Isabel with her two youngest children.

June 30, 2011: Isabel, 51, is a mother of twelve and a grandmother of three from Sololá, a mostly Mayan area of Guatamala overlooking Lake Atitlan. For her whole life she has done nothing but work in her household and raise children.

“My father told us that women don’t have the right to learn anything. All my brothers went to school, but us girls did not.” When SOS Children’s Villages opened a community center near her home in 2005, Isabel joined the literacy classes it offered.  As a result, she can now read and write, skills that have encouraged her to play a part in her local community. “I am old, but I have never been taught anything,” she explains. “Taking those classes awakened my mind.”

The literacy classes that changed Isabel’s thinking are provided as part of the SOS Family Strengthening Program in Sololá. Through the program, SOS runs a counseling center and eight community centers in Sololá, reaching a total of 240 families.

Community mothers chatting at the SOS Social Center in Patzun Guatemala

SOS Tailors Program to Mayan Women

More than 90 percent of families in the program are female-headed households. SOS designed the Family Strengthening Program, a model it uses worldwide, to take into account local Mayan cultural and social traditions.

Like Isabel, Mayan girls spend most of their childhood learning about housework rather than going to school. Because they start families at a young age, Mayan women have a much higher than average number of children. These circumstances have prevented women in Mayan communities from playing a role in public life. Positions of authority are consistently held by men.

The SOS Literacy Program in Sololá is designed to help women develop skills and confidence. While mothers sit in classes that teach them about human rights, self-esteem, and sexual health, their children attend center-run daycare. Women in the program, like Isabel, are increasingly participating in public tasks and getting involved in community-level decision-making.

Isabel's youngest son

Bringing Light to Future Generations

Isabel loves the fact that her two youngest children, Ilsia and Gamaliel, and her three grandchildren learn something new every day at the SOS Community Center. “They come home after class and sing songs they learned. I tell them they have time to learn, and that I will provide them with understanding and support.”