Empower Women & Girls in Guatemala with Technology

Riecken Community Libraries has always played a strong role in bringing access to technology and training in its use to many who otherwise, simply would not have any other resources. In 2015 we were able to expand programs that put technology training, mobile devices, office software, and safe, effective use of social networks into the hands of teachers, students, and all library users, especially where Internet is available.

In San Juan Chamelco (Alta Verapaz, Guatemala), Community Library Gabriela Mistral 22 women are trained in technology. The use of audiovisual manuals has been implemented to facilitate the learning process, and now, Women have full domain of the Microsoft Office Word program, and a new group of women is currently starting.

Technology is our “excuse” to promote the human, organizational, and social capabilities of rural women.

Let us share with you some words of Ruth Noemí Coy Sacul. She is 29 years old and lives in  Barrio Nueva Concepción, in San Juan Chamelco. Shi is part of women group of the Community Library Gabriela Mistral.

“To be part of women's group has helped me a lot. Here, I have found the opportunity I never imagined; In the workshops, I have learned to be a better person every day. Before, I was very shy person, I was very scared to express myself but now I see and feel a great change in me. Now I am a woman who defends her rights and I like to share what I learn; I like to support my colleagues in all what I can. Also, I consider myself an active person in the project because I want to overcome myself.”

Links:

• Communities Libraries at work

Community libraries in Guatemala promote the human, organizational and social capacities of people, especially young people and women, from a threefold dimension: as an individual (internal skills and strengths and help them to cope with personal challenges), as a social group (organizational skills dnd teamwork) and in their community dimension, the community library being the institutional platform that supports the initiatives of young people and women.

Technology and reading have been powerful tools not only to strengthen their capacity for analysis and critical thinking, but also for young people and women to know more about their civil rights and to organize actions to raise awareness and promote their rights. The community libraries of San Carlos Sija (Quetazaltenango) and Parramos (Chimaltenango) in Guatemala have organized different digital reading clubs with teenage girls.

Other community libraries as San Carlos Sija, San Juan La Laguna, San Juan Chamelco, Chiché and Xolsacmaljá, have trained more than 800 trained women in several topics as to organize fairs of product exhibitions, mainly handicrafts, as well as spaces for dialogue to raise awareness about Discrimination on grounds of sex and violence against women

Doris Amanda Botzoc is a young women of San Juan Chamelco. She participes in the project Women's Leadership Fellowship.

 She says:

"I promote women's leadership in San Juan Chamelco. There are many needs. Women do not trust themselves and in the activities they can carry out or in the potential they have for their development and that of the community at large. Many women do not have support and with this program, they receive talks about self-esteem, computing and the value they have as a woman. "

Links:

• Doris Bococ, a young girl of San Juan Chamelco