GUATEMALA

Young Mayan girls are vulnerable to dropping out of school due to gender discrimination and traditions of early marriage and motherhood. ADIMTU’s three-year Leadership Institute for middle school girls is an innovative approach that motivates over 800 students in 10 villages to stay in school, increase their self-esteem and build their scholastic abilities.

The first year of Leadership Institute promotes the trust and communication between mothers and their children through an exchange of experiences between the generations. The second year fosters reading habits and family time. The third year develops leadership skills through mentoring a primary grade student having difficulties at school.

ADIMTU has found very promising results as the young people improved their relationships with their parents, demonstrated leadership qualities, and improved their writing abilities. An impressive 95% remained in school.

ADIMTU now has a signed agreement with the Ministry of Education, showing how their leadership program fits into the educational curriculum.  This has allowed them to transition to a model where the school teachers run the leadership program and ADIMTU provides training, monitoring, materials and support. Excellent progress!