Sisbilhá, Guatemala: A one-month retrospective, April 2024 It’s been a little over a month since returning back to Boston from visiting the remote, indigenous village of Sisbilhá, in the Guatemalan Highlands – the third village that Sowing Opportunities has supported in the region. What was remarkable was the resilience of this mostly women-led community, how […]

 

On Earth Day, we celebrate the successes that the people in the villages in Eastern Alta Verapaz are experiencing since January 2022.   In each of the villages where Sowing Opportunities’ team has collaborated with the people to help them to develop their skills in agricultural production and leadership development, they have followed a similar path. […]

From Paul Ponders: “Sowing Opportunities”, a Malden, MA -based Charity that assists destitute villages in Guatemala in gaining access to clean water for basic needs and cultivation of their land. You will hear from Executive Director Fern Remedi-Brown and she will expand upon the Five (5) Core Values of her Organization: Doing peace and justice […]

A video message from Fern Remedi-Brown, Executive Director of Sowing Opportunities who just returned from visiting the village of Sisbilhá in the Eastern Highlands of Guatemala: What was surprising is how the women have used their ingenuity to apply agricultural techniques that they learned to feed their families and develop an economy, such as growing […]

My recent visit to Guatemala was exciting: there is much to share! Our team of four arrived in Sisbilhá on Thursday, March 7 in Guatemala’s hot summer in Alta Verapaz with temps reaching 100°F (37.78°C).  Being that it was summer, the rainy season of May to November was a distant memory.  So, watering the crops […]

The mostly women-led projects are developing at a rapid pace, thanks to the dedication of Sowing Opportunities’ team on the ground in the region, and the tireless and motivated efforts of the participants. They are truly participating in “on the job training,” where they practice what they have learned and receive instruction and evaluation from […]

Sowing Opportunities’ team left a day earlier than the anticipated January 14, in case there might be roadblocks starting at the time that the new President of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo, was to be inaugurated – in case there were delays and protests.  They made it safely to the remote region in Eastern Alta Verapaz, and […]

In 2015 a ten-year-old girl, adopted in the U.S. from Guatemala, expressed her desire to find her biological family.  This led to a pioneering effort for a remote, previously forgotten region in the Eastern Highlands of Guatemala, to have greenhouse agriculture.  Two villages now have food security, as well as a commerce and leadership development […]

Q’eqchi’ communities’ identity is connected to and their culture is deeply related to the mountains, especially in terms of their religion, such as with mountain spirits, dating back to pre-colonial history. (Wilson, pp. 13-14) Before the armed conflict of 1960-1996 in Guatemala, the Q’eqchi’ people lived in arable land in the mountains where they lived […]

Visit our Events page! Sowing Opportunities has participated in spring and summer 2022 in local festivals to introduce our mission to Malden, Melrose, and Revere residents, and to raise funds through donations in exchange for home grown plants and the sale of Guatemalan handicrafts, in order to raise funds for the greenhouse project.   Details are […]

On Friday, April 22, 2022, Sowing Opportunities held an Earth Day event in front of The Gallery@57 from 12:00 to 6:00 p.m.  The event included discussing our mission and work in the remote indigenous village of Chajmaic, Guatemala, offering plants in exchange for donations, a bake sale, the sale of Guatemalan handicrafts and rock painting.  […]