Your full name and University of affiliation

Full name: Lee Hoi Ling

University: The University of Hong Kong

University contact

Your key contact or supervisor at your University

Full name: Dr. Chan, Karen Man Kei

Department: Faculty of Education, Academic Unit of Human Communication, Development, and Information Sciences

Email address: karencmk@hku.hk

Title of your LiA project

Indigenous Communities and Empowerment

The organisation/charity you are working with

MakeSense

Organisation/charity contact

Your key contact (supervisor) at the organisation/charity

Full name: Brenda Sañudo

Email address: brenda@makesense.org

The need or cause you are supporting

What is the specific problem, cause or opportunity you are exploring?

According to the Organisation for economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Mexico has one of the highest rates of inequality among the developed countries. The situation was even worse among the indigenous community as they need formal recognition of their territories and natural resources on which they have ancestrally lived and depended. Moreover, they are often the last to receive public investment, access to justice, infrastructure and the right to participate in social representation and decision-making processes. Hence, it is hoped to raise public awareness and empower different indigenous communities or minority groups, such that they could gain equal and better rights in society.

Goal

What is the big-picture idea/vision and desired outcome of what your LiA project is trying to achieve in order to address the need or problem above?

• Partnership with different local companies, NGOs, churches and so on to provide more job opportunities for the indigenous community.
• Promote regenerative techniques (e.g. how to restore degraded monoculture farmland and protect nutrient diversity in diets and soil), such that they can achieve self-sufficiency and sustainablity in the long run.

Objectives

These represent how you will achieve your goal. Write down three to five SMART objectives outlining how you will achieve the overall goal.

1. Understand the utmost need of the indigenous community/minorities.
2. Research for current policies and measures that targets the indigenous community.
3. Reach out to different organisations/companies and discuss possible ways to cooperate together (e.g. hold a carnival to promote public awareness towards the indigenous community, organize a weekend market which the indigenous community can sell their handmade goods or self-planted products)

List any challenges, barriers or risks to achieving your objectives

• Language barrier: As Spanish is the main spoken language in Mexico while English might not be commonly spoken among the locals, we might encounter challenges when communicating and delivering our thoughts to the organizations and the indigenous groups.
• Time constraint: Given that we only have around a month to develop the event, it may be hard to find a suitable venue and invite other organizations or sufficient volunteers for the event.

Ideas to overcome barriers or challenges

• I have been learning some basic Spanish through online classes so that some basic communication can be done.
• In order to make the event more attainable in short period of time, we may focus more on the materials and resources we already have at that moment and utilize our creativity to turn it into a special event. (e.g. theme-based weekend market selling products made by the indigenous groups)

Milestones per week

What are the significant activities/objectives of the LiA project outlined by week? Please provide dates.

My Milestones