Posted by Maya Traditions on September 17, 2015
At Maya Traditions, we believe that education lays the foundation to a positive and successful development of each individual – mentally and physically. Through education, children and youth learn how to critically analyze their personal, political, and economic environments. Education also helps develop personality—along with strengths, confidence, and creativity— supporting individuals make thoughtful decisions in the short- and long-term. We are convinced that educating youth and children provides the most important foundation for respect, equality, justice, peace, and freedom within a country. As James Garfield said: “Without education, neither freedom nor justice can be maintained.” Today, Guatemalan youth face increasingly difficult conditions,
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Maya Traditions partners with local university student to realize professional internships in their area of study. Here, one of our recent interns, Ana Buch Chavez, shares her experience woking with Maya Traditions, in the area of Community Health: Programs Coordinator Marisol with artisan Vicenta and her grandfather, and local intern Ana on the right My name is Ana Buch Chavez, and I am a student of Social Work. I thank Maya Traditions Foundation for giving me the space to realize my professional internship. As a student of Social Work, one of my responsibilities was the preparation of community
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If you’ve had the opportunity to visit Guatemala and meet Maya Traditions’ artisans, staff, and volunteers in person, you know that you have found a remarkable place. This month, we asked our incredible staff what makes our work at Maya Traditions special. Here is what they had to say: ‘Maya Traditions has strong, long-lasting relationships with artisans and works to support them as whole women not just artisans.’ ‘We convert the needs of our artisans into opportunities, offering them the training and tools necessary so that they themselves can change thier own situations. For me, that’s true empowerment.’ ‘We are a foundation
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Posted by Erin Kökdil on April 13, 2015
Time flies, yet I feel like time flies even faster in Guatemala. This March marked my second year working with Maya Traditions Foundation. It has been a long, often arduous journey, but one that has lifted my spirits and filled me with indescribable happiness. When I first began with Maya Traditions in March of 2013, I knew I had become part of a very special organization, one that is dedicated to fulfilling its mission through highlighting the gift & skill of others. This became clear early on, during a site visit to the rural community of Quiejel. We traveled two hours
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As a part of our strategic plan, we are working to enhance our Artisan Development Program. Program Coordinator, Isabel Chalcú, is spearheading this project and excited to share some of what she has been working on. The current focus of the Artisan Development Program is to learn more about our artisan and better understand their needs. Working with the majority of our artisans for over twenty years has shown us how their needs are constantly changing. In order to strengthen our relationship with them and understand how they view their current quality of life, Isabel, with support from local university intern
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On Wednesday, January 21st, 2015, Maya Traditions organized our annual artisan meeting with representatives from each cooperative. Artisan Development Coordinator Isabel Chalcú shares her thoughts on the meeting: Each one of our cooperatives is an important part of Maya Traditions Foundation. For she, the artisan, represents the essence of our work. Each year, we work harder, facilitating market access and increasing our educational programming, with the mission to empower our artisans and improve the quality of their lives. To start off 2015, we held a meeting with two representatives from each cooperative. Our objective was to understand and analyze our
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