In 2008-09, the National Maternal and Child Health Survey surveyed women in Guatemala, and more than half of them reported experiencing some type of violence in the last 12 months. Guatemala has a long standing history of a patriarchal society that devalues women, even despite women’s rights advancements. The trauma these women endure each day take a toll on their health and their families, especially mental health. Our program aims to fill in these gaps by identifying women at risk, educating women about their rights and providing empowering support to the women, children and families experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV). Through peer support groups, trade skills training, and micro- finance loans, it is our goal to give the women in our program all of the tools and resources they need to be successful on their own.
This program seeks to:
- Create a safe environment where the women are able to process their trauma in a consistent group setting through various techniques and relocation, if necessary.
- Teach each woman a trade, that works in coordination with their gifts, to empower them, and allow them to financially provide for their families.
- Provide at least 20 micro-finance loans for the women in the program to start businesses of their own within the first year, with potential to continue if successful.
The program will operate under tertiary prevention umbrella, which treats the ongoing health condition or injury in order to better one’s quality of life. The women participating in this program have already been screened and diagnosed with trauma (and potentially other diseases like anxiety and depression). Our goal is to provide a group environment that will help these women talk and process these experiences together to improve their quality of life. The second portion of program, which includes the trade education and micro-finance loans, will operate under the primary prevention umbrella to help make their personal spaces healthier and prevent any further adverse experiences from occurring.
For the IPV program, we are targeting the individual level, the interpersonal level, and the community level of the CDC Socio-Ecological Model. For the individual level, we are targeting the women who have experience intimate partner violence, and having personal counseling sessions with them throughout the program, as well as developing a trade. This allows them to develop their knowledge, attitudes and behaviors, as well as develop a life-long skill. At the interpersonal level, our program incorporates peer support groups, as well as communal learning. At the community level, our micro-finance program option helps foster growth and development for these women to become financially independent members of society.
The biggest trauma-informed principles our program will be implementing is peer support, collaboration, empowerment, and voice and choice. By having peer support intertwined with trauma-informed programming helps establish trust and collaboration to promote healing and recovery. Participants will also be fully involved in the decisions surrounding their care, including choosing a trade, healing goals and hopes for the program. Many of these women’s voices have been silenced their entire lives, so it is very important we give them a voice in healing.
If you would like to learn more about this program, please see the attachment for the full proposal.
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