Abbreviated Version of Questions:  Where in the world is Guatemala and what is one country that borders Guatemala? See Basic Information about Guatemala and its Indigenous Population  How many Mayan indigenous languages are spoken today in Guatemala?              Multiple choice: 0, 22, 43, or 175 See Basic Information about Guatemala […]

Sowing Opportunities has multiple opportunities for you to come out and not only support our mission of building agricultural capacity, resources, and leadership for indigenous families in villages in a remote area of Guatemala – but also supporting indigenous artisans in Guatemala through the purchase of beautiful fair trade handicrafts! These are Sowing Opportunities’ upcoming […]

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 […]