Help Prevent Child Marriage in Rural Guatemala

WJI continues its work preventing gender-based violence through education and comprehensive legal services in Kaqchikel for rural Guatemalan women and girls. We are excited to link our 2021 Annual Report, which shows the advances we made in 2021, including our exciting expansion into two new municipalities and an ambitious step towards regional engagement through the USAID-funded Women’s Economic Empowerment Initiative, where we provide rights education and leadership development workshops to women entrepreneurs in Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras. In the past few months, WJI has also made significant progress to empower rural indigenous women through the Adolescent Girls Program and Women’s Rights Education Program.

A New Cohort of Adolescent Girls to Begin in October

Following a successful semester where 91 adolescent girls from the communities of Pamanzana, Panimacoc, and Xejaví graduated from the Adolescent Girls Program, WJI will soon enter two additional communities in Tecpán, Paxorotot and Chirijuyu. Girls and Adolescents, under the guidance of Community Advocates and WJI staff, will learn about their rights, decision-making skills, and how to delay marriage and unions until they are emotionally and financially ready. During this program, the young women develop life plans that help them identify their goals and achieve them. To our delight, WJI has also observed mutual reinforcement between the adult Women's Rights Education Program and the Adolescent Girls Program. Of the adolescent girl participants in Tecpán, Elvia Raquec, WJI’s Director of Programs, says, “it is incredible to see how prepared the girls in Tecpán are. Because their mothers completed the Women’s Rights Education Program between 2019-2021, many of the girls are enthusiastic to finally have the opportunity to participate in a WJI program themselves and are able to deepen the knowledge and skills they see their mothers demonstrate in the home.”

An August Filled with Graduation Celebrations

WJI’s Rights Education Program conducted 18 graduation ceremonies for women participants this past August in San Juan Comalapa, San José Poaquil, and San Martín Jilotepeque. In addition to the standard celebration through food and fellowship, WJI staff recognized the accomplishments of the Rights Education Program graduates and the Community Advocates who have played a tremendous role in facilitating workshops and bridging the divide between indigenous women in rural communities and legal services in Kaqchikel through legal accompaniment. In several communities, community leaders attended the graduation to show their support of WJI’s gender-based violence prevention work and the effort of local women to know and exercise their rights. Congratulations to the 382 graduates!

Links:

• WJI 2021 Annual Report

May 2022 GlobalGiving Update: Investing in Rural Women & Girls to Build Safer Communities

Since January, the Women’s Justice Initiative has continued to make strides towards strengthening women’s knowledge of their rights, shifting attitudes about violence against women and girls, and  increasing access to comprehensive legal services. WJI imparted the skills needed for 52 women to reduce early unions and child marriage in their families in Tecpán, began to train the next group of Community Advocates in San Martín Jilotepeque and San José Poaquil, and provided workshops to women entrepreneurs in Honduras through the Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Initiative. We are so excited to share the exciting progress we have made.

Adolescent Girls Program

In addition to WJI’s programming offered to adolescent girls,mothers attend workshops for the same six-month period as their daughters. The mothers learn strategies to prevent violence in their families and early unions of their daughters. In May 2022, 52 mothers graduated from the program, excited to implement their knowledge in their families and create a brighter future for their daughters. If you’d like to check out some of the ways mothers take action to end cycles of violence in their families, we invite you to watch this video featuring the mothers who participated in the program in Tecpán.

Community Advocates Begin Training in San Martín Jilotepeque and San José Poaquil

After a detailed selection process, WJI has selected 48 women from San Martín Jilotepeque and San José Poaquil to begin training as Community Advocates. These women, who are selected based on their leadership potential, language skills in both Spanish and Kaqchikel ( a local Mayan language), and strong desire to help other women in their communities, attend bi-monthly trainings. In these trainings, they learn how to provide grassroots legal support to women in their rural communities, how to become leaders and advocates to prevent gender-based violence in their communities, and how to facilitate workshops, teaching other local women to know and exercise their rights. This group of 48 women is unique because of their rapidly developing skills in workshop facilitation–some women are already independently leading their own workshops, even after just a few months of intensive training.

WJI Successfully Trains Honduran Women Entrepreneurs

As part of WJI’s activities in the Women’s Economic Empowerment Initiative, two members of WJI’s team flew to Honduras to train women entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs in the artisanal chocolate and coffee industries, both historically dominated by men, learned the skills to defend their rights, gain confidence, become active decision-makers, and become more powerful economic forces in their communities through female solidarity. Through this initiative, WJI is contributing to a stronger network of female entrepreneurs and leaders.