Being the coordinator of the empowerment program has been an exceptional and complex experience, both due to the new paradigms faced regarding gender equity and the machismo that both men and women encounter daily in the social context of the municipality of Parramos, Chimaltenango. The attention provided includes preventive workshops, primarily focusing on relevant topics that encompass all forms of violence while simultaneously promoting empowerment and leadership that children, adolescents, and youth can practice in their environment. Change has been slow, but like any program, every small change from each participant is significant.
My academic background is in education, and I hold a professional degree in clinical psychology, which allows the workshops to focus on preventive psychology and pedagogy so that interactions are both educational and playful, always aiming to provide participants with mental health tools for their lives and socialization. Currently, the foundation has given me the opportunity to train in a diploma program on program and project management, aimed at better organizing and managing the empowerment and gender equity program.
Within the program, I supervise weekly workshops at the NPH Educational Center, support entrepreneurship interventions by managing materials, prepare progress reports on the program’s achievements, plan workshops for children and adolescents with and without disabilities who are part of the shelter program, and attend monthly follow-up meetings for the program.
We are currently awaiting the opportunity to conduct workshops for a school in the Parramos community.
We have progress formats where the team describes relevant achievements from each workshop to measure the actual impact of this program. We also maintain attendance lists to gauge interest in attending the workshops.
The empowerment and gender equity program currently includes four interventions: prevention of violence against women, practice in equality and gender equity, self-esteem and self-concept development, personal skills and qualities development, effective and affective communication, collaborative work and values, technical workshops to generate economic income, training in autonomy and exclusivity to encourage entrepreneurship, and we have recently included dance workshops within the program.
Inclusion and diversity are promoted within each workshop, encouraging collaborative work and recognizing individual skills that each participant possesses without limitations.
I would like to highlight two significant achievements we have accomplished this year:
– We have successfully conducted workshops for 202 children and adolescents in the empowerment and gender equity program, who are eager and enthusiastic to start.
– We have provided all participants of the educational center and shelter program with a record book of activities for the program.
Thanks to all sponsors for making this dream a reality where children can build a more meaningful present and achieve relevant social change within their environment and community.
I invite you to join the cause of empowerment and gender equity for children participating in NPH to create happier humans with well-being; this is the best gift for childhood and adolescence.