Guatemalan Intercultural Highlands Association / Asociación Mixta Intercultural de Guatemaltecos del Altiplano y Suroccidente (AMIGAS)
AMIGAS was founded near the end of 2003 to promote the participation of men and women, particularly in the rural area, through development projects directed at women and the family.
AMIGAS specific objectives are: a) To improve women’s reproductive and child health and reduce the incidence of illness and death associated with birth and infant development; b) To strengthen women’s and men’s capacity in planning and decision-making for their organizational work; c) To strengthen the capacity of men and women to undertake productive projects to improve levels of income and family economies and d) To create a space for training and organization in local development.
The organization has a special vocation for working with indigenous women. Although it does not promote a (“western”) gender policy, it seeks to have women be the principal beneficiaries of its projects, including local empowerment initiatives that begin with the family. An example of this is its reproductive health work.
Centre for Indigenous Studies and Education / Centro de Estudios y Educación Indígena (CEEI)
This organization was founded in 1987 by indigenous leaders from different organizations and some academics all of whom shared a concern for furthering an understanding of the ethnic exclusion of Guatemalan indigenous populations.
CEEI has two principal areas of work: a) leadership training for indigenous youth, women and men to build capacity for planning, proposal preparation and project implementation, and b) organizational consolidation which includes a credit program, formal education and community eco tourism.
Capacity building of local indigenous authorities is key to the development work carried out. Training is directed at strengthening community development councils (COCODES) and municipal development councils (COMUDES), the formal structures for participation at the community level.
Santa Maria Linguistic Project / Proyecto Lingüístico Santa María S.C. (PLSM)
PLSM was founded in 1991 in the city of Quetzaltenango in response to growing concerns about the erosion of Mayan culture. The organization sees the recovery and strengthening of Mayan languages, in particular K’iche, as part of the historic struggle of Guatemala’s indigenous peoples. In its first two years, the organization focused on training promoters to work as language teachers. Since 1996, PLSM has been working to promote K’iche culture in the Western Highlands of Guatemala, especially in the municipalities of Totonicapán, Cantel, and Quetzaltenango.
PLSM’s general purpose is the recovery and recognition of Mayan culture through bilingual intercultural education and anthropological research as well as the strengthening of rural organizations in the Guatemala Highlands through linguistic studies. Its mission centres on the promotion of organization, policy advocacy, and collaboration with the education community to develop innovative educational and cultural programs that are regional in nature and recognize the importance of human development, ecology, and traditional values.
Association for Health, Promotion, Research and Education – PIES de Occidente
PIES de Occidente is a non profit organization founded in 1994. With a distinct local character, the organization focuses on environmental and maternal-infant health in Indigenous communities in the departments of Quetzaltenango and Totonicapan, Guatemala. PIES de Occidente promotes the sustainability of community health through a series of actions aimed at health promotion, research, education and training. The organization uses methodologies that facilitate engagement and ownership by the participating communities within a framework that is socially and culturally adapted to the local Indigenous realities.
Since its very beginnings, PIES de Occidente identified as its main focus of work, the recuperation of the Mayan ancestral medical system. It seeks to reaffirm this knowledge with a focus on community health. PIES de Occidente carries out this work in alliances with local networks of midwives and traditional healers. It seeks to have an impact on the conventional health care system so that traditional Mayan health care practices are recognized, thereby strengthening the concept of cultural diversity enshrined in the Guatemalan constitution.
