CDM Outreach Coordinator Lilián López recently celebrated her one-year anniversary with CDM. Since Lilián joined CDM in November 2010, she has developed the leadership capacity of members of the Comité de Defensa del Migrante (Migrant Defense Committee). The Comité is comprised of more than 40 migrants, ex-migrants, and their family members. The Comité members are leaders in their communities across Mexico, providing information about migrants’ rights. Lilián coordinates regional and national Comité meetings, which bring together migrant worker leaders to learn how to support their fellow migrants to defend their rights. She also develops Know-Your-Rights trainings and maintains regular correspondence with the Comité through community visits and the quarterly Comité newsletter. Lilián has built relationships with migrant-sending communities across Mexico to identify new migrant worker leaders in new communities and build solidarity between migrant workers from different regions. In 2012, Lilián and the rest of the CDM outreach team will finalize a new training curriculum for the Comité, expand Comité membership to include more women migrants, and train Comité members with the new curriculum so they can facilitate Know-Your- Rights trainings in their home and work communities. Thank you, Lilián, for all that you do!
We also thank Gracia Cuzzi for the time she has given to CDM over the past four months. Gracia is a third-year law student at the University of Miami in Florida. As a Law Clerk in CDM’s Mexico City office, she has provided valuable support to our legal and outreach teams. She is excited to carry what she has learned back to Miami as she continues to pursue a career serving the public interest. Thank you, Gracia, for all you have done for CDM. We will miss you, but send you off with our best wishes!