Since the founding of the Association of Maya Ixil Women, more than 100 women have been involved in organizing community-based educational, economic development, and psychosocial projects for the women and children of their community. The Martín-Baró Fund supported one of their first projects, a community corn mill. More recently, twenty ADMI members collaborated on producing the photo-essay, Voces e imágenes: Mujeres Maya Ixiles de Chajul, which describes the community’s experiences of more than three decades of war and state-sponsored violence, as well as their response to these violations and their efforts to build toward the future.

Based on connections made during the PhotoVoice project, this year’s grant will be used to extend the mental health work to women living in four villages surrounding Chajul. ADMI will establish five centers where workshops will be conducted to enable women and children to 1) discuss the origins of the war, 2) understand the impact of the war on mental health, and 3) analyze the condition of women in Guatemala, in order to develop ideas to meet their mental health needs. Some of our funds will also be used to produce pamphlets about the mental health impact of the war and of current economic and social conditions. Thus, ADMI will be engaged both in the work of psychological recovery and in wider education about state-sponsored violence and mental health.