The Trail Continues: Youth Leading the Way in Guatemala
Amongst the hundreds of diverse grassroots organizations in Mesoamerica we’ve been learning from over the past year, the vast majority face shared challenges.
In every country and nearly every conversation, the inclusion of youth has been brought forward as one of the most pressing.
Without opportunities for work, young people leave these communities. And without young people, the impactful initiatives that have been built can not be carried forward. This is a multi-faceted challenge, and political and economic instability across the region make it even more complex.
Against this backdrop, though, we’ve come to know so many grassroots organizations working creatively to bring youth to the forefront of their efforts.
We’ve worked with FUNDEBASE, for example, to support an Indigenous coffee cooperative and their community youth group. Cafe Xinca is a cooperative of Xinca coffee producers in Guatemala that have expanded agroecological growing methods, built a collective brand, and strengthened their community’s economic independence. Through our partnership, they’ve acquired crucial machinery and supplies and have also developed a youth group that carries out community-based science. Currently, the group is working to test local rivers and waterways, which supports the community in protecting their resources while enabling youth to step forward as environmental leaders and scientists.
In other Guatemalan communities, our partner Utz Che’ is bringing youth into agroecology and food sovereignty efforts. Several community seed banks we’ve supported are now managed and staffed by young people, providing important resources to local producers and important employment opportunities to local youth.
In addition to agroecological and coffee producers, our collaboration with the Ford Foundation has connected us to several community-based eco-tourism initiatives in Guatemala. From leading online marketing to working as trail guides in community forests, youth are playing an increasingly important role in models that generate income for local communities while protecting the landscapes that sustain them.
In every corner of the region, local people are finding solutions.
Our role is to support and invest in these solutions, knowing the scale of the challenge requires this to be a deeply collective effort.
Young people are the future, and we must participate actively in building that future today.
