Blog

In Guatemala we work at 7,000 feet where temperatures are cool and variable over the year.  To maximize the production and income potential of the small family farms there, we employ hothouses to create very warm environments for key crops including tomatoes and chili peppers that are a staple of the diet.

My name is Juan Berrios, I live with my wife and daughter Gabriela in Troilo, Sutiava León, Nicaragua. I am 54 years old. Two years ago I graduated from the ViviendasLeón Human Training program and after completing the training I was provided with materials for our family garden.  That same year my daughter Gabriela was given a school scholarship, and in 2023 I joined the Troilo Bee Collective, AMHOR.

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 is dedicated to eliminating rural poverty in Central America. Our mission is to empower and equip rural communities to be agents of change. More than 90% of our program members are women, many single mothers who become rural farmers and small businesswomen.

We are thrilled to welcome Yamileth Alonzo Zárate, our most recent addition to the Guatemala staff as the Sustainable Farms Program Director.  Yami is an agronomist with experience in multiple areas of farming including food diversification and nutrition training, agriculture and business technical training, strengthening food security and resilience training, and disaster preparedness in rural populations.

Maybeline Chavajay Cotuc began work with ViviendasLeon in late 2022 as our human training program director. During the following six months she had met with and interviewed more than 30 families and launched our first human training program in the Los Planes and Paxub’ communities of Santa Lucia Utatlan. By July she had risen to the role of country director while continuing to carry out the training program through the end of 2023. By mid 2024, she had hired our first agronomist in Guatemala, Yamileth Alonzo, and is now overseeing our new sustainable farms program.

“During this first month working for ViviendasLeón Guatemala, I have had the opportunity to visit the women who are our first group of farmers in the communities of Paxub’ and Los Planes.  I have noticed the enthusiasm of the women for the new project we are about to start, and the participation and involvement of their families when preparing the land that we will use for planting vegetable crops.