A year ago I was able to visit Guatemala's Highlands in Huehuetenango to interview some participants of the Personal Advance and Career Enhancement (P.A.C.E.) project implemented by PCI.
The goal was to meet women who wanted to share their stories on how the project let them express theirselves and find their worth.
Guatemala's highlands still have a very patriarchal system that doesn't let women access to education nor jobs, serving only as a mothers and spouses. And women's self-worth is often low.
PACE project entered to give women a safe space to share their experiences and offer them some advice on communications, decission making, problem solving and water and sanitation practices.
Here are some photo stories of the wonderful women I got to meet.
Dona Magdalena's husband Antonio has seen the change in her wife's self steem, Magdalena shares everything she's learned in her group meetings making Antonio interested in how they can use that knowledge in their everyday life and taking decissions as a family.
As a mother of two, Magdali always knew that their communication skills as a family could improve, after completing PACE's curricula she now has developed a better communication system with her husband, nowadays her husband is more involved in their childs development.
María told us that she found the Time Management module really helpful, she used to spend her day at home doing mostly chores, she thought she was being productive and didn't like asking for help. Now she delegates her chores with her family and finally has more time to spend for herself, she is a natural leader and doesn't shy away when its time to ask for improvements in her community.
PACE technitians present meetings in their native language to ensure every participant understands perfectly, dona Timotea entered the group but she didnt speak spanish nor the native language of the group, though she didn't let that language barrier get in her way, through pictures and the kindness of her mates she was able to comprehend all topics and now can speak spanish as a third language.
After a year of receiving this training more than 1600 women graduated from the project, for many it was their first graduation ceremony since a lot of them didnt finish primary school, the enviroment was ecstatic to say the least and seeing their husbands and families supporting them in this important event was one of the best things I've ever seen.
Recognizing their effort to attend every single meeting, women were given a PACE pin that certified them as PACE women and now can share everything they've learned along the process to their community members.
By the end i produced this video to highlight some stories and final results.
