JES Projects
Cultivating Change and Breaking Barriers: Combating Gender-Based Violence Through Women’s Cooperatives
With funding from International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), USAID, and Norad this pilot project builds upon JES’ experience and lessons learned while implementing the USAID funded Mujer Florece project. For this initiative, JES has partnered with the Fundacion Red de Sobrevivientes de Violencia (FS) and La Asociacion de Desarollo Productivo y Servicios Tikonel (Tikonel) to address gender-based violence (GBV) and to support the replication of effective intervention techniques through reflection, awareness building, and collaboration with women-owned cooperatives.
This initiative was launched in Totonicapán, Department which is located in Guatemala’s Western Highlands and borders several other departments, including Quetzaltenango, Sololá, and Huehuetenango. Totonicapán's history, culture, and ongoing struggles for Indigenous rights make it an important and dynamic region characterized by a significant Indigenous population, primarily belonging to the K'iche' Maya ethnic group. This project aims to meet the needs of Indigenous women by working through women-owned cooperatives to address gender-based violence in their homes and communities. In order to have the greatest reach possible, this new project will work with cooperatives to create sustainable assistance resources, implement strategies to directly assist its members, and explore the most effective means to multiply community reflection on gender-based roles and violence.
