By Jessica Pasquarello | Communications and Development Fellow
The Women’s Justice Initiative continues to make strides towards building a more equitable world for indigenous girls in rural Guatemala, despite heightened challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. WJI has successfully completed programming with adolescent girls from 6 communities and made significant progress in a pilot program with adolescent boys focused on shifting gender norms and building healthy masculinities. Together, these programs help improve girls’ knowledge of their rights and transform local norms and attitudes that condone child marriage. We’re excited to share the following updates on these two programs:
Adolescent Girls Program:
In recent months, 198 girls have graduated from the Adolescent Girls program. WJI conducted the program in a total of six communities in Tecpán and Patzún. The girls in each community (ages 10-17) participated in bi-weekly workshops focused on learning and asserting their rights, delaying marriage, and achieving their personal goals. To limit COVID exposure, WJI divided cohorts into smaller groups of girls and switched to bi-weekly workshops covering two topics.
Across the communities, WJI saw positive changes in girls’ attitudes, increased knowledge, and greater confidence. Survey results demonstrated an increase in the percentage of girls that can name types of violence against women and girls and a decrease in the percentage of girls that agree that only boys should be in school if the family is short on money. The average age at which girls would like to marry increased from 20 years old to 24 years old.
In the months to come, WJI will continue our work with adolescent girls by launching the program in an additional three communities in Tecpán.
Adolescent Boys Pilot Project:
WJI has successfully implemented a pilot program with boys called Healthy Masculinities that runs parallel to the Adolescent Girls Program in three communities in Patzun. The first cohort graduated in August 2021. Through the program, 67 adolescent boys participated in workshops on topics related to machismo and healthy masculinity. WJI has noted initial successes with high participation of boys and their families and an acceptance of topics introduced. WJI will conduct a full evaluation of the program upon completion, in order to inform our efforts moving forward.
WJI also held the first joint events with participants of the boys and girls programs, in a half day-long event, which included interactive activities and games focused on preventing gender-based violence and early marriage. As part of the Encuentro, participants learned to play Maya handball, a traditional Mayan game. These events provided a space for positive socialization among 144 children from three communities.
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