Empowering Indigenous Women in Guatemala
Through its partnership with the World Food Programme, Stop Hunger supported a project in Guatemala aimed at strengthening the economic empowerment and leadership of indigenous women in Alta Verapaz. The project focused on helping women build resilience to recurring economic and climate shocks, while improving their access to institutional markets, including Guatemala’s expanding Home-Grown School Feeding Programme.
Strengthening women’s economic empowerment
In Alta Verapaz, WFP established 16 women’s Savings and Loans Groups, engaging 350 women in entrepreneurship and financial inclusion activities.
These groups completed a full savings cycle, mobilizing more than USD 144,000 in savings, loans and interest. Nearly three-quarters of participants also reported stronger group organization, more rigorous decision-making and improved access to credit.
Connecting women to institutional markets
The project also supported improvements to the School Feeding Management App, in coordination with the Ministry of Education.
These enhancements helped improve supplier onboarding, menu planning workflows, traceability, accountability and transparency, strengthening the readiness of the national school feeding programme for future scale-up.
Key learnings
The project showed the importance of co-designing tools with local institutions, including the Ministry of Education and MAGA, to ensure practical adoption and long-term use.
It also demonstrated that women’s groups can be powerful platforms for advancing indigenous women’s economic empowerment and preparing them to participate in institutional markets.
Finally, culturally and linguistically adapted training proved essential to strengthen participation, skills and practical application, especially through hands-on learning rooted in the local context.
Other Impact Stories
New Community Garden in Ieramugadu
Surplus Giving
Ustawi Water Project
Czechitas Foundation
Les Enfants de Kavresthali - Nepal
CARE: Overcoming violence and poverty in Colombia
Solidarity Kitchen in Brazil
Toutes à l'école