Jaquelin

Jaquelin is 15 years old and is currently finishing her elementary school studies. She is originally from the Chicojl community of San Pedro Carchá and a very young age has shown leadership in speaking out and expressing her thoughts and speaking up for other girls. She is the youngest of four siblings who live with their parents, from whom they learned to speak two languages, Q’eqchi’ and Spanish.

– At the age of 11, she was elected as a Girl Procurator, which allowed her to learn and express her thoughts about the rights of children in the municipality, representing her community at the municipal level and beginning her active participation in different youth leadership spaces.

– She was part of the first cohort of Plan International’s Leadership School, where they learned about important topics such as self-esteem, sexuality, sexual and reproductive rights, gender equality, participation, leadership, violence and political advocacy, among others.

– She is part of the Girls for Equality movement, as a spokesperson for Plan International, where she has given talks and messages to other boys and girls in primary and elementary schools on the prevention of early marriage.

– As a child leader in her community and spokesperson for Plan International, she has participated in different Take Overs, where she has been able to talk with renowned people in the country such as the Minister of Education, the Human Rights Ombudsman, Luis Von Ahn (CEO of Duolingo), Melanie Reimer (Executive Director of Tigo Guatemala Foundation), Sandy Recinos (Executive Secretary of the Secretariat against sexual violence, exploitation and trafficking in persons SVET) and María Hernández (Samsung); They discussed the situation of girls in the country and the need to unite for the promotion of the rights of all girls in both face-to-face and online spaces.

– She has been supporting as a volunteer in the organisation and development of the B-kton, the annual race that takes place in her municipality to raise funds for scholarships for girls at the basic level in different rural communities of Carchá.

– During the pandemic, she was invited to online discussions to talk about resilience and gender roles, aimed at young people and girls to better address the COVID-19 prevention situation.

– Despite being directly affected by the ETA-IOTA storms, she has continued to participate in solidarity campaigns to support families in need in different shelters.