For more than half a century the farming community of Los Haro, in the Mexican state of Zacatecas, has been  sending its people to work in the United States.  Out-migration has become so common that Los Haro is now in severe decline, demographically, socially and economically.   The Los Haro Project aims to reverse this decline and create a better future for the community through programs that include youth leadership training, environmental restoration and new entrepreneurial activities.  The Project unites members of the Los Haro community living in the United States with those living in Mexico, along with friends and allies, all in a spirit of camaraderie and community service.  For more than 400 years Los Haro has survived as an independent village in the agricultural valley of Jerez.  Today the members of the Los Haro Project aim to ensure that Los Haro has a future, one that is vibrant and able to offer its youth attractive alternatives to out migration.  

See Summer Camp pictures Here.

The Los Haro Support Committee, based in Napa, California, is the organization spearheading this effort.   Formed in 2006, its principal program to date has been the highly successful Summer Camp in Los Haro, serving youth between the ages of 8 and 16.  Begun in 2007, and expanding each year, about two thirds of Camp participants live in Los Haro, and one third are the children of Los Haro natives now living in the United States. 

The Los Haro Support Committee is currently seeking to expand its activities to a year-round after-school youth program.   Activities will include an organic gardening project, a native plants nursery, community resource mapping, an oral history     project, as well as ongoing youth leadership training.  Eventually the Committee intends to introduce a youth-based entrepreneurial program that will set up a youth-run business that develops, produces and markets regional specialty products under its own label.  

The Los Haro Project as model 

The concept underlying the Los Haro Project is that migrants can play a constructive role in catalyzing  sustainable development in their hometowns.  Given that there are few successful efforts to date, the Project recognizes that much experimentation lies ahead.  It views its work as an on-going effort, requiring adjustment and refinement as it moves forward.  The Project intends to share its insights and experience with others who might be interested.  The hope is that lessons learned in Los Haro can serve as guide and inspiration to other migrant communities wishing to promote  development in their own home areas.

Coming soon:

--How the Los Haro Project began
--The Los Haro-Napa transnational community
--Migration and Development
--Hometown associations (HTAs): strength, weaknesses and opportunities
--The role of youth-oriented projects in catalyzing hometown development
--The role of academic researchers, sympathetic outsiders and activists in strengthening HTAs
--Building bridges between HTAs and institutions in the host communities