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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.

ViviendasLeon trains families in rural communities to farm their small plots of land while diversifying and updating their methods to secure their food supply. They are given fencing, drip irrigation, and hand operated fumigation pumps.

Dinia Amador, a young teenager and daughter of Paula Hernandez, completed the HCT program with her mother and received the delivery of material for the construction of her farm. Paula and Dinia are currently harvesting a great variety of vegetables, some of which Paula uses for her and her children’s consumption.

ViviendasLeón has been working since March with 23 indigenous women from the Los Planes community in Santa Lucía Utatlán, Guatemala.  The Mayan communities of Central America live with multiple challenges including lack of food security, unemployment, and access to education. Additionally, indigenous women have faced violence and discrimination. Our training program works to restore women’s self-esteem, personal empowerment, agency, social development, and technical skills to take on the challenges of the multiple needs they have lived with for generations.

In June 2022 ViviendasLeón expanded to a new community in Nicaragua called La Gallina. The challenges there are similar to other communities where we work, as they are throughout the underdeveloped tropical countries around the world. Lack of food security, high unemployment, and limited access to education are common.

Women make up more than half of the world’s population, yet the responsibility disproportionately falls on them to feed a large part of its inhabitants, especially in rural areas of developing countries. According to the FAO, rural women produce more than half of the food, and play an important role in preserving biodiversity and guaranteeing food sovereignty and security.