The Association of Highland Women will mentor 250 rural young women for success through the women's circle program that organizes weekly mutual support groups. Programming includes peer-to-peer counseling, health and nutrition education, literacy, civic participation, leadership, and enterprise development. The process starts with improved cook-stoves that provide women with the energy and free time to participate in empowerment programming facilitated by local social workers.
Indigenous Guatemalan women have experienced heavy discrimination and exclusion. This has greatly limited their access to a self-dependent job market and positions of power, increasing their dependence on a male-dominated culture. Because of this dependence, the women have not been on an equal par with the men for behavioral health, economic development, and education.
AMA works with Mayan women at the roots of the inequalities to develop success and sustainability. This project provides improved health through quality stove systems and resources for peer to peer counseling programs; education for training women in life skills to better their literacy, nutrition, health, and self-dependence; civic participation to assist with making decisions for the community; entrepreneurial development to promote job skills with a market oriented approach.
Using AMA's Theory of Change, it is shown that when women practice a better well-being and participate in the local economy, the overall health and socioeconomic status of the community improves. AMA has provided resources to support the empowerment and self-driven success of more than 5000 women in the highlands of Guatemala during the last 20 years.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
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