Impact partners
The Women and Organizations Who Lead This Program
These partnerships come from Somos's years of direct relationships with communities around Lake Atitlán. Community visit contributions and activity materials are built into the program cost, so partners are paid for their time and expertise.
Main partner · Reforestation
Wellkind Guatemala
A grassroots environmental NGO focused on reforestation, watershed restoration, and sustainable agriculture in Indigenous communities around Lake Atitlán. The women who manage Wellkind's native tree nurseries are central to its model: Indigenous staff who serve as technical experts, community liaisons, and environmental educators. Participants spend a morning potting and preparing seedlings alongside them.
200,000+
trees planted since founding
50,000
trees a year, the annual goal
15+
Indigenous community partners
80%+
tree survival through community ownership
Student outcome: Students understand how Indigenous ecological knowledge, native species selection, and community ownership produce conservation results that last.
Lens of inquiry question: What does leadership look like when the same people leading a livelihood are leading the conservation?
Water · Day 4
Water for Life Global
A community-driven NGO addressing Lake Atitlán's water crisis through women-led programs, including Bienestar Comunitario, village water filters, and greywater treatment. Participants see filter distribution in action and meet women trained through its leadership program.
Student outcome: Students understand the lake's contamination sources and the community-led responses to them.
Lens of inquiry question: What does environmental leadership look like when the ecosystem you protect is the one you live inside?
Education · Day 5
MAIA School
An all-girls Indigenous school at Lake Atitlán founded to provide educational access and leadership development for Indigenous girls. Somos works directly with its founders, board, and head of school, so the exchange is a peer conversation between students.
Student outcome: Students hear from MAIA peers what their education has changed for them, and compare it with their own.
Lens of inquiry question: What does leadership look like when it starts with access to education?
Community health · Day 5
Konojel
A nonprofit in San Marcos la Laguna working on health, education, and entrepreneurship: the Healthy Babies nutrition program led by women educators, the Young Leaders Scholarship Program, and Konojel Restaurant, where women staff prepare the group's lunch.
Student outcome: Students see how women's employment and social enterprise sustain a community program.
Lens of inquiry question: What does leadership look like when it is organized around community need?
Artisan economy · Day 3
San Juan la Laguna Weaving Cooperatives
Women artisans practicing backstrap weaving and plant-based dyeing, who built their own supply chains and set their own prices. Participants weave or dye alongside artisan instructors.
Student outcome: Students understand cooperative organizing and fair trade as a form of economic independence.
Lens of inquiry question: What does economic leadership look like when it is built around traditional knowledge?
