Following a model that has met with huge success in the United Kingdom, a new magazine is offering homeless people in Mexico City the opportunity to work as street vendors. The first edition of Mi Valedor (My Supporter) was released last month, with the aim of lending a voice to the homeless and assisting in their reintegration into the community.
Mi Valedor magazine follows a business scheme established by the British Big Issue, a publication that has helped thousands of homeless and unemployed make money without begging since 1991. The Big Issue started as a monthly publication but grew into a weekly magazine that now sells 100,000 copies an edition.
“I always thought that Mexico needed a project like this,” said Maria Portillo, the director of Mi Valedor, told Mileno magazine recently. “But I never thought I’d be the one to do it.”
Portillo studied painting in London and contacted the British organization to ask for support with the logistics for launching a similar magazine in Mexico. 
The first edition of Mi Valedor will run to 3,000 copies. Vendors buy the magazine for five pesos ($US33 cents) and sell it for 20 pesos ($US1.30).
The editorial team comprises of six individuals who are responsible for writing, designing and editing the publication. Following on from the Big Issue, the magazine will feature coverage of music, arts and popular culture. Homeless advocacy and social issues will also be included, and the magazine offers space for vendors to collaborate artistically and tell their own stories.
Mi Valedor belongs to the International Network of Street Papers, an organization supporting more than 120 street papers in over 40 countries.
Convincing homeless people to join and effectively participate in the scheme has been a challenging process.
“They are not used to working to a schedule, even a flexible one,” said Regina Rivero, the editorial coordinator of the project. “They have taken awhile to adapt and understand the benefit of investing their earnings in buying more magazines rather than spending all the money from the first batch.”
What’s more, vendors are required to observe a strict code of conduct when they work, and are forbidden from selling while drunk or under the influence of drugs, begging or selling in private spaces. Homeless vendors must be members of a social reinsertion program.
The Mi Valedor team is hoping to emulate the success of the Big Issue and grow in influence along with vendors.
“Most of these people aren’t thieves or drug addicts. They are people who have grown up on the street and haven’t had any other way of viewing the world,” Portillo said. “We want to give them a voice so they can say they are in the street, who they are, and what they do. We want to break down the stigma, as much for us as for them.”
Homelessness is a problem in all of Mexico’s major cities and the homeless are a highly vulnerable group, with higher rates of drug abuse and mental illness and an average life expectancy of just 25 years.