Evan Markiewicz

Since December 2022, I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with a group of women from “Los Planes” and “Paxub’” communities in the municipality of Santa Lucía Utatlán, Sololá, Guatemala, empowering them on various topics that are key to their personal and collective development.

ViviendasLeón in Nicaragua held a day of activities to recognize the work of our sustainable agriculture program on New Year’s Eve, 2024. In the event, we had the participation of our farmers, who enthusiastically and with a happy heart participated in each of the games. In them, we talked about the experiences learned in the outgoing year, and the various challenges, climate included, that affected or influenced vegetable production. 

2024 will remain in our memory as the year in which we planted not only seeds in the ground, but also in the hearts of the families that are part of ViviendasLeón. This year, with enthusiasm, we inaugurated our Garden program, a dream that became a reality thanks to collective effort, passion for change and commitment to our community.

Recognizing the interrelated causes of poverty and lack of psychological support for women in rural communities, ViviendasLeon has worked with rural women, contributing  to their empowerment and to eliminating their emotional and economic vulnerabilities through social-emotional and capacity training…

Doña Cristina, has been a single mother with two daughters for many years. She participated in our Capacity Training program in 2023, graduated, and then began creating her garden near her house. After learning the basics of vegetable farming while including her two children in that process, she harvested her first crops in October…

During the  implementation of our HCT program in 2023, a third of the 20 women in the program had founded a cooperative two years previously.  They named it CoopEMEGA, an acronym for Cooperative of Entrepreneurial Women Managing Alternatives and Solutions. This group produces chili based condiments known as chileros that are popular in homes and restaurants in the city of León, and  are made with chili, onion, cucumber, carrot and vinegar.

ViviendasLeon was founded in 2003 to create solutions to the interconnected causes of rural poverty in Central America. Our mission to “empower and equip rural families to be the agents of their own development” has shown time and again that people are willing and capable to work hard and succeed at changing their family’s future.