“Guatemala has one of the highest rates of femicide in the world.”
​ -World Bank, 2023

Seeing this young boy bravely challenge the long-standing “machismo” culture in his community and country was proof that we were on the right track with our work with boys, and since then, we have only continued to deepen our work with boys and men and see the positive ripple effect of doing so. 

How we went from working with only girls to engaging whole families and communities.

SERniña (by REALgirl) is proud to be a thought-leader and member of several socially focused Guatemalan networks. RIDAVS (Interinstitutional Network for Referral and Assistance to Victims of Sacatepéquez), promoted by the Public Ministry of Guatemala, is one of these networks.

The phrase "toxic masculinity" is used a lot these days, but it's not always clear what it means. In some ways, it's misleading, because it seems to imply that masculinity in and of itself is dangerous or poisonous, or even more oversimplified, that "men are bad." That's certainly not true, and it's not what gender equality advocates actually think or believe.

As many supporters might know, SERniña's parent program, REALgirl®, is an international program based in the United States, with camps and workshops in the U.S., Hong Kong, and the U.K. SERniña is REALgirl's first expansion into Latin America, and the Guatemala program is customized to meet the unique challenges that girls and women face in this part of the world.
 

​SERniña envisions a world where all girls not only recognize the unique and valuable contributions they're capable of making, but are active agents of change in society and in their own lives.

​“SERniña taught me that every girl has a brave voice, and that we can be positive despite many criticisms and problems.” - Aracely

Despite advancement for women’s rights in Guatemala, there remains a harsh obstacle facing the success and empowerment of young girls in Guatemala:  teen pregnancy and the poverty that it perpetuates.

​It is with gratitude and excitement that we announce that SERniña (by REALgirl) is one of  Novo's newest  partners.

Today, on World Population Day, we’re considering the theme, ‘Family Planning: Empowering People, Developing Nations’ from a local perspective

• Half of Guatemalan girls have a child before the age of 19.

• At least 1/5 girls in Guatemalan have 2 children before the age of 18.

• Guatemala ranks 3rd globally in the killings of women.

After two successful years of SERniña programming, we are gearing up to launch SERniño! SERniño will build on the existing resources and networks of SERniña to provide workshops to boys and young men which focus on the creation of healthy masculinities. 

With the 2017 SERniña workshops coming to a close, we decided to go out with a bang! To do so, we hosted our first community fair last Tuesday 25th of October.

How does yoga promote a healthy development in teen girls?
And, why do we teach it in SERniña (By REALgirl)?

There has been increased attention on the benefits of  empowering girls in recent years. The United Nations has made it a specific priority: Goal 5 of the new UN Sustainable Development Goals  is “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.”