Train 80 Guatemalans in Civic Advocacy

Almost a year already since you supported our first giving season crowdfunding campaign! We learned a lot in that campaign and have continued to learn many things since. This year, we won’t be running a crowdfunding campaign, but we are hosting at least two events over these next few months with the hopes to continue training Guatemalans in civic advocacy. If you are in Antigua, Guatemala, or Boston, Massachusetts be checking out facebook page (@liderazgoguatemala1) to learn about these exciting events!

In the last three months we have facilitated several high-quality personal and professional growth opportunities for Central Americans, including the project we mentioned in our last update with the survivors of Volcano Fuego’s devastating 2018 eruption. With another local organization, SERES, the ALG team went to Escuintla four times to offer an introduction to restorative practices training. For every training we had participation of 10 people, many of which worked for the community governing system. Each of the participants of the training were leaders of some variation and will be integral to transforming the neighborhood of shelters they live in into a healthy and thriving community. We were consistently delighted by the interest and commitment to applying the principles we taught each session. It is our hope that the leaders take the learning they encountered in our trainings and bring them to the areas within their community that need it the most. After more than a year of living in these shelters, the community is aching for some healing and ways to be more active in deciding their future. Restorative practices are the way for them to achieve those goals. 

This is the last report we will be writing for this project and we just want to take a minute to thank you for your help in strengthening the local leaders of Guatemala so that they can be the change this country needs to move forward. Your partnership is invaluable and we are deeply grateful. Stay connected through Global Giving, Facebook (@liderazgoguatemala1) and instagram (@guatemalaliderazgo). 

Wow! August already! It feels impossible to our team that we are already over half-way through with 2019. The year so far has been full of new collaborations and connections, which all are in line with the mission to increase the constructive impact of leaders across Central America.

In our last report, we shared that we would be going to Puerto Barrios in July to offer the Traveler’s Workshop there. The Traveler’s workshop, of course, is the very project for which we created this Global Giving Campaign and it is a project that is very near to the heart of ALG since it brings crucial skills to community leaders in rural areas so that they may increase democratic conversation and engage the communities they serve in new ways. However, due to a recent development with another time-sensitive project we had to postpone our trip to Puerto Barrios this month. We know that the Puerto Barrios community is still interested in receiving these skills, and we remain committed to offering this workshop before the end of this year.

The time-sensitive project is with the survivors of 2018’s fatal eruption of Volcano Fuego. Most of the community members who were displaced by the fatal eruption remain in the refugee-like camps they were placed in during the days that followed the devastation. In alliance with another community organization named SERES, ALG will be training the community leaders from these camps in the methodology of Restorative Practices with the hope that they use these practices within the groups of people they lead. The uses for Restorative Practices are many -- they can be used for mental health support, for conflict resolution, for decision-making, community building and much, much more. This work is urgent because the survivors of the eruption have been living in temporary refugee-style camps for over a year now. Given the context these people live in and how long they’ve lived there, the need for communication skills and the ability to resolve conflicts correctly and restore their sense of community. We’ll be providing the training in five visits to Escuintla, where the community resides, and each training will last three hours.

After the end of this project with SERES, we will return to organizing the Travelers Workshop with the hopes of having another date confirmed by our next report. As always, thank you for your continued support of our work!

After months of coordination, we have confirmed the date and location for Taller Viajero 2019! By request of the members of our community, we decided that this year we would travel to Puerto Barrios, Izabal, on the far eastern side of Guatemala to give that community a day-long intensive training in participative leadership. On July 27 we will gather with 40 community members that represent the cultural diversity of the region, including indigenous people of Q’echi and Garifuna groups and ladinos, to accompany them through a learning process based in the methodology of Art of Hosting. By the end of the day, our goal is to see that these Guatemalans feel confident in their capacity to facilitate complex conversations in their families, communities and workplaces such that all Guatemalans experience an increase of peace, justice, and understanding in their lives.

The plan for this training was made in collaboration with a graduate of ALG's leadership program, Karen Dubois, a leader from Izabal. Karen works at FUNDAECO which is an organization committed to environmental issues and human rights in the north-eastern region of Guatemala. We are very grateful for our alliance with this organization since they have built, over many years, collaborative networks among key actors in this region of the country. Through FUNDAECO, Karen is in charge of inviting community leaders to attend the Taller Viajero and finding the best possible space in the community to carry it out. This workshop is truly collaborative from its conception and planning, which is why a partnership with Karen is so key. She will connect us with community leaders who our team will meet with in order to hear from them what the needs of the community are. Together with these leaders we will build the central question on which we will design the training. It has to be a question that touches the real need of that community and therefore must arise from the community itself.

Staff members Flor Garcia Mencos and Lucy Estacuy will be joined by faculty member and expert María Mercedes Galvez as they travel eight hours the 26 of July to be ready for the training which starts early the morning of the 27. Puerto Barrios is a city in the department of Izabal, named after the massive lake that dominates the department. This region covers the eastern seaboard of Guatemala and for that reason is very hot most of the year. This training will give our team members the opportunity to connect with some of the graduates from ALG’s principal program, the Certificate in Leadership and Collaboration, which is always a delight. After the event, we’ll be sure to share some photos and testimonials from the day with you all. We are so grateful for your support! For live updates on our work, be sure to follow us on instagram @guatemalaliderazgo

The new year found Asociación Para Liderazgo en Guatemala immersed in a flurry of exciting work. Flor Garcia Mencos, our Executive Director whose foto is found above, jumped straight into program planning and even facilitated a few trainings in Restorative Practices. Accompanied by Administrative and Logistics Coordinator, Lucy Estacuy, Flor visited the San Antonio Aguas Calientes Community Municipal Center photographs of which can be found in this email. The visit was coordinated by a graduate of ALG's Certificate in Leadership and Collaboration who wanted to see the Traveler Workshop, the intensive day-long training camp in civic participation which your generous donations will support, happen in his community. Flor and Lucy loved the town and the community space and decided that San Antonio Aguas Calientes would be an ideal location for one of the two Traveler Workshops. The other workshop will take place in the Izabal department located on the eastern seaboard of Guatemala. Both of these locations are home to several members of ALG's growing network of leaders. 

Because interviews and selection for the members of the 2019 cohort of leaders in our Certificate in Leadership and Collaboration takes up the majority of our time in January and February, planning and preparing for the two Traveler's Workshops will start to pick up in March, though as I mentioned we have already decided on the locations and have begun coordinating with the spaces we have selected to determine the dates. For the next report, these details will certainly be available. Thank you, once again, for your support of this program and of ALG. We hope you enjoyed reading this update and look forward to sharing with you even more news about this project in the future.

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El año nuevo encontró a la Asociación Para Liderazgo en Guatemala inmersa en una serie de trabajos emocionantes. Flor García Mencos, nuestra Directora Ejecutiva cuya foto se encuentra arriba, se incorporó directamente a la planificación del programa e incluso facilitó algunas capacitaciones en Prácticas Restaurativas. Acompañada por la coordinadora administrativa y de logística, Lucy Estacuy, Flor el Centro Municipal Comunitario de San Antonio Aguas Calientes que se pueden encontrar por fotos en este correo electrónico. La visita fue coordinada por un egresado del Diplomado en Liderazgo y Colaboración de ALG que quería ver el Taller del Viajero, el campamento de entrenamiento intensivo de un día en participación cívica que sus generosas donaciones apoyarán, suceda en su comunidad. Flor y Lucy amaban la ciudad y el espacio comunitario y decidieron que San Antonio Aguas Calientes sería un lugar ideal para uno de los dos Talleres de Viajeros. El otro taller se llevará a cabo en el departamento de Izabal ubicado en la costa este de Guatemala. Ambos lugares albergan a varios miembros de la creciente red de líderes de ALG.

Debido a que las entrevistas y la selección para los miembros de la cohorte de líderes de 2019 en nuestro Certificado de Liderazgo y Colaboración ocupa la mayor parte de nuestro tiempo en enero y febrero, la planificación y preparación para los dos Talleres para Viajeros comenzará en marzo, aunque como mencioné que ya hemos decidido las ubicaciones y hemos comenzado a coordinar con los espacios que hemos seleccionado para determinar las fechas. Para el próximo informe, estos detalles seguramente estarán disponibles. Gracias, una vez más, por su apoyo de este programa y de ALG. Esperamos que haya disfrutado leyendo esta actualización y esperamos compartir con ustedes aún más noticias sobre este proyecto en el futuro.

Links:

• Learn about our January Leader of the Month!