In August of 2027, I had the opportunity to visit the first Knowledge for Change (K4C) Hub established in Mexico. The K4C Hub is Directed by Prof Rocío Cos of the Iberoamericana University in the Santa Fe district of Mexico City. The Iberoamericana University is one of several private universities in Mexico linked to the Jesuit order of the Catholic Church. The Jesuits have an historic record for their social justice mission. Rocío was trained as a K4C mentor in the 5th Mentor Training Programme with the residency held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The hub is a partnership between the Iberoamericana University and the Meneses Community Centre. The Coordinators of the Meneses Centre are Deyanira Morales Sánchez and Sofía Márquez Almanza.
The Centro Meneses is a community center that promotes social justice, training, and education in the western neighborhoods of Mexico City. Through listening and support, they create a social order that allows people to live with dignity, promoting social justice in the neighborhoods of Santa Fe by managing community-based research and social projects aimed at developing processes of community self-governance, the exchange of knowledge, and critical reflections on reality.
“Santa Fake” and Pueblo Santa Fe
The part of North Western Mexico city called Santa Fe, sometimes Santa Fe City, is a very wealthy area with the headquarters of well-known multi-national companies, prestigious hotels and homes of the super wealthy. It is also the home of the Iberoamericana University. But if you turn down one road from the modern Santa Fe City, you enter what is known as Pueblo de Santa Fe, the older part of Santa Fe where the street scenes look like smaller 
towns anywhere in the older communities of Latin America. Smaller buildings with hundreds of smaller business of all kinds, kids and adults in the streets, markets and the homes of the working classes of Mexico city. Street art, music and lots happening. The university students who work in the Meneses Centre talk about “Santa Fake” for that part of the city where the university is located, the wealthy part of town, and Santa Fe for the real Santa Fe. It is here where the Centro Meneses is located.
The Meneses Center has two main areas: education and community outreach. These areas encompass programs in nutrition, psychology, legal services, life and work skills training, basic education, upper secondary education, and educational psychology. Its programs are framed within Jesuit pedagogy, with three pillars of action: Popular Education, Citizenship and a Culture of Peace, and Sustainability. They support many “IAP” or Community-based participatory research projects which bring Ibero students together with mostly women living and working in the community. Through working together both the students and the community members gain experience in co-constructing knowledge to create better lives in family and community.
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