AND UNIQUE SPECIAL APROACH OF CIAM CANCUN A.C

Ciam Cancun is a project that evolved from several previous projects, lead by journalist and activist Lydia Cacho Ribeiro, Claudia Fronjosá, Magdalena Medina, Irma Mencarini, Edith Rosales, Darney Martinez, Fernando Espinosa de los Reyes and a group of other feminists. At present time we are joined by leading social actors of all the community and a magnificent team of 26 staff members. 

These initial projects where centered on human rights, women’s and children rights, civil rights and a need to transform the laws and the justice system of Mexico. Since the very beginning, the media played a special role in the development of our actual model. Journalism demands the ability of serious and formal investigation, and the search for the truth, the need to reconfirm certain information trough several sources, and the ability of the journalist to stay alert and protect him/her self from dangers inherent to the profession. Safety plans are important in this field. So we applied all these principles to our Model.

The initial group named “Estas Mujeres” had a radio show in public state radio for almost 5 years. That allowed us to work with a wide range of population. The program was centered on women’s rights and the right for a life free of violence. Most of them were community leaders in their fields and all looked for a space in the media as a group strategy. By 1993 all 8 members of the group where writing a weekly column on local media and doing grassroots work.

We understood the need for capacity building in the group, so each specialized in a certain area. Lydia Cacho did so in investigative journalism and the justice system. Celina Izquierdo, another member is in 2007 the leader of the Habitat Observatory for Violence in Benito Juarez County where Cancun is. Maria Rosa Ochoa worked in cultural issues, Priscilla Sosa in Ecologic and Gender issues, Bettina Cetto in political and Gender issues and publishing. Miren de Izaurieta in Psychology. Myriam Cacho in psychology and alternative medicine, etc.

Paulette Ribeiro, Lydia Cacho´s Mother was a well know psychologist that trained the group for a long time in several areas of victim protection, workshop instrumentation and the creative development of tools for working and advance in effective ways in a violent and corrupted country. Including the importance of emotional and spiritual health of the team (respectful of any or non religious faith). 

RULE # 1:
Never underestimate the power of corruption.
To develop a model that could be effective in short and long term in Cancun, Mexico, we studied and assessed for years the following areas:

• The legal system and the need for new laws and implementation
• The map or violent crimes and lack of statistics
• Characteristics of victims and aggressors
• The local and State police department  corruption and effectiveness
• Immigration services corruption and effectiveness
• State social services
• Health services for victims of violence
• Media as a source of information and as a network to investigate crimes.
• Number of Youth Gangs and areas where they develop
• Organized crime involvement with government agents and business man
• Danger assessment on filing crimes to different police depts.
• Interpol and Europol as a protection source in case of emergencies
• National and International NGOs as information and protection networks.
• Effective Shelters in Mexico, New York, Texas and Spain. Strengths and weaknesses in different victim protection protocols.
• New and effective approaches to overcome Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in different medical areas, Traditional Medicine, Alternative and  Modern Medicine.
• Chances and strategies to overcome poverty due to violence and inexistent or weak Public Policies regarding gender issues. (Education of victims, studies, capacity building, access to a safe work environment)
• Political protection: international asylum for victims of gender violence
• How to rescue and protect victims in case they are threatened by organized crime, state agents, wealthy businessmen, traffickers or foreigners.
• Effective internal capability to profile criminals and execute immediate response for team safety and security-emergency plans.