Community Open Doors Days at our regional training centre in Batzul

Last month, we were delighted to welcome 12 neighbours to our training centre campus in Batzul, Chajul to take part in an organic agriculture workshop.

During the workshop, we discussed organic and ancestral practices for the staple crop of our region, corn. We talked about the milpa system, which plants corn, bean and squash together, with each plant helping the other to grow and thrive.

We are inspired by the teachings of indigenous elders, who have carried the ancestral ways of farming and living in harmony with the land for generations. 

As Robin Wall Kimmerer writes in her book, Braiding Sweetgrass:

“Together these plants— corn, beans, and squash—feed the people, feed the land, and feed our imaginations, telling us how we might live. For millennia, from Mexico to Montana, women have mounded up the earth and laid these three seeds in the ground, all in the same square foot of soil. Together their stems inscribe what looks to me like a blueprint for the world, a map of balance and harmony.”

The corn stands tall for the bean plant to wind around and add its nitrogen-fixing root nodules to the soil. The broad squash leaves ensure shade over the soil and, together, each plant contributes to a nutritious meal which includes starch, protein and vitamins. Robin Wall Kimmerer calls this ancestral agricultural system, “a metaphor for coexistence and mutual flourishing.”

During our workshop, after sharing knowledge and exchanging experiences, we went into the garden to plant a native black corn variety with organic compost and natural fertiliser. With the guidance of our Head Gardener, José, the workshop participants learned more about nature-friendly ways to look after these important crops as well as looking after the land.

“When we plant with organic methods, we don’t get sick from artificial chemicals and the land recovers too.”

- José, Head Gardener

At the end of the workshop, the women took home native seed varieties and sweet potato cuttings from the garden. We are looking forward to welcoming them back next month for a workshop on natural insecticides to help prevent blights and pests in their crops. 

Together, we can continue to promote healthy agricultural practices that contribute to the mutual flourishing of our communities and our planet.

Celebrations and Graduations

They’ve done it! 12 women from among Guatemala’s most remote communities have shifted gender paradigms, broken stereotypes and graduated from a technical training programme, ready to become solar engineers

The graduation ceremony is buzzing with family reunions, official visitors and marimba booming from the speakers. The pathways of the training centre are covered in pine needles, a traditional symbol of Guatemalan festivities, and Barefoot staff are busy welcoming guests, such as Víctor Hugo Ventura, the Minister of Energy, who has come with other government representatives to join the celebration. We also welcome members of the National Institute for Electrification (INDE) and the Municipal Directorate for Women from both Nebaj and Chajul. 

Families have traveled long distances to be here and there are daughters, sons, grandchildren, husbands, parents, sisters and brothers clearly in awe of the achievements of their graduating family members.

The graduation ceremony begins with an official address from Bárbara Pérez Felices, Barefoot College Guatemala’s Director, and from Minister Ventura, both of which are translated simultaneously into Ixil by our ENRICH Coordinator, Ixmukané. The Minister states, “Energy is a fundamental part of life. Thanks to Barefoot College and the women who have completed this programme, these families are now going to have a better quality of life, especially the children who will be able to study at night. Having access to electricity is one of the biggest drivers transforming our communities and society.” There are still 377,000 homes in Guatemala today that don’t have access to electricity.

One of the graduating class, Cecilia, also demonstrates her public speaking and leadership skills by giving an address, thanking the Barefoot team, the World Food Programme coordination, the Minister of Energy and her peers, as well as everyone present. She says, “at first, we didn’t believe that we would be able to do it, but here we are, now graduating and ready to take the solar panels to our communities!” The rest of the cohort then make a memorable entrance, dancing the traditional son two-step dance while carrying baskets of sweets that they throw out to the audience after finishing their celebratory performance. 

After the handing out of graduation certificates, our inspiring Master Trainer Juana, herself a graduate of the programme from a remote Ixil community in Nebaj, gives a tour of the amenities. She shows off the Barefoot manual in the classroom, as the entire audience gathers around to get a closer look at the soldering tools, solar equipment, Diva lanterns, bulbs and charge controllers. She clearly explains the methodology of the Solar programme, highlighting the first steps to understand solar-generated electricity and how we manage to engage and teach a multilingual community of non-formally educated women from rural communities. 

Finally, María and Petrona from the Santa Clara community give a demonstration of the installation of the charge controller and the four bulbs connected to the solar panel, in anticipation of the 25 solar installations each graduate will soon complete in their communities. Over the coming months, the 12 solar engineers will install 350 solar home lighting systems in 7 communities without access to the electrical grid, directly improving the lives of approximately 2000 people. 

Thank you and congratulations

to Cecilia, Sara, Zenaida, María, Alejandra, Petrona, María, Rosa, Juana, Magdalena, Margarita y Jacinta for becoming solar engineers who will bring light to their communities and inspire other women to become local change-makers.

Our Third Solar Engineer Cohort Arrives At the Training Centre

The outdoor courtyard of the large, terracotta tile roofed training centre is a blaze of reds, yellows and greens as the 12 participants of the 2025 Solar and ENRICH Programme gather for the first time. They have come from 7 remote communities in the Huehuetenango and Quiché departments and their colourful cortes (skirts) and huipiles (traditional woven blouses) demonstrate the cultural diversity of the group. They speak amongst themselves in Maya Ixil, Maya K’iché and Spanish.

It is clear that they are nervous and not quite sure what to expect. Many of them have never left their communities for any length of time before. It is hard for them to believe that they will be living and studying at the training centre for the next two and a half months. 

Some, like 53-year-old Magdalena, never had the opportunity to attend school and are monolingual in their indigenous language. Magdalena traveled for over three hours on mountainous, unpaved roads in a neighbour’s pick-up truck to arrive in Batzul. She is already embodying the qualities of our ENRICH women’s empowerment programme just by being here. She advocated for herself with her community, who doubted she would be able to complete a solar energy training programme given that she cannot read or write. Eventually, her community decided to support her and each family provided a small contribution towards her expenses, knowing that in a few months’ time, they will have light in their homes for the first time. And Magdalena will be the solar engineer installing it.

Others, like Juana from a remote community of the Nebaj municipality, arrived having left their children in the care of family and neighbours. Juana is pregnant and determined to learn new skills before her next child arrives.

Ixmukané, coordinator of our ENRICH programme, comments that it’s always a bit tense at the beginning of the programme:

“They still don’t know each other, they speak different languages. Some of them don’t even want to introduce themselves, but then we put into practice the leadership skills of the ENRICH programme and they begin to let go and loosen up. We play games which make us laugh and that make them feel more relaxed and less shy. We start to talk about goals and aspirations and they work together in small groups and share experiences from their communities. They realise that even if their language is different and their communities are faraway from each other, they still have a lot in common and the opportunity to be at the training centre is giving them a unique, shared experience.”

The ENRICH programme runs in parallel to the Solar Programme, covering seven central modules and utilising popular education methodologies to engage women in self-esteem building activities, increasing their skills and self-confidence. Within the first two weeks of the programme, the engineers-in-training have already had a field visit to another local agroecology and environmental education NGO, Casagua, supplementing the Sustainable Living ENRICH module with learnings about organic compost, seed saving, planting with lunar cycles and creating diversified family vegetable gardens.

Over the next few weeks, they will continue to familiarise themselves with the Solar Programme’s training manual and its pictographic and visual representations of electrical circuits and currents. They will also build confidence, gain new skills and develop knowledge across a range of holistic themes that all contribute towards the demystification, decentralisation and democratisation of technology and education for these inspiring women from some of Guatemala’s most remote communities.