Visiting our Global Partners in Guatemala: Seeds for a Future Field Report

My journey to Guatemala

In March, 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 here.

See Hannah’s earlier post about her visit to Maya Health Alliance here.

Leaving cosmopolitan Antigua for Guatemala’s western highlands

This spring, I met Leilani at the central park of Antigua’s town center. She was there with Armando, Program Director of Seeds for a Future, and our cheerful translator, Luis. “¿Estamos listos?” Luis asked with a smile, checking if we were ready to go. We left behind the vibrant streets of Antigua and began our four-hour drive to Chocolá, Guatemala — home to Seeds for a Future’s headquarters.

Leaving Antigua feels almost like stepping out of a bubble — its cobblestone streets and colonial architecture set it apart from most other Guatemalan cities, and its population of around 60,000 has a distinctly international feel, with a large community of expats. Antigua’s population is largely Ladino (mestizo/non-Indigenous) and cosmopolitan, making it one of Guatemala’s premier tourist destinations. This blend of locals, expats, and temporary residents contributes to its diversity but also drives up the cost of living, which is among the highest in the country. The city’s colorful buildings house artisanal coffee shops and farm-to-table restaurants offering trendy vegan dishes — clear indicators of gentrification and rising living expenses.

Beyond Antigua lies a very different landscape — vast farmland and stunning volcanic highlands dotted with small towns and roadside tiendas (Spanish for ‘store’ or ‘shop’), which usually stock processed items like chips, soda, beer, and candy. Much of the rural Guatemalan population lives in poverty — about 44% of the country’s people are Indigenous, and around 80% of Indigenous people live in poverty — and struggles with severe food insecurity and chronic malnutrition, even in agricultural regions. Rural Indigenous Guatemalans face the highest rates of chronic malnutrition in Central America. In Indigenous highland communities, stunting (the term for children who are significantly shorter than the average for their age) rates are even higher than the national average of 47%. Most of Chocolá’s 10,000 residents today are Indigenous Maya, primarily K’iche’ and Kaquchikel, and families here typically survive on just $3 per day, according to a local non-profit. Limited access to basic necessities like clean water, health care, and education remains a significant challenge for the community.

A few hours into the drive, Armando insisted that we stop for fresh coconut water. We parked next to a huge pile of coconuts that had been stacked up to be sold, and as we got out of the car, two children who were patiently waiting for customers popped out from behind the pile to help us. We picked out our coconuts and handed them to the children who handed them to an older woman who sat a table and used a large machete to open the top of each coconut so we could drink the water inside. “The best place to get fresh coconuts is here,” Armando proudly stated with a coconut in his hand. “Good hydration is important on a hot day.”

Improving nutrition and creating livelihoods

Seeds for a Future helps rural Mayan families improve their food security, nutrition, and livelihoods through sustainable home gardening and small-scale farming. They provide training, seeds, and practical tools to empower communities to grow diverse, nutritious crops while caring for the environment. Their work focuses on creating lasting self-reliance and resilience for families in Guatemala’s western highlands. Seeds’ mission is to eliminate chronic malnutrition and disease among rural families and communities by equipping them with the training and resources for creating their own sustainable food security, increasing their nutrition and health, and developing more economic opportunities.

We visited one of Seeds’ community nurseries, where we were warmly welcomed by Seeds staff — many of whom are also members of the local community — and they proudly showed us around. We received hands-on lessons about every aspect of Seeds’ work, from seed germination and soil enrichment to community education initiatives.

“The elevator speech is that there are two main areas of impact: one is nutrition education, which is really important, especially in rural communities that are often overlooked,” Leilani explained as we walked from the community nursery to participating households to check in with family members and inspect their gardens. “So, we go in, we meet with the families, and we learn what the actual needs of the household are. The other part is to work with them to plant actual seeds for their future, in creating home gardens. We introduce fruits, vegetables, herbs, and sometimes small animal husbandry.”

During an educational workshop, Moises, one of the program leads, told us passionately, “This is so important for the health of our community.” He went on to explain that “in a community down the road, there are so many chemicals in the food that you can smell it. Through [Seeds’s] program, we’re able to learn how to tell — through smell and taste and by growing our own food — what is healthy and what isn’t. This has helped us so much.” At the end of his talk, he picked up a tray of starter seeds to show us how they were being grown. “We can start to see that the taste of fruits and vegetables are totally different based on how they’re grown.”

After the nursery tour, we set out walking to several households for check-ups. Armando and the rest of the team were welcomed with open arms at each stop — a clear reflection of the trust and positive impact Seeds has built within the community. In addition to improving family nutrition and children’s health by diversifying diets with nutrient-rich crops, Seeds also helps build community resilience by sharing sustainable practices adapted to local climate and resources. For example, each household garden we visited was unique, shaped by the specific needs and resources of each family. Leilani explained that “During our assessment, we figure out what amount of land [community members] have. Sometimes it’s just a hanging garden on the side of their home; sometimes it’s an entire plot of land.”

Seeds supports over 20 communities and hundreds of families in rural Guatemala. The community members I spoke with all confidently shared that they feel healthier, happier, and more connected to their food. For example, Carmenina — a Seeds employee from the Santa Maria municipality and a member of the K’iche’ community — was eager to share how she was able to grow traditional medicinal herbs in her garden to help her daughter during pregnancy. “During the first few months, she was very sick,” Carmenina recalled. “Then I started giving her herbs from my garden — plants my people have used for generations but that hadn’t been available to us until now.” She explained that her daughter felt much better after eating the herbs and homegrown foods, and today Carmenina is a proud grandmother to a healthy, beautiful two-month-old baby.

“My favorite part is growing the seeds, learning how to put them in the soil, and eating healthy food. I know that the seeds are nutritious and healthy — organic, without contaminants. I also love teaching other people how to grow healthy food like this,” Carmenina enthusiastically expressed to me during an interview. The work being done by Seeds for a Future is a powerful example of how efforts toward sustainable food security must be integrated, addressing nutrition, livelihoods, and sustainability together.

Introducing reproductive health education and services

During our drive back to the city, Leilani and I discussed how population, reproductive health, and nutrition are all interconnected. Having access to nutritious food supports better overall health, which is directly reflected in healthier pregnancies and babies. “I think about our ‘First 1,000 Days’ program,” Leilani answered after I asked her about how reproductive health is related to nutrition. “It works with women from the moment of conception all the way through the first two years of the child’s life. With that, it’s really important that we focus on the nutrition of the woman, because if you don’t have a healthy mother, you won’t have a healthy baby. The mother needs to put herself first and to make sure that she’s nourishing herself and putting her body and mind where it needs to be to grow a healthy child.”

Seeds for a Future is also collaborating with WINGS Guatemala, a rights-based non-profit (also a Global Partner) that provides reproductive health education and services, to offer voluntary family planning education and services in some of the communities they serve. “You know, we’re working with 20 communities, and because of this, there’s an opportunity to expand beyond just the nutrition education and meeting malnutrition needs but seeing other areas of health that our families would benefit from. In our partnership with WINGS, we’ve been able to introduce more medical services, especially for women, through their pop-up clinics offering family planning services and cervical cancer screenings. We’ve hosted three events so far, and we see a lot of potential for programs like these to reach other communities.”

When I asked her about how they navigate the challenges of bringing a culturally sensitive subject like family planning into communities, Leilani was hopeful. “I think it’s a much deeper cultural conversation,” she said after pondering the question. “In these more conservative communities, it can be difficult to talk about family planning, but because WINGS often uses local representation, it makes it all much more approachable for community members. There is a lot of room for family planning here.”

As we pulled up to Antigua’s city center after completing the long journey home, Leilani closed the conversation with a hopeful sentiment. “It’s been going well — it’s a slow process, but as WINGS spends more time in this community and continues to build trust, the community will become more familiar with that partnership and increasingly open to the services provided.”

I thanked Leilani and her amazing team for the opportunity to learn and witness so much during the site visits. As I made my way back to my hotel, I felt deeply grateful. Meeting and talking with community members who are driving real changed filled me with hope and a profound respect for this work. What a gift it was to experience this firsthand — a powerful reminder that even in a world that often feels chaotic, meaningful transformations are happening every day. Ordinary people are creating incredible impact, and their positive actions are reverberating ripples of hope out everywhere. Thank you, Seeds!