By Pueblo a Pueblo | Pueblo a Pueblo
As the COVID-19 pandemic wears on, Pueblo a Pueblo is embracing all safety precautions to continue meeting the needs of our constituents. In accordance with government restrictions, all of our typical in person programming with beekeepers, youth leaders, and women entrepreneurs has been suspended. However, our entrepreneurs are still working hard on their projects!
In recent month, our beekeeping teams in both San Pablo and Santiago Atitlán have been tending their hives, and are awaiting the next harvest. Senior Beekeeping Technician Genaro Simalaj has been keeping in touch with both beekeeping teams via phone calls and online skills workshops. Although the transition to technology has been challenging, Genaro is thrilled to still have a way to reach the beekeepers.
In Santiago, our beekeepers are managing eight hives, and just recently harvested 22 pounds of beeswax! As this is their first year participating in the project, their virtual workshops have explored topics like monitoring and feeding the bees as well as how to clean the hives. Our San Pablo team, already in their third year, is thriving and caring for over 20 active hives!
Similar to our beekeeping teams, our youth leaders have continued learning about entrepreneurship through online workshops with project coordinator Hony. Just a few weeks ago, youth leaders in San Martín learned about business planning, and drafted a business plan that they hope to begin in March of 2021. In Patzilin Abaj, youth leaders recently learned about CANVAS, a basic business model that helped them plan out their finances and goals for the coming year.
Finally, our women entrepreneurs have continued their partnership with Days for Girls, a global nonprofit dedicated to increasing access to menstrual hygiene products. Here in the Santiago Atitlán community, women entrepreneurs are helping sew reusable menstrual hygiene products for the Days for Girls kits. In recent months, ten women have been participating in the project, but in 2021 we hope to expand the project not only to include more women but also diversified forms of entrepreneurship projects as well!
As we look toward the coming year with hope, Pueblo a Pueblo is proud to support secondary income generating projects like these. We hope to make 2021 a year of entrepreneurial growth so that more community members have a chance to rebuild economically after such a challenging year. Thank you for believing in Pueblo a Pueblo’s vision of promoting sustainable change through entrepreneurship. Your support is invaluable to the empowerment of rural Guatemalan entrepreneurs!
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.