The Transformative Mission of our Center
El Salitre Women’s and Children’s Center
We exist to empower the women of El Salitre to transform their lives, care for their families, and create a connected, compassionate, and healthy community.
Our Vision
The vision of El Salitre Women’s and Children’s Center is to strengthen the community and enhance the quality of life for all by empowering women through:
Access to a strong community & women-to-women network
Job skills development, leadership & entrepreneurship
Improved family relationships, nutrition and living conditions
Quality childcare and enriching educational programs
The background
A Testament to Resilience in El Salitre
An hour’s drive outside of Guatemala City, bordering a highly polluted lake, you will find El Salitre. In this impoverished area of Amatitlan, 5,000 residents — mostly women and children — live in abject poverty. The obstacles here are many: violence and malnutrition, and no access to clean water, sewage treatment, or electricity.
Our Story
1 - Beginnings
In 2018, we began our journey with a cross-cultural conversation in a dusty room in one of the few safe places in El Salitre, Guatemala—a mission. We asked five local women a simple question: How can we help?
We spent much of the day listening to their stories—stories of providing children meals only every other day, the pervasive fear of violence, lack of schooling, the struggle to find jobs, and the terror of leaving young children at home alone while walking hours to clean houses or wash clothes.
2 - Building
The First Step to Empowering Women
For the first four years, we rented a room in a church as we organized and raised funds for our facility. Thanks to many generous donors committed to our mission, we moved into a new workshop in 2022.
3 - Current Impact
A Business with Social Purpose
Today, we employ four seamstresses working for the Center’s label: Five Roots Studio and provide scholarships to 3 students so they can learn the skills and join the label in three years. These women sew and embroider unique products designed by local Guatemalan designers and sold through private trunk shows in the U.S., and through the center’s online shop.
Our workshop buzzes with happy sounds.
A School of Resilience and Joy
We also employ two teachers who currently instruct 15 children—the seamstresses’ children and neighborhood children—in a supplemental program focused on literacy, math, art, and inquiry in science. Our goal is to help our students build the academic resilience to complete high school and pursue careers or further education. In the six years we have been in El Salitre, we have not had a single student drop out of public school. You can feel the joy in our two classrooms.
