In 2021, Together Women Rise awarded $50,000 Impact Partnership Grants to two “collectives” – AMPLIFY Girls and The Colectivo. Collectives are networks of organizations working together to increase their impact on a shared goal. By funding this collective approach, Together Women Rise will have a deeper impact and more sustainable outcomes for women and girls. 

MAIA (formerly Starfish)

The Colectivo is a network of organizations bound by a shared focus: the empowerment and dignity of women girls and women in Guatemala. Three of the four partner organizations are past Together Women Rise grantees, including:

• MAIA (2012 Featured Grantee and 2016-2018 Sustained Grantee)
• WINGS (2020 Featured Grantee)
• Women’s Justice Initiative (2018 Featured Grantee)

The fourth partner is Maya Health Alliance.

Background

Guatemala has the worst gender equity gap in the Americas. While Maya women make up about 25 percent of the population, they represent just 1% of the nation’s congressional seats. This prevents indigenous women from accessing resources and power structures for real advancement in the country.

Our Impact Partnership Grant will help to fund a new leadership pathway for underrepresented women in Guatemala. The Colectivo created a two-year program to develop women leaders – both within and beyond the partner organizations — that will go on to transform Guatemala. “Working together collaboratively between the four partner organizations, we are modeling the necessity of helping other women rise, instead of competing,” The Colectivo states.

WINGS Mobile Unit

Program participants gain technical skills in the areas of Project Design, External Communications, and Managing Partnerships. They also confront the social norms, discrimination, and barriers that make it hard for women, especially indigenous women, to occupy positions of power in Guatemala. Through The Colectivo’s program, women develop the skills to navigate the cultural landscape of gender-based discrimination and inequality in an assertive and effective way.

The ultimate goal is a new generation of executive-level women leaders who will become the faces of four powerful and partnered organizations and will become the voices of systems-level change in their communities and professional spheres.