Visiting our Global Partners in Guatemala: WINGS field report

“Guatemala is a beautiful country with a lot of complex situations, and we are doing our best to transform all of the social challenges…so, if you can keep focusing on this country  and helping us to deliver these services, you are helping us to make it so that the beauty of the country matches the opportunities of the people living here.”

– Erik Pocasangre, Programs Director, WINGS

My journey to Guatemala

Last month, I set out on a journey to visit Population Connection’s amazing Global Partners in Guatemala. The experience was both inspirational and transformative, and a powerful reminder of why their work is so important. I came back feeling deeply inspired, full of gratitude, and more connected than ever to the communities and people driving change in areas of reproductive health, family planning, sustainable development, and regenerative agriculture.

The purpose of my visit was to both gain a deeper understanding of how each organization operates day-to-day and to gather stories that highlight their impact in specific communities. It was also a chance to connect directly with the people they serve—whose voices, experiences, and insights are the heart of this work.

What struck me most was how multifaceted and deeply rooted our Global Partners’ work is. It’s not just about distributing resources or implementing programs—it’s about trust, relationships, and listening to the needs of the community. From clinics to remote community visits, every service is locally informed and shaped by people who truly understand the communities they serve. I had many wonderful conversations with staff and community members, and I’ll be sharing a few stories on our blog.

WINGS: Reproductive healthcare for rural communities

The first Global Partner I visited was WINGS Guatemala, a high-impact organization that takes a patient-centered, human rights approach to providing reproductive healthcare across many rural and hard-to-reach communities in Guatemala. Through a network of mobile medical units, a stationary clinic in Antigua, and community-based programs, WINGS offers a range of services including contraceptive options, cervical cancer screenings, and educational outreach. Since its founding in 2001, the organization has reached over 412,000 individuals with family planning education and counseling, screened more than 78,000 women for cervical cancer, and prevented over 413,000 unintended pregnancies.

The importance of empowering young people

WINGS also has youth programs that engage young people on a wide variety of themes related to reproductive health and autonomy, gender equality, empowerment, and more. I spent some time visiting their headquarters in the beautiful colonial town of Antigua and interviewing a few staff members, including Erik Pocasangre, the Programs Director. We talked at length about the importance of this type of work in Guatemala and the hope he sees for future generations. He noted how young people are ready to talk about these issues, and that they just need guidance on how to approach them in a way that is respectful and helps them achieve their goals.

 “Sexuality itself is a big dimension of our lives. It’s present from the time of our births until we pass away and transition to other lives. And in this country, the history of women and different communities, including youth and young males, is marked by a lot of sexual abuse. For me, the work that WINGS does is that it’s giving the power back to the women and giving the power back to the communities, so at the end, whether they decide that they want to have a [family planning] method or not, just making sure that they can decide what happens to their bodies for themselves gives their power back.”

– Erik, Programs Director, WINGS

The next day, I attended a lively youth empowerment meeting where participants received leadership training and learned about gender-based violence from a vibrant guest speaker, who passionately engaged students on many types of gender-based violence (physical, psychological, sexual, economic), explaining and describing what these look like and how they can materialize, and offering strategies to confront them. I was impressed by how open and interested so many young people were to these topics, which I had assumed would be veiled and taboo. The group openly talked about the influence of machismo culture and related conditioning from their families, schools, and the broader culture in which they’re being raised. (Machismo is a patriarchal mindset especially associated with Latin America that promotes male dominance, rigid gender roles, and emotional repression, often limiting women’s rights and reinforcing inequality).

 “For me, the biggest impact of these programs is that it helps lead them [the youth] to make more informed decisions. So, we don’t have this methodology to just “speak against” getting pregnant. It’s more about being aware of what is your path, and where do you see yourself in the future. And once they start to think about that with more consciousness—around all of the topics that they need to be aware of, like consent, healthy relationships, what gender-based violence is and how to limit and avoid it—that complements them in realizing the visions they have for their futures. So, when we deliver all of this, and after one or two years in the program, it’s pretty amazing to listen to them talk about their lives outside of what social norms would expect of them. They then take these conversations to their families, because their families need to be aware that they are changing, and that they are choosing something different for their lives.”

– Erik, Programs Director, WINGS

A breath of fresh air

The conversations were deep—open, raw, vulnerable, and supportive. During a break, I talked to 15-year-old Alexandra, a first-year member, who told me that the program has helped her because “even from the first day I felt good about myself, I felt happy to be here and I didn’t feel judged.” She then explained that she’s already learned so much—not only about sexual rights, but about “how to have healthy relationships with people.”

I felt incredibly grateful to have gotten to witness such a powerful group and movement—so much courage and conviction in one space! In contrast to the political backtracking and chaos happening in the U.S., this experience felt like a breath of fresh air. It reminded me that change is not only possible—it’s happening. Beautiful things are unfolding around us all the time.

“I like to be able to share experiences with other young people which in turn helps me help other young people learn more about their bodies and their rights,” Alan, an 18-year-old youth leader remarked in conversation with me about the program. “It helps us understand our bodies, what is healthy regarding our bodies, and it also teaches us about contraceptives and reproductive health.” Alan has spent two years in the program and is one of the leaders training first-year members. I asked him if he had a message he’d like to convey to people in the U.S., and he replied, “I think it’s important to mention that all young people have the right to start a sexual life and to learn about what rights we have in our lives.”

One of the most powerful things I experienced during my time in Guatemala was a deep, genuine sense of community. Here’s what Rúben, the Communications Coordinator at WINGS, told me he’d like to share with people in the U.S. It was one of the responses that stayed with me the most:

“One of the fundamental parts of being in Guatemala, and about being in Latin America in general, is that we’ve been working around community for decades. We’ve been working for years and years resisting these systems of oppression with our communities. And that’s something that people in the U.S. can learn from us—building a sense of community and this collective work to push against individualism, because human rights abuses are not solved by individualistic solutions, but by collective action.”

Stay tuned for my next field report from Guatemala in which I describe my meeting with our Global Partner Maya Health Alliance.