Shining a Light Within,
Lighting a Way Forward
for Guatemalan Girls.
We are on a mission to break the cycle of poverty and adolescent pregnancy in young girls in Guatemala. Empowering girls to reimagine their future and become the women they aspire to be.
Shining a Light Within,
Lighting a Way Forward
for Guatemalan Girls.
We are on a mission to break the cycle of poverty and adolescent pregnancy in young girls in Guatemala. Empowering girls to reimagine their future and become the women they aspire to be.
Providing choices.
Young girls in Guatemala are not given the choice to write their own stories.
Luminarias helps adolescent girls break the cycle of poverty by providing housing, education, youth development, faith formation and community outreach. The girls develop confidence, master life skills and ultimately gain a new life filled with new choices.
Changing lives.
By keeping enrollment to a minimum, we value quality over quantity as each girl gets one-on-one attention.
At Luminarias we’re on a mission to equip Guatemalan girls to shine their light…so she is someone who lights the way for others. This light shines so bright it lights a path for others to follow…changing lives for generations.
The Greatest Need.
Half of Guatemalan girls have a child before the age of 19.
Guatemala ranks 3rd globally in the killing of women.
Guatemala ranks 112th, out of the 135 countries world-wide in gender equality, making it the most gender unequal country in Latin America.
By age fifteen, 6 out of 10 Indigenous girls have dropped out of school.
There is a high number of pregnancies between the ages of 10 and 14. Guatemala has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Latin America, and it is on the rise.
According to the USAID, the average length of education is four years and only one third graduate from sixth grade.
In Guatemala, 53.7% of the population lives in poverty. And 75% of the indigenous population live in poverty.
Widespread poverty means that many children are forced to leave school due to either their parents inability to pay for school expenses, or just the necessity of children to work.
