The landscape for unlocking the "Girl Effect" in Guatemala is extremely challenging, but Estrella de Mar's holistic approach to development is breaking barriers. Guatemala has the worst gender inequity gap in the hemisphere, and opportunities are especially limited for the indigenous population. Estrella de Mar empowers young Mayan women with education and also equips them with tools and resources to ensure their long-term success and infinite impact, ultimately breaking the cycle of poverty.
90% of Guatemalan adolescents receive no job-readiness training. In a country where roughly half the population is Mayan, only 12% of employees of small businesses and only 20% of employees in medium to large businesses are indigenous. This exclusion, combined with the stunningly low levels of secondary school completion rates in rural Guatemala, explain the cyclical nature of intergenerational poverty.
Once they graduate from high school, Starfish Girl Pioneers join the New Horizons network where they gain access to various income generating strategies such as training on how to "job search," skill development workshops, professional mentoring, and career shadowing and internships opportunities. Starfish partners with local small businesses, non-profits and government offices to create employment opportunities. Graduates are also connected with various university scholarship application.
The New Horizons program directly addresses the lack of access to job training and formal employment opportunities, as well as the ability to continue working towards a university degree. The New Horizons program currently consists of 78 high school graduates. This program provides means of addressing the otherwise daunting knowledge gap that would otherwise keep these girls and their families from participating in the formal economy. This step unleashes the Starfish girls' infinite impact.
This project has provided additional documentation in a DOCX file (projdoc.docx).
