As a part of MIT’s D-Lab: Gender and Development class, our team of MIT, Wellesley, and Harvard students traveled to Colombia with the goal of building and fostering the MMUC (Mujeres Mineras Unidas en Colombia) social movement via a co-design conference with MMUC leaders. Upon our arrival in Medellin, we met with mining engineering students from UNAL (Universidad Nacional de Colombia) to schedule the January 2025 MMUC conference. We reviewed surveys that we had carried out with MMUC leaders through co-design workshops in the D-Lab class and identified issues faced by the mining women who comprise MMUC.
The first day of the conference kicked off with an introduction from Aida Luz, the president of MMUC, and continued on with a “walk of empathy” ice-breaker activity between D-Lab students, UNAL students, and MMUC leaders. The next activity involved brainstorming goals that the MMUC leaders and members would like to work toward in 2025 and writing them down on cards. Overall, the goals fell into four main pillars: education, economic diversification, gender-based equity, and environmental/nursery care. These goals involved discussion amongst MMUC leaders and MIT, Harvard, Wellesley, and UNAL students and considered material, social, and logistical factors. These moments are particularly memorable because they created and fostered emotional and relational bonds between students and MMUC leaders.
At the heart of the MMUC conference is participatory design and co-design – both of which are hallmarks of D-Lab’s endeavors. In collaboration, students and MMUC thought through different activities, projects, and/or relationships that could be helpful in addressing the primary issues identified above. Instead of the conventional “one party designs or plans for another party,” with co-design, both parties integrate their experiences and resources to design and/or create some form of product. This novel approach allows nuanced design that is befitting to its context, which is particularly applicable in cases of social movement building like with MMUC. Co-design’s ability to clarify values allows for project design which is more conducive to success. This was useful mid-conference when the D-Lab team and MMUC leaders were creating statements of values and missions that informed later collaboration and project design.
MMUC leaders present their plans to mitigate gender-based violence in mining territories and to promote gender equity
During the latter portion of the conference, the D-Lab team and MMUC leaders worked synergistically to create timelines for the four different projects, which were planned to satisfy the four main goals of the MMUC leadership. Schedules, contact lists, goals, and missions were clarified for each of the four main areas. It was important that the projects were feasible and could be accomplished within a year’s time, but in the name of pushing the movement forward, we all wanted to create ambitious goals. From running management courses with MIT/UNAL certification for mining women in Colombia to creating a community-based greenhouse to hosting intimate conversations among the mining women in harsh conditions, the MMUC leaders and the movement as a whole have a lot to look forward to in the coming year.
MMUC leaders share their small posters that were created as starting points for project designs, activities, and schedules.
In order to successfully implement these four projects, we focused on structuring MMUC leadership and brainstorming guiding bylaws in the hopes of strengthening the core of the movement and increasing representation of miners in the leadership. During co-design workshops in Fall 2024’s D-Lab class, strengthening the MMUC movement and its structure was a primary goal reached by the leadership and D-Lab students. Thus, during the last day of the MMUC conference, the leadership decided on re-electing leadership members every August (with a focus on increasing representation) and meeting as leaders every month so as to ensure continued strength and structure. They also decided on limiting official membership to those who can attend 10 out of 12 meetings. With these guidelines, the leadership hopes to cement longevity and better address the problems faced by mining women.
Timeline Visual for MMUC 2025 Projects
Participating in the co-design MMUC conference was an eye-opening experience. For one, it highlighted the difficulties engendered by international development and social movement building as well as language/cultural barriers (which are almost always present). These endeavors can take a lot of work and time, and things can still quickly go awry. On the flipside, being in a room full of people with the same hope, determination, and long-term values is conducive to fostering strong connections and solving complex problems once thought to be insurmountable.