis as we got closer to the event. These meetings included the 3 scholars, and often Triana (our makesense supervisor), Maca (Head of IRRI), and either Paty or Yanine (Project leads at IRRI). The WhatsApp group was the backbone of everything we did and was the reason we were able to pull off a good deal of work in a relatively small amount of time. I was very happy with the extent to which we utilised the app features to ensure the Whatsapp group chat was almost always active and dynamic, and that we did not stagnate at any stage or linger too long by overly ideating on any aspect, but rather moved ahead quickly by implementing speedily resolved solutions in a timely fashion.

Since our volunteers were very receptive and enthusiastic, we did not have any major challenges coordinating communications. The only notable hurdles were those of finding timings and seeing how to accommodate everyone’s availability. I feel this experience over 6 weeks working with a group of passionate, enthusiastic, and above all - willing - people was insanely rewarding! It helped me hone my own leadership skills to communicate with them effectively and to guide them in organising this event.

If I had to summarise them in one word, it’d be PROACTIVE. Of the group of 15 that had joined at the start, almost 6-8 were very active right till the deliverable, and I am very grateful for their efforts. They took full ownership of executing this event in a grand way and it was visible in how the event ultimately turned out. 😀 It was beautiful that the whole group of volunteers and us scholars formed a bond beyond just work, where we got meals together and sometimes went out together. At the end of that week, few volunteers joined us to Huerto Tlatelolco where we learnt from its founder about the history of this urban food forest and even made a salad with edible flowers together !

Week 4

This week involved a visit to Xochimilco, where we learnt about the Chinampas, floating gardens that are made by layering soil, sediment, and decaying vegetation, forming a fertile area for cultivating crops. It was wonderful that we even got to experience building a chinampa, all the scholars in a team effort. On our boats, we enjoyed some nice homemade Tlacoyas as we floated along to visit the Axolotarium, where the critically endangered Axolotl are conserved. Our guide explained to us that the species became threatened when the MX govt decided to introduce ornamental fish ahead of hosting the Olympics, and the invasive species displaces the Axolotl which is why they now need to be conserved. In my own little research following, I found that the rapid pollution of their wild habitat through the introduction of human waste and industrial effluents was the leading reason for their endangered status.

As my area of focus is sustainability within global food systems, it was particularly interesting for me to hear first hand from a farmer in the area about the difficulties of cultivating crops on the Chinampas and the declining viability of the floating plots for long-term economic return. We left the chinampas to travel to a site visit by the scholars working on Nidaria, an organisation striving to close the loop on food waste from restaurants. We visited the founder’s farm where we saw their biodigester, how they cultivate rabbits for their high-value meat supplied to restaurants as well as some pig farming and indoor controlled crop cultivation of strawberries. We had the chance to taste these strawberries right off the plant and, as they were super sweet and fresh, my fellow scholars decided to purchase the farm’s entire stock before we returned home. :)

The Friday of the same week was the IRRI showcase, the event we’d been working towards so far. We had made all the arrangements for the event and were delighted to welcome the 40+ people that showed up! Although the event was a success, I was mildly disappointed at the time that 85+ people had signed up, but I was able to see the valuable

lesson in that its not in our control. The event was immediately followed by a celebration dinner hosted by Maca, our lead, before she left for her native in Chile. Maca and her partner invited Topaz, Mallika and me to coffee the next morning, and then took us to experience the unique outlay of a traditional Mexican market where we bought a few souvenirs for loved ones back home.

The week ended on a high, when I joined my fellow scholars Hannah and Heather to the National Museum of Anthropology. That experience blew my mind! - mainly because I absorbed that the ancient traditions of Mexico – Teotihuacan, the Aztecs, the Mayans – had so many visible links to the ancient Indian tradition that I’m so fortunate to be a part of. Spending over 4 hours there was beyond fascinating and I had to be urged by my friends to exit the building. I managed to acquire multiple souvenirs from the museum that hold deep spiritual meanings to gift those back home. We ended the weekend by sharing some really nice vegan pizza ! 😊

Week 5 

The week started with a site visit to Huerto Roma Verde, a community-managed multifunctional urban green space which was designed for the local population as a hub for collaboration, creativity and building a connection to nature.

The scholars’ on this team had a goal of designing the walk experience for the whole Huerto and prototyping their work using the installations they had developed across the space. I went through the walk along with all the scholars and learnt about the details of each part of the huerto listening to the explanations by the Huerto Roma team - Isabella, Anita, Nadia, and Jenny - who handled the whole thing expertly.   

Later that week was our last day at Huerto Tlatelolco, the garden. We had the chance to build a house for the creepers in the garden, and we did it completely from scratch out of raw scrap wood and felt very cool about it before we said our final goodbyes to our hosts at the huerto. Our project supervisor from IRRI, Paty, was so kind to guide us from the Huerto and take us to the Museum of Tolerance at the heart of the city. This museum was simply amazing, and a must-visit for anyone visiting CDMX.

The museum tour started with an exhibition on Anne Frank, and as we explored her story through a series of interactive auditory and visual exhibits, I could really relate it to my reading of her diary as part of my coursework for English Literature class in Year 12. The further I went through the museum, the more I was absorbed into the details of everything.

I learnt about the holocaust and various other genocides in different parts of the world, and a huge deal about human history and the struggles of various civilizations of the past. By the end of it, I developed a considerably more informed perspective of the state of the world today and our lives in it, and this museum showed me what it has taken for us to have the comforts we take for granted every single day.

Week 6

The last week was an emotional time for all, to have lived together for a month and a half, and to suddenly say goodbye. makesense hosted a farewell event for all us scholars and our lovely volunteers where we celebrated everyone’s achievements and received certificates for the successful completion of the program. Before we left, Nadia, a scholar, organized a fantastic activity where everyone sat in a circle to prepare their “yearbook” - a small piece of paper on which everyone in the group writes something they want to tell the person who’s paper it is. This yearbook is then folded by the last person in the circle, and the owner is allowed to open it only once they’re settled back home. It was an activity filled with smiles of gratitude, and I had the same wide smile when I was back home reading all the wonderful things the scholars wrote on my little yearbook. I spent my last day in Mexico finishing up the funds on my designated card by buying gifts for family and friends, sending everyone off on their cabs and wishing everyone safe travels.

Reflections

A very important aspect of this experience was meeting scholars from all over the world and forming beautiful friendships, taking inspirations from their ways of working and their diverse approaches to problem-solving.

Being taken through the Design Thinking process by our makesense coordinators Nuria and Triana across the 5 weeks was very helpful, as it actually put a lot of organizational challenges and circumstances into perspective. My gratitude to the two of them for being amazing facilitators and for ensuring we have the smoothest possible experience in CDMX. Tri and Nuri were not just supportive, they were our constant guides for all things, be it work, leisure, or a cockroach in the corner of the girls’ bedroom. Their constant presence during the 6 weeks and their genuine care beyond it just being work for them had a huge impact on our time there. 🙏

What I loved the most about the programme was that I got to experience the true power of the feminine throughout the 1.5 months in Mexico. I feel grateful to have been in a scenario where I got to be and learn in an environment entirely run by women. The organisation - makesense americas - is entirely female led, IRRI Mexico is female led, and every single one of my fellow scholars were female. Being the only man in a room for 6 weeks, I had the unique chance to keenly observe and be part of outings, meals, jokes, birthdays, and of course, work that was designed, planned for, and executed exclusively by women. I felt this was deeply enriching, and made me thoroughly reflect on and nurture the feminine within myself. I could clearly see by the end of our time in Mexico that I had become a lot more receptive, more patient, and generally more loving, and this certainly came as a result of living in the constant company of so many great women over that duration. Essentially, I learned through experience that so many of our world’s most pressing problems would cease to exist if we simply embrace and celebrate the feminine within us. 🙏🌷

I learnt hands-on that it was actually possible to go from ideating on a white board to implementing a real, working impact project in the span of just a month. In the process of delivering this project, I learnt that I was actually capable of sticking to and seeing through a large, meaningful activity and that all I needed to make that happen was a deep sense of belonging to the people I’m working with and their vision. I also learnt that I was very good at mobilizing a group of volunteers from a completely different culture and country, to take action and get work done on time, and this also showed me how, if you’re able to communicate the vision effectively, people are willing to put in their time and efforts to make it happen. It also taught me that Mexican people are very passionate, and I found that so beautiful. I learnt their connection goes beyond just completing a task, and extends to every aspect of their relationship with each other. It was also heartening for me to see the people that turned up to our IRRI showcase event, and how enthusiastic they were for those 2 hours. The things they said about IRRI’s work, and the drive they showed for the shared causes of supporting food, water, and energy security for indigenous communities across Mexico was very touching.

I also made some relevant connections throughout my work in Mexico, and met some very talented individuals that I hope to collaborate with and reach out to in the future. Another big point that was highlighted was that Youth in Mexico are super empowered! From the few interactions I had with the youth that came to our events and opted to volunteer for our various projects, I saw that they were very aware of how to make climate action actually tick, actually happen! I loved that.

What comes after re-action for impact? A big world of opportunity. As I write this, I am sitting in my office in Coimbatore, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, on my Sustainable Land Management Policy and Research Placement year at Conscious Planet. I feel that the learnings I’ve mentioned above have given me a great wealth of wisdom and perspective, particularly having never been exposed to meso-american or latin american cultures prior to this. After my time in Mexico, I have developed a deep appreciation for the people and the country, particularly its ancient past. Should I get the chance to visit again, I will most certainly be doing so, as I have left so many things unexplored in my 6 weeks there.

Looking back, I have also learnt a key lesson - to keep my word when it comes to TIME. I love that for the most part during the 6 weeks, I was able to be on top of self-made deadlines and deliver on these committedly. I consider this a great achievement since sticking to deadlines and being on time about things is what I consistently struggle with.

Overall, it's been such a multifaceted learning experience, and I simply wish to express my deepest gratitude to all those who facilitated this and made it possible. 🙏 Over these 6 weeks, I genuinely learned the level of commitment it takes to deliver an impact project. The number of times I had to consciously keep the periodic compulsiveness of my body and mind aside to focus on the task at hand made me see that I am certainly capable of being focused on a sizeable task and seeing it through. I am also very grateful for everyone on the program and the way they conducted themselves over the 6 weeks - some beautiful conversations I have learned from, and many meaningful memories to cherish !

Nothing but Gratitude.