Editor’s Note: Stirring the Fire comes to you from Guatemala where our team is producing a documentary about how Population Council Guatemala is preventing violence against Mayan women.  STF team member Kara Marnell reports from the field below.

During a powerful and eye-opening week of travel, interviews and filming in Guatemala, we have had the privilege to get to know several female leaders in various communities who are working hard to educate and change the lives of other females.  One group, in particular, is doing so creatively through the use of film.  This group, comprised of twelve girls between the ages of 15-23, has been learning about filming, editing, and using visual techniques to create and screen films that engage communities and urge discourse on the issues that affect females.  This ‘participatory film program’ is run by Insight Share, an organization with stations all over the globe.  Insight Share also collaborates with other groups, such as Abriendo Oportunidades, using this participatory video as a tool to teach young adults new skills in order to build self-confidence and educate women on the ways to stand up for themselves and to open doors of opportunity that might never have considered.

Soledad Muñiz, the associate country coordinator for Insight Share, explained how she has witnessed an incredible, gratifying transformation in these young women.  At one time hesitant to gather testimony on film, the girls now bravely take on the city, approaching strangers, seeking their opinions on various issues as if they are seasoned reporters.  Opportunities for woman are so woefully lacking in Guatemala that the participants view this program as a unique and exciting way to develop new skills and insights beyond any of their peers.   The girls also find power in their team.  They spend a month in training together, away from their families.  In fact, for some, it is the first time ever away from their families and that leads to ‘group trust’ and builds individual confidence, says Muniz.  These girls truly embrace all the program has to offer while still continuing their regular schooling, family responsibilities and their positions as girl leaders in their communities.

Hermelinda Teleguario, a 21 year old Guatemalan woman, faced our cameras to discuss the pressures that face teenage girls in her country, especially family pressures to marry at a young age, indeed, as early as 14 years old.   While Hermelinda is grateful to have a boyfriend that respects her and a family that allows her the freedom to marry whom and when she pleases, many other Guatemalan girls are not so lucky.   Some girls, even some of Hermelinda’s friends, find themselves married very young.  They soon have children and responsibilities they are not prepared to manage, neither emotionally mature or financially secure to assume.  By then it’s too late.   Still other girls see marriage as the only option to escape family situations and there is no escape at all.

Up Next: Alejandra Maria Colom is the program coordinator for the Population Council’s Guatemala office, overseeing “Abriendo Oportunidades” and maternal health projects.

Stirring the Fire has the opportunity to meet with Ms. Colom on Monday to discuss the issues that Guatemalan women face as well as the steps taken to combat the brutality endured by Guatemalan women and girls.

As we prepare for our interview with Ms. Colom, we would like to reach out to our followers. Do you have any questions you would like Stirring the Fire to ask about the social issues here in Guatemala?

Indigenous young women as change agents against violence in Guatemala

The high prevalence of gender-based violence in Guatemala leaves Mayan women and girls living in poor and isolated communities particularly exposed to risk. In a powerful approach to empower indigenous young women as agents of change in their communities, Population Council Guatemala, with support from the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, is pairing them with mentors from local organizations, to engage them in a range of prevention activities.

Among other things, the girls undertake GPS-based community mapping, plotting every household, building and route to produce maps that show where girls and women feel safe or at risk. The maps are making young women and their safety concerns visible for the first time, catalyzing community-wide discussion about violence against women and girls and ways the community could come together to prevent it. In addition, Population Council is training a cadre of girl leaders in participatory video to highlight issues of gender and violence in their communities.

The UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, administered by UN Women, is a leading source of support for efforts to end violence against women and girls across the world. You can join this vital work by donating to the UN Trust Fund and by taking action at Say No – UNiTE to End Violence against Women.