Since 2014, Buena Semilla has been holding Women’s Circles in five marginalized Mam and K’iche’ Mayan communities in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. Poverty, food insecurity, and lack of access to social services are widespread problems in the region. Women also frequently experience hardship related to child pregnancy and domestic violence, and restrictions on their economic participation and other rights. Buena Semilla offers women a place to face these conditions collectively, while also participating in entrepreneurial activities, problem-based and cognitive-behavioral therapy, and participatory, arts-based activities to bring about healing and empowerment.

Buena Semilla will use its first year of funding from the Martín-Baró Fund to host 20 Women’s Circles, a monthly series of workshops focused on leadership development and mental and maternal health, and bimonthly productive activity workshops on enterprises including agriculture, handicraft production, and making children’s toys, to increase participating women’s household economic and food security.