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.