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- We are a 100% volunteer-based team (partly based in Jackson, Mississippi, Merida & Yaxhachen, Yucatán) of artists, anthropologists, writers, photographers, health students, and community members, which means that we have a diverse skillset and are great collaborators. But more importantly: no wasted dough (aka your money is going straight to giving theses cuties ^ creative opportunities).
- Large-scale creative projects, like mural making and collaboration with the embroidery collective promote community fellowship, cultivate economic development, and explore local heritage and folklore.
- In the summer of 2014, 78 kids graduated from Camp Ko'ox. This year, we hope to increase the number of kids involved in the camp by 25%.
- Kids are tasked with projects that cause them to think dimensionally about who they are, how they see the world, and how they want to present their ideas to YOU, through our social media and blog.
- We develop curriculum based on our values, rather than an end goal. We value creativity, joy, details, mutual respect, self-determination & FUN, all in the pursuit of social equality.
Creating leaders
Meet Enrique Xul Us, one of the young artists of Yaxhachen, as he takes you on a bike ride to see something beautiful in his community.
We put cameras into the hands of aspiring filmmakers, thanks to donated cameras and monetary donations, and we plan to do it big time this summer at Camp Ko'ox. Help us to give artists the opportunities to write their own stories.
Developing Markets
One of the greatest obstacles that the people of Yaxhachen face is economic opportunity.
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"Yaxha" answers this problem by bringing the products of the artisans to YOU. Yaxhachen boasts a long-standing tradition of making white dresses embroidered with beautiful floral patterns, called huipiles. These huipiles echo the cultural heritage and specific history of the Yucatec Maya people. Under the leadership of Brandon Guichard, Ko'ox Boon has established an economic development project, which helps a large local co-op of embroiderers to design an all-new clothing line. The goal of the projects is to lend these female (and one male) artisans the support that they need to use their skills, thereby contributing to family economies and spreading awareness of Maya culture.
Why give?
Besides the feel-good of giving to a good cause, get Ko'ox good style!
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Our perks are a way for you to connect directly with the artisans. All of our perks are hand-made, unique products that emphasize our mission. Show the world that you believe in the power of art!
How did Ko'ox Boon come about?
meet our founders
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While working as an archaeologist in the jungle of Yucatan, Mandi Strickland (left) became friends with her local employees (granted, she could become friends with a brick wall). After a couple of summers, Mandi took her good friend Allie Jordan (right) to visit her friends in the small pueblo of Yaxhachen (2013). Like Mandi always did, Allie had a complex emotional experience: she had to reconcile the reality of poverty with the beauty of a chorus of young, high-pitched voices offering her mangos and beseeching her to play. Meeting a group of people like this who are so open and kind despite scarce resources and language barriers led us to wonder, what can we do with our talents and resources to give back to this community?
A few months later, Mandi had the idea to buy paint for a community mural. She called Allie and Phillip Boyett. In the summer of 2014, Allie, Mandi & Phillip not only achieved their original goal of painting a mural, but also painted a second mural, repaired broken playground equipment, restored the public outdoor theater, and began a daily kids’ art camp involving a consistent 78 children for six weeks (BOOM) with the help of OVER 50 ADULT VOLUNTEERS on a budget of $3,000 (which they raised by selling limited-edition, wood block carved prints from Hound Dog Press in Louisville, Kentucky).
Join the movement!
And we keep growing & growing & growing & growing
Our team is amazing--full of energy and ideas. Learn how to join us here.
What else can you do?
Even if you can't give monetary donations, doesn't mean you can't help.
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Donate your used camera! Ko'ox Boon Director of Creative Education, Sara Sacks, works with the local high school (it's only two years old!) to provide extracurriculars. She has created a film club along with a women's soccer team (the first every women's sport team!). Put cameras in the hands of these students (it's not like you use your digital camera anymore anyway!).
Sustainability
how to keep it going
- Buzzword: sustainability. Everyone's talking about it these days. Not just, how do we make social change, but how do we make it sustainable?
- Casa Yaxha is our answer to the sustainability question. By creating a place to attach the meaning of our flourishing programs, we make something permanent, something that's always there with a local leader in control.
- Community partners. From the start, we have partnered with passionate community members to carry out our ideas. By vesting the responsibility of Casa Yaxha in the hands of local employees, we give the power to the community.
Yaxhachen is a pueblo (rural town) in southern Yucatan, Mexico with about 2,000 residents. If you look at the town on Google Maps (http://tinyurl.com/psvtodw) you'll notice that there's only one road in or out, and it's surrounded by milpas, small farm plots, and a deep green forest. On the ground, you'll see thatched-roof houses hung with hammocks, smell smoke from wood ovens heating hand-made tortillas, and hear people greeting each other in Mayan. In Yucatec Mayan, people don't ask how you are, they ask you, "How is your road?" (Bix a bel?). The normal response to that question, is ma'alob, which means "good" but sounds a lot like the word for bad in Spanish, malo. One resident described life in Yaxhachen saying, everything that's good (bueno) is ma'alob, and everything that's bad (malo) is ma'alob. In other words, "it's all good."
However, life is hard for these people. Subsistence farming is unreliable because of the lack of irrigation, and
residents of Yaxhachen struggle to find work because of the lack of jobs
locally and low levels of formal education. Health problems like diabetes have
become common in the town as residents consume more cheap snack foods, and
living in close proximity to farm animals and inhaling smoke daily from wood
fires also create health problems among members of the community. Ko’ox boon
strives to address these issues by creating opportunities for residents to
supplement their incomes through embroidery and by promoting healthy eating and
handwashing during our creativity camp and art projects.