Casa Aq’ab’al is a family crisis center for women and children escaping domestic abuse. Its shelter opened in 2016 and provides the only such assistance for persons suffering from domestic abuse in the whole Department (state) of Sololá. Unfortunately, domestic abuse and violence against women is very common in Guatemala. At the shelter women find a safe place to stay and food. They also have access to counseling and legal advice. Children can stay with their mothers.

The Casa Para La Cultura Maya is a cultural center and educational resource: to preserve, esteem and promote all expression of Maya culture including Maya dress, music, dance, art, weaving, agriculture, cuisine, and community, spiritual, and family values; to reach out to the non-indigenous (ladino) population of Guatemala with special programs and events; to serve as a place where Mayas will have the opportunity to present their own interpretation of Maya culture to Guatemala’s international and national tourists.

Baja Verapaz - Health Education program fights persistent malnutrition by teaching poor indigenous families in rural Guatemala to produce abundant nutritious food. This is important because Guatemala has the fourth highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world and the highest in Latin America and the Caribbean.


Baja Verapaz - Sustainable Agriculture program begins work with farm families by focusing on increasing yields of the basic food crops, which in Guatemala are corn and beans. By implementing extremely effective new practices of water management, soil conservation and resilient sustainable agriculture, program participants usually double their corn and beans harvests in the first year.