Adventures with the Business Promoters
August 20, 2010
Jessica Sunter


So far my experience working with the staff in Todos Santos has been very different from working with the staff in Comitancillo. In Comitancillo I spent a lot more time in the CAUSE office working on improving the curriculum whereas in Todos Santos I have gone out to communities almost every day to visit the business and microcredit participants. I must say that I prefer spending my time in the communities because that’s when I’m able to really get to know the women and to see how the people live.

The Guatemalan staff who I mainly work with are Plásido and Sonia, the two business promoters. They both started working with CAUSE just this year, but I am very impressed with how motivated they are and the fact that they take a lot of initiative. Sonia is only 19 years old but is one of the most confident and outspoken women I’ve met in Guatemala. She believes that the business classes need to be as practical and hands-on as possible and is full of ideas of how to improve them. Plásido, as well, will go to great lengths to visit his women’s business groups on a regular basis. I know this because in the last week I have spent hours walking down mountain paths through the pouring rain with him. Some of his participants live in communities far away from the town of Todos Santos and where there is little public transportation. Just yesterday I met Plásido at 5am so that we could catch the once daily bus to Chimil. After the 1 ½ hour bus ride we had to walk close to 2 hours to get to Chalhuitz. Although Chalhuitz is a very isolated community where few foreigners have gone, the people were warm and welcoming to me.

The CAUSE office is located in IMDI, a well-known institute that provides health, educational and other social services to the communities around Todos Santos. Most of the staff at IMDI are young people from the area and are extremely hard working. It is not unusual for the offices to be full at 7pm. It’s nice to be around other young people and to be able to work closely with other development organizations. All in all I’m loving Todos Santos and even though we just got here I am already sad that we will be leaving in December.