Collaborative on Global Children's Issues

San Marcos is a department that shares a border with Mexico, a place of origin, transit and return in the issue of migration. Children, adolescents, youth, women, and diverse and vulnerable populations are migrating daily, and the reasons are diverse: due to lack of employment, poverty in their communities, climate change, illiteracy, malnutrition, inequalities, high rate of teenage pregnancies, lack of places for recreation, to mention a few, while others stay in their places of origin in search of improving their living conditions.

It is important to point out that San Marcos is a department that is located in the southwestern region of Guatemala with a territorial extension of 3,791 square kilometers, bordered to the north by Huehuetenango and to the south by the Pacific Ocean and Retalhuleu, to the east by Quetzaltenango, and to the west with the Mexican state of Chiapas, the languages are spoken: Spanish, Mam, Sipacapense, and also K'iche.

In this context there are various problems that particularly harm minors, who from a young age emigrate from Guatemala, placing them at various risks and making them vulnerable to criminal groups, drugs, or committing crimes on the streets, which has lots of repercussions for their self-esteem, training, and growth. At the same time they replicate violence at school, on the street and at home due to the situations of vulnerability in which they find themselves.

On the roads of the municipalities through which migrants travel daily, there has been an increase in violence, extortion, kidnapping, business and recruitment of people. Territories dominated by organized crime and abuse of authority by both the National Migration Institute and the National Civil Police in the communities from which the migrants leave and the number of families waiting to know that their relatives are well increase. Migrants suffer from various emotions when leaving their homes, leaving their loved ones to start their journey immigration and seek new opportunities for economic development for family well-being.

JXC Guatemala, based in the department of San Marcos, Guatemala, was created in February 2015 in order to integrate children, adolescents, youth, women, indigenous, and diverse and vulnerable populations in processes aimed at strengthening human capital, promoting the capacities that each person has, giving them the necessary tools to discover the talent and value they have with the aim of creating leaders in their communities, providing more outreach to the beneficiaries in migration and human rights issues ; other issues include education for human development; the environment; culture and indigenous peoples; health and sports; gender equity and the constant struggle to eradicate the problems that afflict the population in general.

It is necessary that children, adolescents, youth, women, diverse and vulnerable populations are ensured that they develop fully. Since the Guatemalan state is not a guarantor of the rights of the population, organizations such as JXC Guatemala seek to serve or be the answer to promote local agendas for the participation of children, adolescents, and youth to strengthen local power and establish social and public policies, since these populations are considered the current democratic force.

JXC works from various aspects that, together with physical health, mental health, and social health, have been made visible through sports, education, and the environment through training workshops where children, youth, and vulnerable populations can get involved and create projects to improve their contexts in their places of origin.

Education is one of the fundamental factors for the empowerment of migrant populations because it is transformative and directly related to the level of poverty, autonomy, fertility rate, income, and participation in public spaces, among other aspects. Education is also one of the most important tools to change those cultural patterns in societies that hinder the integral development of its members. It should be a guide, in the sense of transmitting that men and women have the same possibilities and rights, who therefore deserve equal opportunities for their development.