Beneficiaries
Number of people benefited by the Intervida projects: 67,151
Geographic location
ISG, the Ixchiguán TERRA (Territory of Active Solidarity, in Intervida nomenclature), is located in the northwestern part of the San Marcos Department, in Guatemala. The TERRA attends to communities in four municipalities: Ixchiguán, San José Ojetenám, Sibinal and Tajumulco, with its headquarters in Ixchiguán.
72% of the population covered by the Ixchiguán TERRA is indigenous, predominately of the Mam ethnicity. In terms of the ethnic groups by municipality, Ixchiguán and Tajumulco are inhabited by the Mam and Ladino ethnicities, while Sibinal and San José Ojetenám are inhabited by the Ladino. These groups speak Spanish, the official language, as well as Mam.
Despite the natural and cultural richness of the San Marcos Department, poverty is extensive, deep and predominately rural. The municipalities covered by the Ixchiguán TERRA have the highest indices of poverty and extreme poverty: Tajumulco, 98.72% and 82,43% respectively; Sibinal, 97.92% and 83.17%; San José Ojetenám, 97.79% and 93.24%; Ixchiguán, 97.24% and 86.29%, and all are above the departmental average.
List of communities
Aldea Buena Vista Nuevos Horizontes; Aldea Calapte; Aldea San Antonio; Aldea Tuichan; Aldea Tuiquinamble; Aldea Yuinima; Cabecera Municipal Ixchiguán; Cantón Grijalva; Cantón Nueva Alianza; Cantón Nueva Esperanza, Aldea Calapte; Cantón San Cristóbal; Caserío Las Brisas, Aldea Tuichan; Caserío Bexoncan, Aldea Tuiquinamble; Caserío Buenos Aires, Aldea San Antonio; Caserío Colcojuitz, Aldea Tuiquinamble; Caserío El Plan, Aldea Calapte; Caserío Julischin, Aldea Calapte; Caserío La Esperanza Cieneguillas, Aldea Calapte; Caserío La Trinidad, Aldea Calapte; Caserío Las Flores, Aldea Tuiquinamble; Caserío Los Positos, Aldea Tuiquinamble; Caserío Nuevo Porvenir, Aldea San Antonio; Caserío Once De Mayo, Aldea San Antonio; Caserío Pajatz, Aldea Calapte; Caserío Pavitzalan, Aldea Calapte; Caserío San Andrés, Aldea Tuiquinamble; Caserío San Juan de Los Altos, Aldea Tuiquinamble; Caserío Tuiladrillo, Aldea Choapequez; Caserío Ventana Santa Rosa, Aldea San Antonio; Caserío Villa Linda, Aldea Tuichan; Caserío Villa Nueva, Aldea Tuichan; Caserío Vista Hermosa Los Martínez, Aldea Tuiquinamble; Aldea Boxoncan; Aldea Choanla; Aldea Esquipulas; Aldea Ojetenam; Aldea Pavolaj; Aldea San Fernando; Aldea San Rafael Igual; Aldea Santa Cruz Buena Vista; Cabecera Municipal, San José Ojetenam; Cantón Las Flores, Aldea Pavolaj; Cantón El Boquerón, Aldea San Rafael Igual; Cantón Guadalupe, Aldea Ojetenam; Cantón La Unión, Aldea Ojetenam; Cantón Laguna Chiquita, Aldea Ojetenam; Cantón Laguna Grande, Aldea Ojetenam; Cantón Las Barrancas, Aldea San Fernando; Cantón Las Minas, Aldea Choanla; Cantón Los Cerezos, Aldea Pavolaj; Cantón Nueva Candelaria, Aldea Choanla; Cantón Nueva Esperanza, Aldea Pavolaj; Cantón Nuevo Progreso, Aldea Esquipulas; Cantón Piedras Negras, Aldea Choanla; Cantón San Isidro; Cantón San Pedrito, Aldea Esquipulas; Cantón Tuimay, Aldea San Rafael Igual; Cantón Tuitzaj, Aldea San Rafael Igual; Caserío El Caballito, Aldea Esquipulas; Aldea Checamba; Aldea Chocaba; Aldea San Andrés Cheoj; Aldea San Antonio Las Barrancas; Barrio Los Olivos, Aldea San Antonio Las Barrancas; Cabecera Municipal sibinal; Cantón Cabishmay, Aldea Chocaba; Cantón Checamba, Aldea Checamba; Cantón Tocapote; Cantón Tohaman; Cantón Tojpac; Caserío El Malacate; Caserío El Progreso Tibancuche, Aldea Chocaba; Caserío Las Barrancas, Aldea San Antonio Las Barra; Caserío Miramar; Caserío Nuevas Maravillas; Aldea Boxoncan; Aldea Chana; Aldea Chanchicupe; Aldea El Malacate; Aldea El Malacatillo; Aldea Estrella del Norte; Aldea Tochosh; Aldea Tocuto; Aldea Toninchun; Aldea Toquian Chico; Aldea Tuinima; Aldea Tuipic; Aldea Tuiquia; Aldea Tuiquimamel; Aldea Unión La Loma; Aldea Zacala; Cabecera Municipal Tajumulco; Caserío La Vega; Caserío Buenos Aires, Aldea Chana; Caserío Chantzaj, Aldea El Carrizal; Caserío El Rancho, Aldea Toninchun; Caserío El Triunfo, Aldea Tuinima; Caserío Faldas del Volcán, Aldea Chana; Caserío La Libertad, Aldea Chanchicupe; Caserío La Trinidad, Aldea Zacala; Caserío La Unidad, Aldea El Carrizal; Caserío La Ventana Villa Hermosa, Aldea Tuinima; Caserío Monte Perla, Aldea Boxoncan; Caserío Nueva Candelaria, Aldea Tuiquimamel; Caserío Nuevo Horizonte, Aldea El Malacatillo; Caserío Piedra Redonda, Aldea Toninchun; Caserío Santa Isabel, Aldea Toninchun; Caserío Santa Rosa de Los Altos; Caserío Tochincuto, Aldea Tocuto; Caserío Toninchun Chico, Aldea Toninchun; Caserío Toninshak, Aldea Toninchun; Caserío Tosacmuc; Caserío Tuiquinque, Aldea Chana; Caserío Tuixcun; Caserío Valle Champacche, Aldea Tuinima; Caserío Vega del Suchiate.
Improving educational quality
This program aims to increase educational quality in all school centers in 390 communities in western Guatemala. To achieve this, the organization works on improving school infrastructures, resolving learning problems, strengthening community participation in school issues, and offering training workshops for educational staff using pedagogical tools.
Active learning
One of Intervida’s projects to increase school performance consists in training educational staff on new pedagogical techniques, while also providing them with more modern and effective didactic material. Teachers also receive guidance on how to convert the cultural diversity in which they live into one of the basic foundations of their teaching. These efforts encourage shared learning and a respect for values, beliefs, customs and gender equality.
- Promoting reading and investigation
- Providing didactic material to teacher and technical administrative coordinators
- Providing didactic materials to schools
- Training teachers on how to apply the active learning methodology
- Workshops on the intercultural and bilingual education methodology
School continuance
With the aim of reducing school absenteeism, Intervida carries out several actions such as providing materials, books and backpacks; this facilitates better learning while also serving as a an incentive for students. Preventive and curative health days, as well as the promotion of sports as a means of distraction at school, are activities which seek to increase the value both students and parents place on staying in school. To address the problem of extremely poor students who, despite showing aptitude in their studies, must leave school to go to work, Intervida offers scholarships equal to the child’s salary to encourage him to stay in school. This also combats the problem of exploitation through child labor.
- Support for school sports
- Scholarships
- Provision of school supplies to students
- Selection of scholars
- Celebration of Children’s Day
- Improving school health
- Comprehensive medical attention
Improving school infrastructure
The “Improving school infrastructure” project covers both the renovation of school buildings and the construction of new spaces which facilitate the teaching-learning process and promote the security and comfort of the students and teachers. In coordination with the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC), the organization renovates and constructs classrooms and equips these with school furniture, recreational areas, perimeter walls, sports installations and sanitary facilities.
- Care and maintenance of school infrastructures
- Classroom construction
- Construction of perimeter walls
- Comprehensive school sanitary facilities (above-ground water tanks, drinking water systems, sinks and sewage treatment)
- Construction of recreational infrastructures
- Renovation of school infrastructures
- Diagnosis of equipment needs
- Support for administrative school management
Addressing learning problems
The project’s aim is to integrate students with learning problems into the regular school courses. To do this, educational psychologists use a series of psychometric tests which enable them to detect possible learning disabilities. When a child is diagnosed with a learning disability, he receives targeted therapeutic treatment. At the same time, 25 mothers in each community are selected and trained in hygiene, nutrition and food preparation, with the aim of improving school children’s dietary conditions.
- Nutritional support for children with learning disabilities
- Detection and diagnosis of students with learning disabilities
- Support for children with learning disabilities
Community participation in school
This project is comprised of three activities: the ‘Strengthening and supporting educational organizations’ activity seeks to have the community intervene directly and to participate in the school projects. At the same time, the “Parents’ school” activity encourages parents’ participation in educational activities. Towards this aim, they receive complete information about their children’s educational development and are offered literacy classes, so that they can become more involved in their children’s school work and in their overall educational process.
Promoting cultural diversity
The main objective of this program is to increase municipal investment in those projects which benefit the development of children and adolescents. The program’s main working lines are: Raising awareness among the municipalities and civil society through training, the distribution of local commissions, the elaboration of a public policy report per municipality and guidance on the execution of key projects. the creation of recreational spaces and the provision of necessary resources to facilitate sociocultural exchange between groups, communities and countries; and increasing community participation in the management and enjoyment of both traditional and academic popular culture.
Strengthening community recreation and culture
With this project, Intervida provides communities with the tools they need to manage their patrimony and to recover those cultural aspects which constitute their identity and values. Towards this aim, the organization promotes the development of traditional recreational activities like dance, festivals, music, literature, language and expressions through local communication media. The objective is to promote participation from all groups and to create cultural services for historically excluded communities.
- Supporting public libraries
- Cultural organization and participation
Sponsorship
In response to the poverty affecting the countries in the South, the “Sponsorship” program was created with the aim of materializing the solidarity of the North countries through child sponsorship. The collaborator’s periodic contribution does not exclusively benefit the sponsored child, but rather the whole community in which the child lives.
Uniting our sponsors and children
To form a link between sponsor and child, Intervida establishes first contact between them by sending the sponsor a photo of the child along with a personal profile. This relationship lasts for seven years, while the child is in primary school, or until the sponsorship otherwise ends. An annual “Artwork Collection” campaign is also organized; “artwork” is the term used to refer to the school work which the children elaborate for their sponsors. The sponsors receive a drawing, craft or letter elaborated by their sponsored children in school twice a year. The school work sent is determined by the child’s age and school course level.
- Artwork Collection
- File Collection
Community business development
The aim of this program is to generate and increase the economic income of families in all communities. To do this, Intervida offers community members advanced techniques in production and return on investment which are useful for training rural business associations or individuals. At the same time, Intervida promotes the administration, organization and commercialization of agricultural activities. This requires a process of capitalization and self-management through funding which Intervida organizes according to the identified needs. - Seed capital: Intervida provides an external contribution, or start-up capital to be managed by the group, with profits being reinvested in the process. - Fund for Strengthening Businesses: external funding is provided to formal and legally constituted business which seek to improve their productive and commercial conditions.
Productive artisan-industrial and services development
This project aims to strengthen productive development by trainings young people in various aspects of agricultural. Together with the Culture division, the Production team imparts training courses to future business owners with the aim of preparing them to promote profitable productive activities. The final objective is to promote work and the labor supply in the rural areas.
- Training to strengthen the commercialization of artisan-industrial products
- Community organization of production
- Strengthening of community organization for production
Productive agricultural and livestock development
The “Productive agricultural and livestock development” project works to equip beneficiaries with the skills needed to increase animal and vegetable production, not only in terms of quality, but also in terms of volume; at the same time, it teaches them how to obtain a maximum yield from the natural resources available. Actions are also organized to strengthen the administrative aspects of productive processes, starting with the identification of those groups with over three years of intervention and which demonstrate a strong level of organization and recovery of the initial capital. These then become beneficiaries of the “Strengthening Businesses” project.
- Crop diversification
- Broiler chicken farms
- Laying farms
- Implementation of community medicinal gardens
- Management of greenhouse crops
- Handling and exploitation of other minor species
- Management of natural resources
- Demonstrative modules
- Training on the protection of natural resources
- Community organization of production
- Strengthening of community organization for production
- Training to strengthen the commercialization of agricultural and livestock products
- Establishing commercialization networks for agricultural and livestock products
- Participative rural diagnostic
Strengthening businesses
The “Strengthening businesses” project is directed at groups of producers who have been working together for more than three years and who have demonstrated a strong organizational level and recovery of initial capital, as well as strong positioning of their products in their market segment. This project provides them with the technical assistance necessary to create small and mid-sized rural business.
Mother-child health
The “Mother-child health program encompasses all those projects aimed at reducing the high rates of mother and infant mortality. Educational sessions are offered to mothers on good hygiene and dietary practices in order to prevent malnutrition problems among minors and the prevalence of easily preventable infectious contagious diseases. Pediatric care services are also offered to children under 5 years old. Finally, a midwife training project is implemented to avoid bad birthing practices and to guarantee better prenatal and postnatal care for both mothers and children.
Food security
The project seeks to improve the nutritional state of pregnant women and children under five years old. A diagnostic is made on the population’s health status to be able to measure the project’s progress along the way. A personalized plan for nutritional recuperation is established, including provision of those micro and macro nutrients needed to minimize deficiencies. To ensure the sustainability of the process, production is increased, thereby improving families’ economic conditions through new agricultural and livestock products. Good hygiene practices in food preparation and consumption are also taught, incorporating new local products into the daily diet while monitoring the adoption of dietary habits.
- Nutritional diagnosis of pregnant women and children under 5 years old
- Nutritional treatment
- Family livestock farms
- Diversified food gardens
- Training in Nutrition, hygiene and food preparation
Environmental sanitation
The project aims to improve communities’ environmental and sanitary conditions as a strategy for fighting against the proliferation of easily preventable infectious contagious diseases. To do this, the organization works to improve community infrastructures, building drinking water systems, latrines, garbage dumps and drainage systems. At the same time, Intervida organizes educational activities aimed at teaching the population how to optimize their natural resources without endangering them, with special attention to their good conservation.
- Environmental health training
- Natural resources training
- Environmental health committee
- Protecting water sources
- Control of water quality
- Construction of basic sanitary infrastructure
- Environmental prevention studies
Obstetric care
Intervida offers obstetric care to women of child-bearing age and expecting mothers, monitoring the gestation process to guarantee that children enter the world in the best possible conditions. Midwives also receive specific training on the risk of mortality during childbirth, difficult births, or in cases where the mother-to-be is at risk for her age or due to chronic illness. Finally, necessary care is provided to mothers and their newborns in order to prevent postnatal complications in the 40 days following birth.
- Prenatal care
- Postnatal care
- Training on obstetric risks
- Training of traditional midwives
- Monitoring of midwives
- Training of the health committee on the identification of the “four delays”
- Elaboration of an emergency obstetric plan
- Strengthening the organization of local health committees
Pediatric care
The aim of this project is to provide medical attention to young children, following the protocols of the strategy for the ‘Integral Management of Common Childhood Illnesses (AIEPI)’. Among the activities included in this project, we highlight the following: - In each community, a ‘health monitor’ is selected and trained who is responsible for monitoring sick children and documenting each case with a clinical history. - Trainings are organized on the AIEPI strategy for health team staff and volunteers. - All children under 1 year old are vaccinated. - Talks and trainings are organized so that mothers can recognize the warning signs in their children and seek help at specialized centers. - Finally, talks are organized for mothers on preventive health. - All children under 1 year old are vaccinated. - Talks and trainings are organized so that mothers can recognize the warning signs in their children and seek help at specialized centers. - Finally, talks are organized for mothers on preventive health.
- Training of institutional staff on the Integral Management of Common
- Childhood Illnesses (AIEPI) strategy
- Care for children under 5 years old
- Training of volunteer staff on Integral Management of Common
- Childhood Illnesses (AIEPI) by the community
- Training of mothers on preventive health