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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.

At ViviendasLeón, women’s empowerment has been a fundamental pillar in the realization of our mission. Overwhelmingly, rural women have led in the implementation and success of our programs.

In 2022, ViviendasLeón programs supported nearly 500 families and 1,250 children in Nicaragua and Guatemala. We began work in Guatemala in 2019. Since then we have worked toward creating our team to begin implementing our successful programs in training, farming, water and economic development.

”Thanks to ViviendasLeón today I am receiving materials so my family can build our water system to be able to irrigate our vegetables in the summer months. Before I didn’t have enough well water or systems, or any other alternative that would allow me to harvest and maintain my vegetable crops during the dry season.”