IdeaMe is an online platform, which helps creators, be they inventors, artists, or designers, among others, to finance their projects through crowd funding. The Indy features and promotes one project every week, with the aim of helping the creators finance and achieve their dreams. This week: Water in the Desert.

Chihuahua and Sonora, two of the biggest deserts in the world, expand beyond the Northern border of Mexico into the USA forming an inhospitable territory for Mexican migrants trying to cross the border illegally. It is estimated that up to 250 migrants die every year attempting to cross these vast dry lands. The area is also home to the native nomads of the Tarahumara people.

Aiming to help these two vulnerable groups of people, the Mexican red cross had a simple, quite bizarre-sounding idea: installing water-fridges in the desert.

The Red Cross aims to place 20 unmanned water stations at strategic points in Sonora and Chihuaha in order to support people traversing the desert. The refrigerators run without electricity – transforming the heat into energy – and have space for 80 water bottles each.

The Mexican Red Cross needs funding in order to buy the materials, produce the fridges, install them and purchase the first stash of water bottles.

Donations range from US$8 to US$55, and you will be credited as a donator on the website of the Mexican red cross. The first 50 people who donate US$55 or more will receive a CIEL de PET T-Shirt and their name will be printed on one of the tents of the water stations.

To find out more about the project or donate, click here.

David Liaño, a Mexican mountain climber, reached the summit of Mount Everest for the second time at 4.30am yesterday. In doing so, the 33-year-old became the first person in history to scale both the northern and southern sides of the world’s tallest mountain during one climbing season.

Liaño reached the peak of Mount Everest yesterday after climbing the northern face of the mountain, its Tibetan side. He completed the southern face on 11th May, beginning at the mountain’s base in Nepal.

A few hours after reaching the summit, Liaño stated from his twitter account that he had, “arrived again at the top of the world, right at sunrise”.

Asian Trekking, the climbing agency that helped organise the expedition confirmed Liaño’s feat yesterday morning and announced it to the public. The agency congratulated Liaño for breaking the world record and wished him “a happy descent”.

The peak of Mount Everest stands at 8,848 metres above sea level. Last year alone, ten climbers died while attempting the infamous trek.

Liaño’s record comes 60 years after the first ascent of the Himalayan mountain by Edmund Hillary and Tenzig Norgay.

More details about Liaño’s climb will be given after his descent.

In front of thousands of pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis held his first canonisation ceremony, in which two Latin American women were proclaimed saints. The pope selected María Guadalupe García Zavala from Mexico and María Laura Montoya Upegui from Colombia, both founders of religious orders in their countries.

María Guadalupe Zavala (1878-1963) co-founded the ‘Servants of Saint Margaret Mary and the Poors’ order and Laura Montoya (1874-1949) established the ‘Congregation of the Religious Missionaries of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Catherine of Siena’. They both devoted their lives to humanitarian actions – helping the poor, the ill, and the indigenous groups of Latin America.

Pope Francis said the example of Mother Lupita – as Zavala was called – should encourage people not to “engage in themselves, in their own problems, their own ideas, their own interests, but to go out and meet the people who need care, understanding, help and other assistance.” The Mexican was beatified in 2004 after the Vatican acknowledged her with two miracles, including the inexplicable healing of another Mexican Abraham Arceo Higaresa, who suffered from severe pancreatitis.

Mexico has a total of 30 saints, of which 25 are martyrs.

The pope also praised Colombia’s first saint, saying that she “brought hope among the indigenous groups and while doing so respected their culture.” The Catholic Church also acknowledged two of her deeds as miraculous: the healing of a 87-year-old woman suffering from cancer and another healing of a physician Carlos Restrepo in 2005. Restrepo attended today’s ceremony.

The president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, was one of the distinguished guests who attended the ceremony with a large delegation from his country.

The new saints’ list also included over 800 victims who were beheaded by Ottoman soldiers in 1480 in the southern Italian town of Otranto after refusing to convert to Islam. Francis’ predecessor Pope Benedict had announced this canonisation on 11th February, just before resigning that same day.

According to a new report by UNESCO, Honduras has the world’s highest number of journalists assassinated per capita.

UNESCO has published several reports on the dangerous situation in Honduras, documenting the escalating number of journalist deaths in recent years, which reportedly peaked last year. In 2012 alone, 20 journalists were reportedly killed in the country and many others subjected to threats and attacks.

According to UNESCO, Honduras also has the highest general number of murders per capita: 92 people out of every 100,000.

A report issued by the Honduras National Human Rights Commission (CONADEH) at the end of March revealed that in the 35 months in which President Porfirio Lobo Sosa has been in office, “at least 27 social communicators lost their lives in violent ways, a quantity which represents 79% of total registered homicides against journalists since 2003.”

Since 2010, the Honduran department of Francisco Morazán has reported ten journalist assassinations, followed by six reported in Cortés, three in Atlántida, two in Olancho, two in  El Paraíso, two in Colón, one in Yoro, and one in Lempira.

The CONADEH report stated that in all but one of the 27 cases, no one was held responsible for the killings.

UNESCO also considers Syria and Mexico to closely follow Honduras in terms of high-risk environments for social communicators. According to a report issued in correspondence with Mexican law Article 19 requiring the publication of the number of journalist assassinations in the country, 74 have been murdered since 2000.

A report by the Federation of Associations of Mexican Journalists (Fapermex) indicates that at least 49 associates and family members of social communicators were also assassinated in Mexico within the same time frame.

On 3rd May, World Press Freedom Day, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova stated that in the last ten years more than 600 journalists have been assassinated internationally, with impunity for those responsible in 90% of the cases.

A gas tanker has caused a fatal explosion on a Mexican highway, killing at least 19 people. The blast occurred at around 5am local time in San Pedro Xalostoc to the east of Mexico.

The explosion occurred after the tanker collided with a wall on the highway between Mexico City and Pachuca, one of the busiest routes in the country. On top of the 19 confirmed casualties, a further 36 were injured. 15 cars and 20 homes have also been damaged, according to local media.

The secretary of security, Salvador Neme, confirmed the number of fatalities via his Twitter account. “19 people have unfortunately lost their lives,” he wrote. It is reported that many of the victims are inhabitants of the surrounding houses, many of whom were asleep when the truck crashed.

Resident Carlos Gonzalez Silva, told local radio that the accident was like “a ball of fire. We opened the door and it was like fire had blown through the whole of the garden.”

The army arrived on the scene while civil defence personnel cordoned off the area shortly after the incident. According to reports, the tanker overturned on the 14km highway after colliding with a wall that divides the motorway. The driver of the truck was injured and is currently under arrest in hospital.

A similar accident occurred in 1984 killing at least 500 people. The hundreds of trucks that transport fuel everyday on the Mexico-Pachuca Highway not meet the minimum-security requirements, according to recognised authorities.

The highway is set to reopen over the next few hours.

One year after the murder of Mexican journalist Regina Martinez, more than 400 activists marched in the state of Veracruz on Sunday to demand justice in her case and protest the growing violence against members of the press.

Martinez, a journalist for Mexican investigative news magazine Proceso, was found beaten and strangled in her home last year. She was known for her investigative stories on drug cartels, human trafficking, and state corruption. A local court ruled her death as the result of a robbery, but independent investigations imply she was murdered because of her work as a journalist.

Article 19, an organisation devoted to promoting freedom of speech around the world, has investigated the case and says “we are very far from knowing the truth.” A brief post about their investigation outlines why they think Jorge Antonio Hernandez Silva, the man convicted in the robbery and murder of Regina Martinez, is not truly responsible for the crime.

“In November 2012 [Jorge Antonio Hernandez Silva] confessed to the murder and said that robbery had been the motive,” the report said. “When the suspect appeared in court, he admitted that the lives of his family had been threatened and that he had been pressured into giving a false confession.”

In a statement released by Article 19 yesterday, they also addressed the concern that out of eight fingerprints taken from the crime scene, none of them belonged to Hernandez Silva.

The Martinez case is emblematic of the frustration Mexicans feel as violence against journalists increases in the country. The National Commission for Human Rights stated that since 2000, 81 journalists have been murdered in Mexico. Another study by Article 19 showed that since the beginning of 2013, 50 attacks on journalists have been reported: a 20% increase from last year.

The city where the protest and the Martinez case took place, Veracruz, is considered the most dangerous region for journalists in Mexico, with nine media professionals killed and three disappeared between May 2011 and June 2012.

The criminal group associated with drug trafficking known as the ‘Knights Templar’ has forbidden various companies from distributing their products in Mexico’s disputed Apatzingán region.

The group has threatened to burn trucks belonging to the food and service industries, should they operate in the region over the next three weeks.

The companies targeted by the organisation include: Sabritas, Marinela, Bimbo, and Barcel, alongside gas and cable companies, refreshment companies, breweries, and water bottling companies.

Flyers which were distributed primarily on social networking sites read, “as from today we shall make it as clear as possible that you are prohibited from supplying your products to the populations of Buenavista, La Ruana… and Tepalcatepec” and went on to specify that the ban would last between “15 and 20 days, maybe more”.

Business owners, who have yet to receive an official stance on the authenticity of the claims, have nevertheless appealed to the government for help.

The president of the business council in the province, Carlos Gálve, had this to say, “it might be that at the end of the day this is just a rumour, but it will be us, the business owners, who will discover this. Truly, we are very worried by this situation”.

Their fears are not unfounded. In May last year, armed commanders from the Knights Templar set fire to Sabritas facilities in three towns in the region and two in Guanajuato. They claimed that the company was lending its trucks to the army to enable it to carry out undercover operations.

In keeping with the upcoming discussion in the Senate as regards a possible reform in telecommunications, the Mexican chapter of the World Association of Community Radio (AMARC) is seeking legal recognition for 34 of its projects.

AMARC Mexico released a statement demanding that 33% of radio waves be reserved for community and indigenous broadcasting. By doing so, Mexico would be acting in accordance with international standards for human rights and would meet the recommendations of diverse freedom of speech organisations.

In Mexico, community radios face significant problems when trying to obtain permission to broadcast. The Federal Telecommunications Commission, which is in charge of granting legal permission for broadcasting, imposes severe restrictions.

In light of the above, AMARC Mexico has demanded that the arbitrary awarding of endorsements and consent to broadcast be eradicated. This would guarantee the economic livelihood of radios, without compromising their autonomy and independence.

Lastly, the organisation has also insisted that the harassment of radio Totopo in the Southern city of Oaxaca, and its radio projects in the state of Michoacán, be ended immediately.

Harassment of journalists is Mexico is not uncommon. Earlier this morning, the site of the newspaper Mural, in Zapopan in the Mexican state of Jalisco, was attacked. According to local authorities, two explosives were detonated.

As part of a vicious circle of violence, the attack comes only hours after the country’s main magazine, Proceso, denounced threats received by one of its journalists who is currently investigating the assassination of another journalist at the same paper in Veracruz a year ago.

Story courtesy of Agencia Púlsar, the AMARC-ALC news agency.

Teachers’ unions took to the streets of two major Mexican cities yesterday in protest against the new educational reforms approved by President Enrique Peña Nieto’s government.

Tens of thousands of teachers in the states of Guerrero and Oaxaca, southern Mexico, protested against the reforms driven by the government. Unions say that these reforms will lead to students having no guarantee of free public education, and that the education system is becoming a business.

Local media reported that teachers entered four radio stations in the Guerrero capital of Chilpancingo de los Bravo, and targeted headquarters of the state congress armed with stones, sticks, tomatoes, and eggs. Meanwhile, in Oaxaca, tens of thousands of members of the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE) blocked access to shopping centres and declared the reforms a part of the “privatisation of education in Mexico.”

The reforms come after a major bill passed in December by the Mexican Congress which seeks to install a system of evaluation of teachers, with the aim that teachers are hired and promoted based on professional qualities, rather than simply the designation of unions.

The protests came as an immediate response to Nieto’s warning, whilst on a tour of Asia, that the government “will not allow setbacks in the implementation (of the reform) or any attempt to pressure or jeopardise the initiative.”

The teachers’ unions have since announced further protests for Thursday, as well as calling for the occupation of public buildings.

Mexico is home to around 112 million people. Only 64% of children complete their primary school education, 13% earn a degree, and 2% earn a graduate degree, according to estimates by several non-governmental organisations.

According to a recent report in Mexican magazine Proceso, as the country’s residents grow tired of the increasing danger in the region, more and more citizens are creating self-made, armed police groups.

“It seems that authorities want us to defend ourselves on our own, so we will,” said Manuel Hernández, resident of one of the neighbourhoods with a self-defence militia. “We will make our own defence groups, and we will start making rounds in the communities to chase the criminals.”

The members of this particular Veracruz group said they recently made citizens’ arrests of three criminals belonging to the ‘El Barrio 13‘ gang, who were responsible for several assaults and burglaries in the area.

After the arrests, they handed the criminals into the Attorney General’s Office. Since then, the criminals have been released. The Attorney General’s Office said that although the criminals confessed to crimes, they were released on bond.

Citizens came to the state capital in protest of the criminals’ release, but were told they could not do anything to change the outcome. This is just one example of the lack of safety in the area that Mexicans are protesting.

Between January and now, there have been at least 14 self-defence groups developed in the states of Jalisco, Guerrero, Morelos, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Chiapas, and Michoacán. Reports show that in Michoacán, one of the most violent states in Mexico, at least 44 armed groups have been counted.

Mexican authorities have condemned these groups. In February, Government Secretary Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong said the Mexican state “Does not agree with the establishment of self-defence groups” in the country, news agency Púlsar reported.

Raúl Plascencia Villanueva, President of the National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH) also condemned these groups, saying “taking justice into their own hands violates the Mexican Constitution.”

Despite the condemnations by authorities, as unabated violence continues in Mexico, citizens will likely continue to develop similar armed groups.