Abriendo Oportunidades is beginning the year with many activities. Girl clubs in Sololá are collaborating with a local organization measuring children under 2 years of age to participate in a nutrition project. Girls are learning to document weight and height and keep track of children's progress. The Vasquez group in Totonicapán is continuing to bring vegetables to girls' tables. Peace Corps volunteer Keisha Herbert and Abriendo leader Olga Yax are leading girls into transforming old tires into an opportunity to grow vegetables in every girl's back yard.
Another exciting addition to 2012 activities is rugby. The Guatemala Rugby Club is volunteering to organize sports clinics for girl leaders so that each club can incorporate rugby into their recreational activities. Rugby is perfect to learn about team work, building strategies, communication and respect. Each Abriendo club will get a basic rugby kit: a ball, a whistle and cones to mark the field. We know rugby will be a great success! Girls already play their own version of rugby, so we know they will enjoy learning from the GRC volunteers.
Stay tuned for pictures of the new gardens and the upcoming rugby clinics!
Dear friends and supporters of our Girl Effect Challenge,
We want to thank you once more for your support during this month. We raised a total of $5,259 from 134 donations, which is a great achievement for our first attempt at fundraising for Abriendo Oportunidades through Global Giving. We hope to continue raising funds to reach our $20,000 goal. We passed the $4,000 and 50 unique donations mark to be able to stay in the Global Giving site, which is wonderful. Please continue visit this page for updates and pictures of girls and young women engaged in activities from writing workshops to vegetable gardens to participatory video activities.
I also want to share with you this link to stories from some of our participants:
http://stirringthefire.org/blog/2011/11/18/marias-story-an-empowered-mayan-woman/
This week a film crew led by Phil Borges is in Guatemala documenting Abriendo Oportunidades activities and stories. One of the stories featured is about Irma, a young woman from Totonicapán who has been invited to speak at the international day to end violence against women in New York City next week. This is Irma's first trip outside Guatemala and will be very important in her life particularly because she will be presenting her testimony along speakers like UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and and the Executive Director of UN Women and former president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet. What an amazing way to begin international travel!
We hope that Irma's participation will bring attention to the needs of Guatemalan girls and adolescents and more interest in investing in Abriendo Oportunidades, girls and clubs.
Thank you again for your wonderful support, please check back for updates and continue telling friends and families about this opportunity to make a change in the lives of rural indigenous girls.
