The Sexto Sol Center For Community Action

I said it in 2012, and it still rings true today! Tamara has dedicated her life to helping others. She spends every waking moment doing incredible grassroots work in so many vital areas for the communities and the environment. Her mission at Sexto Sol to create sustainable and holistic change, empowering others to move forward into healthier, happier futures is inspirational. I would encourage anyone to support this cause.

The Sexto Sol Center for Community Action supports and empowers indigenous and impoverished communities in remote areas that receive little to no real outside help. The work they do is essential and lifesaving. They work hard to help these communities thrive by helping to regenerate severely damaged land, using permaculture techniques, transforming dead zones where nothing will grow into thriving areas where many different trees and plants now grow. The Sexto Sol Center has provided aid and comfort in places where the community has been devastated by natural disasters such as fire, flooding,or volcanic eruption. They have ongoing reforestation projects, growing and planting hundreds of trees. In addition to all of this, they work tirelessly to bring clean running water to these communities, freeing them from the exhausting and time consuming chore of hauling water, which greatly benefits their health and well being.
The Sexto Sol Center does amazing things with limited resources in the face of many obstacles. They truly embody the saying "Where there's a will, there's a way", and for that, so many communities are extremely grateful.
This is important work, done with heart and integrity, deserving of our recognition and support.

Unlike others, I haven’t had the opportunity to visit Tamara and Sexto Sol in Chiapas, but I have followed on line the extraordinary work they do. Tamara’s interests and involvements spread far and wide. For a number of years she has been very generous with her time helping me maintain necessary communication with a disabled farmworker client of mine who lives in a remote Chiapas village. Chiapas and Guatemala (and we in the north) are very fortunate in the work that Tamara and Sexto Sol are doing to maintain and improve the lives of those they serve.

My husband and I direct the Nagata-Yamauchi Educational Fund (NYEF) and work in Central America. We have known Tamara Brenan for many years and have always admired Sexto Sol's work. Her dedication to improving the human condition and making the world a better place continues unmatched as does her knowledge of the issues confronting the powerless and the poor in Mexico and around the world. Most notable are her relationships built on trust and friendship with the people whose lives she touches. From potable water to environmental preservation projects, very few independent NGOs in southern Mexico improve the human condition as well as or better than Sexto Sol. In my opinion, Sexto Sol deserves all the praise and support possible. One of the bright hopes we need to confront the global challenges that besiege us.

Sexto sol has helped a lot of people in motozintla, Inmigrants and locals always with the flag of the human rights.

Is really nice that non-profit Like this, stay actives. Taking care of the most vulnerables.

I had the chancee to meet Tamara from Sexto Sol about ten years ago, She with her partners came to Guatamala to give psycological help to those people who were had lost their loved ones, and whose comunnities were completely wiped out by volcanic material. Sexto Sol was of great help to those people who were in shock and did not know what to do.
May God bless SEXTO SOL.

The work and programs that Sexto Sol continues to offer amazes me. I first came to know of them through their Fair Trade actions for coffee growers near Motozintla, Chiappas, Mexico. They are now helping bring running water to those remote regions, facilitating crop irrigation. During earthquakes in southern Mexico and Guatemala, they provided aide and trauma counseling. I was honored to be part of Sexto Sol's video sending messages of love and support from around world to the survivors of the horrific quakes in Nepal. Sexto Sol an Incredible and impactful non-profit doing so much with so little. A little more help for them will go a VERY long way in making life so much better for those often underserved.

En nombre de mi barrio Tierra Linda doy las gracias al Instituto Sexto Sol por habernos apoyado con el proyecto de agua potable. Agradecemos tambien que cuando nos hizo falta otras mangueras para el sistema de distribuicion del agua, buscaron como apoyarnos con la ayuda de sus donadores. Muchas gracias.

I was fortunate enough to be able to remotely volunteer for the Sexto Sol Center during the spring in 2021, and am just amazed by the work that Tamara and the rest of the Center are able to achieve. This nonprofit truly enacts change, and creates a lasting impact on the communities that they serve. Thank you for such an amazing learning experience, and I hope to one day be able to visit!

-Sara

The Sexto Sol Center never ceases to amaze. The most impressive thing they have done over the past couple of years is to seek and receive help that has brought water access close to home for several communities in the Sierra Madres in Chiapas Mexico. The work that this center does for and with the indigenous communities of the region is beyond commendable, and a lesson in optimism and dedication, and deserves much recognition. Director Dr. Tamara Brennan is a mover and a shaker if there ever was one, and all is for the common good.

To: Great NonProfits:

I have been an avid and constant supporter of Sexto Sol since their inception twenty (20) years ago. I have always been amazed and proud of the significant difference they make in the lives of so many people. When a need is discovered, Sexto Sol goes to work to fill the immediate need as well as developing a long term fix. There have been a significant number of projects over the years as Sexto Sol strove to meet the needs of the people they serve. One of their most recent projects of bringing potable water to those who would otherwise not have it, is an excellent example of the work they do. A need was defined, and Sexto Sol gathered the resources and the work necessary to address the issue. People who have not had clean water in a decade now have it thanks to Sexto Sol.

Sexto Sol does not swoop in and fix a problem on their own. Instead, they encourage the people who will benefit from the problem's resolution to work together in the effort. This approach brings together people from various communities, all contributing their time and talents as they work together to satisfy a specific need they all share. Opening lines of communication and friendly support of one another empowers people to improve their way of life. Solving one problem together leads them to joining forces to address other mutual needs.

I am proud of my association with Sexto Sol and have given them a page on my official web site. I want all visitors to my site to learn about Sexto Sol's invaluable work. My hope is that visitors will donate their time and money to support this extraordinary organization.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
Edward James Olmos

I first met Tamara Brennan 15+ years ago in Portland, OR. giving a talk about Sexto Sol and the many great projects she inspired and created there, that I felt inspired to do service projects myself in the US and around the World. In 1997, I was a board member and fabricator for GoBioDieselCoop, in Portland, OR. to bring BioDiesel production, education and workshops converting waste vegetable oil as fuel for Diesel engines. Not just in the Pacific NW, but Koro Island, Fiji, New Orleans (after hurricane Katrina), VerdEnergia.org in Costa Rica, US Virgin Islands while inspiring many other individuals to switch from fossil fuels. My hope along with Tamara's is to establish a sustainable plant based fuel oil project in and around Mexico and the Central America's.

Over the years I have felt Sexto Sol worthy of my financial support and, tho I am on a small pension and S.S., I would gladly give more of time and money to support their work.
Everyone within Sextol Sol who contributes to the environment, family, volunteers and supporters around the world serves as an example to the whole world.

I was also proud to share a song I wrote called, Upon The Wind, for "Videos For Nepal" inspired by Tamara, which was broadcast world wide. Hopefully in the future, I would be willing to bring my skills as a retired union Pipe Fitter and Welder as a teacher and fabricator. These skills could help further the water projects to rural areas Tamara and the workers have created at Sexto Sol and many other rural areas. People in these regions would not have these basic rights in many cases because of past wars and environmental destruction of the land, water and air. All of which these crafts and skills building would not have become a reality.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions via my email address: loren.fennell@gmail.com

With all due respect,

Loren Fennell

I have been following the work of the Sexto Sol Center since they began. I have witnessed Sexto Sol as a dynamic, visionary nonprofit that avoids band aid fixes and instead seeks to contribute to long-term community enrichment. They've been improving lives, inspiring people to work together, and creating solutions for impoverished communities with passion and excellence for 20 years. In all their work, they are committed to preserving threatened cultures and working for the human rights of indigenous people. With lionhearted determination, they do what it takes to empower communities to implement solutions that improve the quality of life.

I am an industrial designer. I am traveling around the world, and my goal is to learn and help in lots of projects.

I worked with the Sexto Sol Center for over a month when I was living in Mexico, a few years ago. The center is very efficient in their activities, both local and global.

Their impact is two fold.
One the one hand, they develop community action programs, focussed on solving concrete problems. For instance during my time there, we worked on connecting with locals who needed water systems to enable them to have access to good water in their homes. Since then, 7 projects have been completed, helping 9 villages, or over 6,000 people.
On the other hand, the Sexto Sol center has an important educational role. They teach (among other things) permaculture farming techniques to locals in Mexico, empowering them to farm in a way that improves the quality of the soil they farm on, and creates a greater yield of nutritional food. This educational role also extends to the volunteers that they work with. In my time there, I learnt a vast variety of skills and gained a lot of knowledge about both permaculture and water systems, which I have been able to apply in various locations around the world, including in projects in Peru, Chile and Argentina.

The people running the Sexto Sol Center are hugely passionate about what they do, as well as knowledgable and efficient in the management of their projects. I highly recommend them.

I'm working with Sexto Sol, once in a while, for around two years helping Tamara with technology solutions. Sexto Sol have made a lot of types of works in Mexico, Guatemala and most recently Nepal. The most impressive things about Sexto Sol for me is how they can manage such different type of work and how Sexto Sol works, not just helping people giving them the solution for the problems but also teaching them. They aren't just giving men a fish but also teaching them how to fish, so they can manage the improves by themselves later. They do an awesome work even with very limited funds. It shows they can manage well they funds being responsable and really doing the Sexto Sol's proposals.

Tamara Brennan and her Sexto Sol Center for Community Action is a shining example of how an insightful dedicated activist could be the change we want to see in the world. I am a witness to her sacrifice as she held the space and took the practical steps to manifest the and grow her grassroots movement to help the under-served in Chiapas Mexico and South America through a multitude of programs. From Helping Chiapas become economically sustainable by personally making the connections in the US businesses for the organic coffee growers, to helping people heal from the PTSD of natural disasters through training a team of people traveling and administering to those in desperate need. Tamara is the feminine divine in action. She has inspired many to join her movement around the world.

I was able to volunteer a few years ago at Sexto Sol in Chiapas. I was so impressed with the breadth of local, regional and international projects including a recycling program in the town to water delivery projects in regional villages to a response to the Nepal earthquake, to name a few. While I was only there for a few days, I witnessed the director's respect for the dignity of all the recipients. The focus is on empowering people to help themselves, in their own way. We need more organizations like this in the world!

I've known the founders for over 25 years and think very highly of them. Since Hurricane Stan decimated the area they've brought water systems back to 6,000 people in 9 villages. They do a great deal with very little. They've expanded from Chiapas to Guatemala and soon Nepal.

I’ve known Tamara since 1989 when we met in Guatemala. From that very moment, her energy and vision to improve the human condition through empowerment burst from her thoughts and actions.

Sexto Sol programs are the fruits of her and her husband’s steadfast dedication to this mission, to empower the disadvantaged poor with tangible and intangible development assistance. From water projects to emotional healing programs, and everything else in-between, their efforts must be supported to assure the people in her area of Mexico “develop”, not only from a material but also from a human empowerment standpoint – empowering people so they can help themselves.

As a director of a U.S. non-profit, I’ve supported Sexto Sol over the years because I know and trust her values and motives and would not risk my resources if I didn’t. Indeed, Tamara and her family live on an extremely tight family budget because unlike many non-profit groups in this world, they don’t sponge off donations that are directed for specific program areas.

Thus given what I know and the fact that Sexto Sol is an example for the world to follow, it’s a gross understatement to say Sexto Sol deserves all the support people can give. There’s no doubt donors will get the “biggest bang possible for their buck”!!!

Sexto Sol is a NGO living and working there where the action is. On an everyday basis you are able to learn as much as you want by talking to Tamara, reading her books, and doing interesting work. As a volunteer you totally embed yourself into the local culture as a free tourist observing and experiencing unmediated reality. Personally this was a life changing step towards a broader view on traveling and life in general. To be able to work and make a long term difference in such an environment inspired me to broaden my way of thinking and living in the future. If you want to really help and inspire other people, this is the place to be! Thank you so much!!

I volunteered for Sexto Sol in the summer of 2003, before I started graduate school in hydrology. I was simply looking for a safe opportunity to contribute in a developing country and learn some Spanish. Instead, I had a life-enhancing experience that continues to provide me with positive inspiration, and I gained insight that improves my empathy in my daily life. I also gained two new best friends (the co-directors). Instead of pursuing an academic career in hydrology, I have chosen to teach high school math at a Title 1 (AKA poverty-stricken) school in Texas. It has been 9 years, but the psychological/sociological insight that I gained during my two months in Motozintla is being used to positively impact my students today. Sexto Sol is beyond efficient in its use of funds, and accomplishes WAY MORE than any other non-profit could accomplish with the same budget. There are very few non-profits that I choose to financially support; I could count them on my hand (my church, my college, and Sexto Sol). However, my loyalty lies with Sexto Sol, and any spare dollar I have will go to them for many years to come. After 9 years, after getting married and having a child and gaining many other responsibilities, I have decided to return this summer to assist them again, in their work to support the communities around them. Is Sexto Sol ethical and responsible? YES! Is Sexto Sol making a positive impact? YES! Should you support Sexto Sol? Resounding, emphatic, YES!

The outstanding qualities of love for the poor, frugality, good financial management and the results they have attained with very limited funds helping people rise above poverty are reasons we have financially supported the Sexto Sol Center for Community Action for 10 years. They lead relief efforts when mud slides destroyed a village. They teach coffee growers how to improve quality and production and help them get fair prices for their coffee. They teach methods to increase vegetable yields in home gardens. They developed an improved lighting system for a school. They teach care and protection of the environment. Through innovation and dedication they are able to meet needs and improve the lives of the poor near the Mexican / Guatemala border. I recommend Sexto Sol Center to all.

Tamara is the paragon of dedication, passion, and vision. She is there on the ground, doing incredible grassroots work in so many vital areas for the communities and the environment. Sexto Sol's work is also grassroots, helping create sustainable and holistic change so that those they serve may move forward into healthier, happier, more empowered futures. Truly, I am inspired by the work this organization does.

In the time I spent volunteering with Sexto Sol in May 2012, I was amazed to see the sheer breadth of projects and successes this dedicated team accomplishes in Chiapas and Guatemala. We learned how to install bottle lights into dark classrooms, helped start a single mothers cooperative, made recycled aluminum cans into efficient kitchen stoves, and spent many rewarding hours working in the vegetable garden. I was sought out Sexto Sol because not only do they employ sustainable agriculture and permaculture techniques in their garden, but their goal is to share these techniques with the surrounding community to increase food security in Motozintla, a town where fresh local produce is a rare and expensive commodity. They are a great team, worthy of support!

Tamara Brennan and Francisco Barrios are two of the most dedicated and energetic people I have ever met. Their tireless work has empowered vast numbers of rural Mexican and Guatemalan citizens to overcome poverty and injustice. The breadth of their work is amazing, ranging from reforestation and teaching permaculture to organizing coffee-grower and other cooperatives to their latest work addressing disaster-induced psychological trauma.
To say I was impressed on a brief visit in 2002 would be a vast understatement. Since then I have done all I can to assist them both financially and as a volunteer and encouraged others to do the same.
If any organization deserves a seal of excellence it is The Sexto Sol Center for Community Action.

I have known the leaders of Sexto Sol for over 15 years. They are truly dedicated to improving the lives of people in Mexico and Guatemala and doing so in an environmentally sound and sustainable manner. They bring cutting edge ideas to the local level and generate innovative solutions. They empower local residents while educating the broader public, including North Americans, about economic and political issues in Mexico and Central America. They do terrific work!

My wife and I have known and supported Sexto Sol for many years. We keep being amazed at the wide range of projects and the excellent work they have done, all accomplished on a tiny budget. Director Tamara Brennan and her husband put their heart and soul into this work, and it pays off in the many successes of this organization. Would that other NGO's could be so effective!

I have followed and supported Sexto Sol Center for Community Action for many years. They stand in the breach for the poor farmers of the area, responding to needs as they present themselves; Providing food and medical supplies to isolated victims after the mudslides following deforestation; bringing in medical and psychological experts to help deal with trauma after the devastation of the area; helping coffee farmers get certified as organic farmers,' providing colorful new furniture for local schools: creating a new inexpensive lighting system for dark school classrooms, teaching elementary students when local schools proved inadeuate. The staff is creative, innovativve, dedicated and desperately needed in the area they serve. They're a top notch organization and very deserving of your stap of approval

What Sexto Sol does for the people with whom they live and work is not only extraordinary, it it also essential. While respecting and supporting the culture of the indigenous people, there is also ongoing work for present and future betterment. Sexto Sol is involved in areas ranging from education to agriculture; the goal is always to bring a sense of accomplishment and worth to the people who help themselves build a better future for them and their children. I have been a proud supporter and volunteer for many years. Actor/Activist Edward James Olmos also supports Sexto Sol whole-heartedly, and he has worked with me and them to make sure that gifts from his fans turn into donations to this most worthy cause.

My experience as an intern at the Sexto Sol Centre in 2006 was life-changing. I was amazed by the dedication of the staff and the tangible results achieved on the ground - from improving food security by teaching permaculture, to improving livelihoods by helping coffee farmers obtain fair trade certification to treating hurricane victims for post traumatic stress disorder with auricular acupuncture- each project that they undertake is developed based on the needs of the communities they serve. I feel that the work they do really has an impact on the people of the Sierra Madre in Chiapas as well as the repatriated refugees in Guatemala. It is very rare to see a small NGO produce such a large impact - and this is possible due to the dedication and patience of their staff. Since my time there i have continued to keep in touch with the Dr Brennan, and I am constantly amazed by how they are able to achieve so much with very limited resources.

I visited the Sexto Sol Center and found that the staff are totally dedicated to their work. This work includes helping refugees get resettled, teaching sustainable agriculture methods and nutrition, working with parents and schools, and training rural health workers. What really struck me was the flexibility of the programs Sexto Sol creates. They respond to whatever needs present, working to help local people overcome poverty and alienation. I would have been a volunteer if I had been able to stay longer. There is no waste or poor spending at the Sexto Sol Center, and the staff are not self-indulgent. All money goes to the programs they run.