09.29.22 / Category: Impact - Grant Awards

How We Work to Remove Barriers of Education – Volume 1, Episode 3: Limitless Horizons Ixil

Wraparound and holistic services have been proven to be the best approach in succeeding to remove barriers to education for girls and women. When girls are educated, they are equipped with the skills and confidence to break down pervasive cycles of poverty. A $10,000 grant award to Limitless Horizons Ixil (LHI) is helping to address gender disparities and improve educational outcomes for the indigenous girls in Chajul, one of the poorest communities in Guatemala due to a 36-year civil war.

With the financial support provided by CofS, they are now working together with the community to create a better life and provide a new school designed for indigenous girls to continue their education. The new school will provide culturally responsive, rigorous, and engaging academics to the community for the first time. Learn more by watching the latest vlog from Circle of Sisterhood’s new monthly series.

About Limitless Horizons Ixil

Limitless Horizons Ixil (LHI) works in Guatemala’s Ixil region to address gender disparities and improve educational outcomesLHI believes removing barriers to education for girls and women is critical to breaking pervasive cycles of poverty. LHI is in the process of building and launching a new school in Chajul, designed for indigenous girls and bringing culturally responsive, rigorous, and engaging academics to the community for the first time. Chajul was devastated by Guatemala’s 36-year civil war that left the rural, indigenous community as one of the poorest in the country. Up against the intersectionality of gender (female), class (extreme poverty), ethnicity (Maya Ixil), language (Ixil), and geography (rural), Chajul’s girls need a strong system of support to succeed. From a young age, girls learn to take a subordinate position in the home, in the classroom, and in the community. In rural Guatemala, most girls drop out of school after primary school, a crucial inflection point that determines whether they will take on traditional gender roles or move towards a new identity as a scholar and future professionalOur $10,000 grant will provide wraparound services and family supports for 20 indigenous girls at this high-leverage point as they transition from primary school to LHI’s new middle school. Providing holistic services will address the significant social-emotional barriers that impede girls’ educational attainment, while incorporating families in order to reinforce the importance of a home environment in which parents value education and girls feel emotionally supported. By incorporating wraparound and family services in Chajul’s new school, LHI is addressing both the quality of education and persistent social-emotional barriers (low self-esteem, gender roles, sexism and social oppression, isolation, trauma, and lack of leadership skills/voice) that prevent girls from succeeding in school.