Guatemala: Community project mitigates impact of violence and poverty

05-06-2012 Photo gallery

Santa Isabel II, a housing project in Villanueva on the outskirts of Guatemala City, was built in the 1990s to accommodate people displaced by armed conflict. Its population quickly swelled and, as in many of the outlying projects, armed violence became a problem. Caught between violence and poverty, young people in particular lack the opportunities they need to better their lives.

- In 2011, the Guatemalan Red Cross launched a project called “Children and Young People for a Better Life” in Santa Isabel II, together with the Spanish Red Cross and the ICRC. The project engages young people through leisure activities and offers mentoring to those who need it. Family difficulties, trouble in school, drug use, delinquency, violence and lack of opportunities are day-to-day realities that the project aims to tackle.
  © ICRC / O. Moeckli
- Hip-hop class at the offices of the Guatemalan Red Cross project. The Guatemalan Red Cross offers counselling, health workshops and fun, cultural activities. In 2011, over 1,000 young people were involved in the project in some way. To increase the young people's job opportunities, the ICRC provides funding for vocational courses. Sixty-five people are currently training as beauticians or car mechanics, and a further 120 will learn trades such as dressmaking and baking. In the following slides, we meet Moisés, Roxana and Darlyn, who are taking the course to become beauticians.
  © CICR / O. Moeckli
- Moisés, 22, in a class for beauticians. Moisés left school at the age of 12, following a traumatic incident, and has since been living in isolation at home. “I'm scared of going out in case I'm attacked," he explains. When he turned 15, he started working and training as a cook. Hearing about the course for beauticians, he asked for a grant to be able to take part. “The course opened up doors for me,” he says. “I'd suffered for 10 years before finding the Red Cross. I hadn't spoken to anyone in years. Now, I'm in contact with people.”
  © CICR / O. Moeckli
- Roxana, 21, is married and has a son. Her husband is unemployed so they rely on her father, who works in the United States, for support. “I'd always wanted to become a beautician as that’s what my mother used to be,” she says. “I also signed up for the course because it will help me in the long term and enable me to pay for my son's education," she adds. "What's more, I won't have to go out and risk my life to earn a living.”
  © ICRC / O. Moeckli
- “I couldn't afford to study this year," says 15-year-old Darlyn. “So it was a blessing when the Red Cross gave me a grant to train as a beautician." She had always dreamed of becoming a beautician but thought it impossible. “I never told anyone about my ambition because courses were so expensive and my family simply didn't have the money.” The course has turned her life around. “Now I know I can make my dream come true, if I put my mind to it,” she says. “Before, I was very cut off from other people. Through the course, I've made friends and gained self-confidence."
  © ICRC / O. Moeckli
- Darlyn talks to Soarih, a psychologist from the Guatemalan Red Cross. A psychologist on the Red Cross team offers support to those who need it. Darlyn says that talking to her was a great help. “Last year, I was in a bad way,” she says. “I felt lonely and overwhelmingly sad, like an empty shell. I also had a lot of problems with my parents. The psychologist encouraged me to keep going, for the sake of my future. She helped me understand that you have to start doing things for yourself.”
  © ICRC / O. Moeckli
- Darlyn at home with her mother. When she was eight years old, Darlyn’s younger sister got ill and died. “Losing her hurt so much that it tore the family apart,” she explains. “We would shout at each other and treat each other badly. The psychologist helped me to control my anger, my pain and my sadness and to tackle the troubles I had with my parents." Before signing someone up to the project, the Red Cross team interviews the young person and his or her family, to assess who would most benefit from the grant.
  © ICRC / O. Moeckli
- Darlyn performs a manicure. “I've already started buying materials and putting what I've learnt into practice, like doing manicures and dying hair,” says Darlyn. Her father travels and brings her back products from other countries, where prices are lower. “In the future, I'd like to open a salon and a spa,” she explains. “For the time being, I'm working from home, but later I'm going to look for a place in a busier area.” She adds, “I think I'll make it, little by little.”
  © ICRC / O. Moeckli
- Moisés with a client at his home-based salon. Rather than wait until the course is over, Moisés has already set up a small salon in his house, which he runs alongside working as a cook. “I already have clients because they know what I can do.” Meanwhile, he continues to earn money cleaning neighbours' houses, sometimes even cooking for them as well.
  © ICRC / O. Moeckli
- © ICRC / O. Moeckli
Moisés has started giving cookery lessons to 10 of the girls on his beauty salon course.
“We are just making desserts and cakes to begin with,” he says. “The idea is that they can go out and sell what they've made, earning the money they need to buy materials and open a salon. It's one of my dreams to help these girls,” he adds. “I want them to fight for their own salon!”
When news got around that Moisés was giving cookery classes, several women from the neighbourhood asked if they could join in. He now has 20 students.
- Moisés' father, a tailor, working in his shop. Moisés' father found it difficult to accept his son's interest in beauty salons. “My dad was angry with me about that!” he says. A few months ago, Moisés took part in a make-up contest at a central hotel. When he won first prize, his father offered to pay for the materials he needed to open a salon. “The course has made my father more receptive to the idea,” he says. “I went to all this effort to show him how much I needed his support – and it paid off!”
  © ICRC / O. Moeckli
- Roxana out and about in Santa Isabel II. Roxana spends a lot of time looking after her son. Seeing the Red Cross team and attending the course are good opportunities for her to get out of the house and meet other people. “The teacher gets us to do manicures, pedicures, hairstyles, curls, perms – everything!” explains Roxana. “It's a good distraction from my family problems.” “You really have to make the most of a course like this,” she adds. “It's not every day you get such an opportunity.”
  © ICRC / O. Moeckli
- Roxana at home with her son and mother. After the course, Roxana and her mother plan to open a salon together. Her mother once owned a salon but struggled to keep it going, so started cleaning houses instead. “My mother already has clients and some of the materials we need," says Roxana. Her mother thinks it will be easier to keep the business going with Roxana working alongside her. “More people will come if there's a young person around!”
  © ICRC / O. Moeckli
- Roxana at home with her husband and son. Above and beyond the vocational skills they learn on the course, the young people’s greatest achievements are gaining a sense of responsibility and self-confidence. “I don't have an easy life, so I have to be prepared to fight for a better future!” concludes Roxana. “I've got to move forward, even if others don't want to!”
  © ICRC / O. Moeckli

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Guatemala: Community project mitigates impact of violence and poverty

05-06-2012 Photo gallery

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