Growing, nourishing, transforming, and healing our communities has been at the center of Tewa Women United’s heart work since our founding in 1989. This year has brought challenges to all of us. We know the only way we get through this is together.
This year, as Pueblo and Española Valley families felt the stress of growing economic hardship and loss of federal government benefits; as people of color, immigrants, and trans people have been targeted; and as we experience increased threats to reproductive rights and our environment, Tewa Women United has stepped up to provide advocacy, support, resources, and increased opportunities for connection.
Our work is made possible by your generosity. We no longer depend on federal grants, so your donations are essential to keep us going. We invite you to stand with us and make a year-end gift that will enable us to sustain this work long into the future.
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ADVOCATING FOR OUR EARTH MOTHER
Everything begins with Nung Ochuu Quiyo, our Earth Mother. She is literally the ground we stand on and we are dedicated to advocating on Her behalf, protecting the most vulnerable, and ensuring that our communities have access to clean water, air, and foods to sustain our wellbeing.
Our Environmental Justice (EJ) Program staff took the lead in a fight to stop a Los Alamos National Laboratory operation to vent radioactive tritium. We partnered closely with a number of organizations in the Communities for Clean Water coalition and shared research on the impact of tritium on infants and children (thanks to Dr. Arjun Makhijani and Bernd Franke). Our EJ staff worked tirelessly to mobilize community members to participate in meetings and submit public comments.
In July, our collective pressure resulted in the New Mexico Environment Department refusing to issue temporary authorization to the Department of Energy (DOE) for the operation until certain criteria were met, including an independent technical review and tribal consultation. While DOE and LANL eventually did receive authorization and conducted the operation in October, thanks to our advocacy efforts, they set stricter exposure limits and gave more frequent reports on emissions. We will continue to demand greater transparency and genuine partnership in future decision-making.
We do our best to balance difficult struggles like this with proactive and generative projects like the Espanola Healing Foods Oasis (in its ninth season). Along with our two seed libraries (one at the Española City Library, one on our campus) and quarterly SovereignTea events, these initiatives provide community members with engaging ways to learn about food and seed sovereignty as well as issues that impact our shared environment.
Our EJ staff did amazing community outreach through the year, showing up in places ranging from Española’s Farmer’s Market to Earth Day at Albuquerque’s Balloon Fiesta Park. The team provided health resources for community members in the wake of the LANL tritium operation as well as in response to climate change realities like intense heat waves. During 2025, more than 400 people participated in our EJ-related workshops, events, and met with us at community settings.
We also were present at much of the 2025 New Mexico Legislative Session and celebrated the passage of HB 128, the Local Solar Access Fund which issues planning and implementation grants to Tribes, counties, municipalities, school districts, and land grants for solar and storage projects.
PROTECTING REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND SOVEREIGNTY
Our dedicated Reproductive Justice (RJ) Program staff supports bodily sovereignty, safety, and dignity for everyone in our community. Over the past year, our RJ team held several listening sessions to better understand what community members need to support their wellbeing and reproductive health. As a result of this process, we added bilingual and Spanish offerings, and now have three monthly support groups – a Grief and Loss group, a Perinatal circle, and a bilingual circle with Somos un Pueblo Unido – to support families and community members in an inclusive and caring way.
Since 2008, our Yiya Vi Kagingdi Community Doula Project has provided services for the whole family, across generations, to encourage everyone to gather around the new parents. We offer moms and families emotional, physical, and informational support throughout pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum. In 2025, our doulas and student doulas have had the honor of welcoming 19 new babies into the world!
Our YVK Full Spectrum Community Doula Training is built upon a Reproductive Justice framework, weaving resiliency practices with the reclamation of birth knowledge in our local communities. In March, after seven months of deep learning, dedication, and heart-centered work, 10 students graduated from the YVK Training, marking the continuation of a sacred legacy of care, advocacy, and cultural reclamation.
One of the year’s high points was the passage of HB 214, the Doula Credentialing and Access Act, during the 2025 New Mexico Legislative Session. Thanks to the hard work of many individuals and organizations, including the New Mexico Doula Association and TWU, this legislation improves access to affordable, culturally humble, and affirming doula care for all communities in New Mexico.
As part of our ongoing support for the state’s doula community, we held five Doula Hubs, attended by more than 60 people. Each hub focused on an aspect of professional and personal development, including training doulas on how to obtain Medicaid reimbursement.
We offer a wide range of wellness and reproductive justice care items for all residents of Rio Arriba County, especially Indigenous families, from menstruation to postpartum and beyond, including reproductive health items like Opill (over-the-counter contraceptive pill), condoms, disposable underwear, menstrual underwear, reusable pads and menstrual cups, and pregnancy tests.
This Spring our Gender & Generational Healing Justice Program, in partnership with Free Flow New Mexico, established a Period Pod on our Espanola campus. The Pod provides year-round free access to period products, ensuring that anyone can obtain them with complete anonymity.
In October we held a Reproductive Health Community Clinic and Market/Mercado to connect community members to resources and local healers and healthcare professionals.
STRENGTHENING YOUTH AND FAMILIES
We know that children and youth are our future, and we are committed to nurturing their understanding of respect (a’gin) and consent. We believe this is one of the most powerful ways to transform a culture of violence into a culture of peace. Our Gender & Generational Healing Justice (GJ for short!) Program staff is key to implementing this approach.
During this past year, A’Gin Youth events – council meetings, monthly intergenerational game nights, summer camp, and educational/social outings to sites like Valles Caldera National Preserve in the ancestral Jemez homelands – drew nearly 400 participants. In addition, GJ staff presented the Healthy Sexuality and Body Sovereignty curriculum to 219 students in the Pojoaque Valley School District in the fall of 2025.
Thank you A’gin staff for this experience! My three kids enjoyed this excursion to Valles Caldera. By supporting the children, you’re supporting me as a parent. I truly appreciate TWU’s A’gin Program.
Our skate initiative aims to support leadership capacities in our young people and to create a community hub where people of all ages and abilities feel welcomed. Located in the heart of Española, right next to our EHFO, Valdez Skate Park has been a focus point for this project, as youth take the lead in organizing for a safe, inclusive space. In October, we held a skate jam event, “Love Shouldn’t Haunt You.” Dozens of people of all ages came out, even on a stormy afternoon. In November, 15 youth attended a city council meeting to advocate for trash cans and adequate lighting to improve the safety of Valdez park for all community members. We are so proud of them!
While we center women and girls in our work, we know that boys and men are essential to the healing of our communities. That’s why we are part of the Healthy Masculinities New Mexico coalition. In July we hosted a training day for 13 community educators from the Institute of American Indian Arts, YUCCA, Trujillo Family Farm/Orchard/Catering, Ixchel First Aid, and Nambe Healthy Families, as well as three youth facilitators and a nurse from the Pojoaque Valley School District, who can now share the updated Healthy Masculinities Toolkit with their communities.
We extend support to families as well, with our Reproductive Justice staff offering workshops and classes for parents and caregivers. Monthly Parenting Circles covered topics ranging from car seat safety to infant massage, and we offered a special Spanish-language version of Circle of Security for six families. We also launched a free weekly perinatal yoga class, with babies welcome to attend!
With SNAP and WIC benefits interrupted for many families in our community, we distributed 115 bags of diapers for 58 infants. We also maintain a community closet where families can find clothes, toys, and much more.
We invite your support for our heart- and cultural-based approach to social transformation as 2025 comes to a close. Your donation makes initiatives like these possible that strengthen the heart of our communities and lift up land-based lifeways.
Kuunda woha / thank you!