At 26, Andrés Guacash Vazques is both a community health promoter working in the indigenous community of Zitin, Chiapas (Mexico), and a recent graduate of GPA’s High School Leadership Program in Guaquitepec, a program he participated in for two years. Andres, who is th...

Meet María García Hernández, one of our outstanding young leaders from the community of Iwiltic, Chiapas who became a GPA intern in 2018. Maria is 20 years old, and speaks Tzeltal and Spanish. She is the 4th child from a family of 9 children, and is the first in her fa...

“My name is María del Carmen Álvarez Pérez. I live in the community of Pinabetal, Chiapas and I’m 28 years old.

I am not a midwife yet, but I am learning. I began learning from my grandmother

until her death. This is the first time I am in a workshop. When GPA offered th...

Meet Kevin Méndez, a 17 year old student leader from the community of Oxinam, in Chalam, Mexico. He is one of 20 students taking a GPA Youth Leadership workshop series in order to help improve the health and well-being of his community. In the Highland Region of Chiapa...

Luisa has been a health promoter for 8 years but what really sparks her passion is her work as a midwife. If you had talked to her 5 years ago, she would have said that a woman has to be chosen to be a midwife, a vision comes to her. Luisa’s community suffers from seve...

Not yet 30, María, learned quickly about her role in life, as a daughter, sister and woman, and about hard work. In the mountainous area of Huixtan, Chiapas, where she lives, villages are far between. This area, nestled in southern Mexico, is surrounded by forested hil...

Choabajito is a small village in Guatemala, surrounded by majestic green mountains, hidden from view by the thick clouds that make the space between the hilltops their permanent home. The majority of the villagers here are subsistence farmers.

Amelia, who is 35, (pictu...

High in the mountainous region of Simojovel, in the southern state of Chiapas, Mexico, known for its amber mining under rough conditions, life can seem isolated from the more bustling city of San Cristóbal de las Casas, nearly four hours away by car, when it’s not ra...

This article was contributed by graduate student researcher Jazmine Garcia Delgadillo.

Earlier this year while conducting evaluation work we interviewed women who held a very special role in their communities. Though our main objective was to find out what impact GPA h...