A women-led NGO in Guatemala
Building together a future that cares for people and the land.
We work with Indigenous and rural communities in Guatemala to build schools, women’s workshops and living land. With bamboo, stone, clay and local hands.
100%
women-led. Our leadership and administration are women.
Chirremox, Alta Verapaz
A school
designed with students and families
Chicacao, Suchitepéquez
A women's workshop
for bamboo craft and income
San Marcos La Laguna, Atitlán
A home for cacao
for production, care and culture
Why we exist
Value should return to where it comes from.
Rural Guatemala gives the world cacao, coffee, craft and knowledge. Very little of that value comes back to the women, children and land behind it.
Our name is our purpose: give back to the source. We do it in practical ways. A classroom where there was none. A workshop where women can earn. Trees in the ground. A building that belongs to the community.
Each project starts with listening, and is built with what the place already has.
We began in 2022, after years of working with cacao farmers and women’s collectives through Cacao Source. From the start we chose to work beyond cacao, with the whole farm and the whole community.
Mission
We work with Indigenous and rural communities in Guatemala to build the spaces, skills and living land they need, with women at the centre and community decisions guiding every step.
Vision
A rural Guatemala where women earn and lead, children learn in dignified schools, and land is regenerated by the people who care for it.
How we work
Four commitments we keep on every project.
Listen first
Every project begins with conversations, focus groups and home visits. The community decides what it needs. We help make it happen.
Build with what is here
Bamboo, stone, clay and local labour. Natural materials keep money in the region, and every build teaches skills that stay.
Women at the centre
Our organisation is led by women, and women shape every project. We design around their real days: children, care, income and rest.
Stay, and tell the truth
We go back, we follow up, and we report what works and what does not, including when things go wrong.
Our work
Schools, women's spaces and living land.
A school for Chirremox
Alta Verapaz · with Instituto Puente
A rural school designed with the Q’eqchi’ community of Chirremox and built with bamboo, stone and clay. The first classroom is under construction.
Eco-artisan women's centre
La Unión, Chicacao, Suchitepéquez
Women trained in bamboo craft in 2023 and opened their own centre in 2024. After a break-in this year, they need a fence, a gate and new tools to restart production.
Cacao trees with farmers
Cacao-growing communities, Guatemala
After the droughts and floods of 2024, we put more than US$1,000 into cacao trees, planted with farmers to diversify and regenerate their land.
Chirremox, Alta Verapaz
A school drawn first by its students.
In rural Guatemala, only 3 out of 10 young people complete basic education. The gap has nothing to do with ability. It reflects the opportunities children are given.
In Chirremox we began with the people who will use the school. In community conversations and focus groups, students and families described what they need. One student drew her dream school: classrooms, a bathroom building, a path and a football field.
The first classroom is now being built with bamboo, stone and clay. Community members are learning these techniques as they build.
We have partnered with Instituto Puente since 2024. In Punta Brava, Izabal, its community co-designed a school of bamboo and rock that harvests rainwater and runs on solar panels. Chirremox is the first of four new schools they hope to build with Q’eqchi’ communities.
“A school should never be imposed on a community. It should grow from listening.”
Next: two more classrooms and the school’s bathrooms. [AMOUNT]
Field report · August 2026
Chicacao: what the women told us.
The centre was designed by Elisa with the women of La Unión, on land donated by the owner of Finca Milan. It opened in November 2024, and for months the women used it every day.
In August 2026, Elisa walked the land with the women’s group. The Dendrocalamus asper bamboo is growing strongly. Of 13 cacao plants, 5 survived and are getting extra care. Water now reaches the property.
The hard part is security. The land is open, people come in without permission, and the centre was broken into. All the tools were stolen. The women also told us they have felt alone these past months. We heard that, and we are acting on it.
They were clear about what comes first.
1 · Fence the land (urgent)
60 metres of rear perimeter fence: about 30 galvanized posts and metal fencing. [COST AFTER QUOTES]
2 · A secure entrance gate
A metal gate made by a local welder, and its support column. [COST AFTER QUOTES]
3 · Tools and bamboo to restart
Replace the stolen tools and buy bamboo so the women can make lamps and cups again. Their goal is about a dozen pieces a month.
4 · A real workshop
A sign naming the women’s centre, a large work table and chairs. A bamboo weaving workshop is planned for November.
Organising cleaning days, varnishing the pergola, finding a local builder for the fence posts and holding a community workday to install the fence.
What the women are doing
Next · San Marcos La Laguna, Lake Atitlán
La Casa del Cacao
A three-level production and cultural centre for the women who make cacao. The land is bought and owned by Give Back to the Source. Now we need to build.
Level 3 · Culture and learning
Skills, leadership, Kaqchikel language and culture, workshops, gatherings and a place to rest.
Level 2 · Cacao production
A production floor built for sanitary licensing and run by Cacao Source, creating steadier local work.
Level 1 · Care
Childcare run by the women themselves, and two rooms for women, farmers and trainees who need a place to stay.
“Un lugar de oportunidades de mujeres.”
“A place of opportunities for women.” Women from a cacao collective, describing the centre they want.
US$250,000
to build. The land (US$30,000) is already paid.
Q2–Q3 2027 construction, once funding is committed
2028 opening
39 women in cacao processing collectives today
Q455,000 (about US$59,700) earned by the collectives in 2025
The NGO owns the building. Cacao Source rents the production floor and pays the centre’s running costs. Separate books, no cross-subsidy, and a women’s advisory group to keep access fair.
Since 2022
Four years on the ground.
2022
- Give Back to the Source is founded, growing out of Cacao Source's work with farmers and women's collectives
- A year of visits and listening in La Unión and Milán, near Chicacao
2023
- 20+ women join our first bamboo craft weekend
- 14 women are certified after a one-month training and name their collective Cima de la Excelencia
- 10 women learn lamp making and sell their first lamps
- The NGO becomes legal owner of the women's centre land
2024
- The women's centre is built and opens in November
- Partnership with Instituto Puente begins
- Two intercultural workshops: bamboo cups, cacao planting, tortillas
- Our first monthly donors
2025–26
- Cacao and bamboo planted at the centre
- Cacao trees planted with farmers
- Construction starts on the Chirremox school
- Punta Brava hosts Mujer y Bambú with our partners
Where we are heading
The next three years.
2026
- First classroom built in Chirremox
- Fence and gate at the Chicacao women's centre
- La Casa del Cacao designed with the women, fundraising begins
2027
- Classrooms two and three, and bathrooms, in Chirremox (with funding)
- Bamboo craft production restarts in Chicacao
- La Casa del Cacao permits and construction (with funding)
2028
- La Casa del Cacao opens: production, childcare, workshops and a monthly cultural event
- A women's advisory group guides how the centre is used
What we need
What your support builds.
Fence and gate
Women's centre, Chicacao
Makes the land safe so the women can work there again. Everything else depends on this.
[AMOUNT AFTER QUOTES]
Tools and bamboo
Women's centre, Chicacao
Replaces stolen tools and buys material to restart bamboo lamps and cups.
US$1000
Two classrooms and bathrooms
School, Chirremox
Completes a dignified school for the children of Chirremox.
US$70,000
La Casa del Cacao
San Marcos La Laguna
A permanent centre for cacao work, care and culture, owned by the community NGO.
US$250,000
Every gift goes to the project you choose. We report back to donors with photos and numbers from each site visit.
Who we are
A small team, close to the ground.
Elisa de la Roca
Co-founder and President
Eco-social architect, bamboo designer and builder from Guatemala, with more than ten years in sustainable architecture and participatory design. Founder and lead architect of BAMBüTZ, and one of the women behind Mujer y Bambú. Elisa sees architecture as a tool for care and for reconnecting with the land.
Laurence Tremblay
Co-founder
Co-founder and CEO of Cacao Source, a circular-economy cacao enterprise in Guatemala. Laurence brings years of work with cacao farmers and women’s collectives, and leads fundraising and partnerships.
100%
women-led. Our leadership and administration are women, and so is every new role we recruit for.
We work alongside
Mujer y Bambú · Instituto Puente · Cacao Source · BAMBüTZ
With the support of
Ashley Lashley Foundation · The Pollination Project · Finca Milan · CASSA · Sage Cacao · Our monthly donors
Get involved
Help build what comes next.
Give
Once, or monthly through our Give Back Program. Monthly gifts let us plan ahead with the communities. Choose a project, or give where it is needed most.
Fund a project
Foundations and embassies: we share full proposals, budgets and field reports. Businesses can pledge a monthly share of their profits.
Bring your skills
Architects, builders, educators and craftspeople. Join a build or a workshop in Guatemala.
Field notes, four times a year
Short updates from each project. [PASTE YOUR NEWSLETTER SIGNUP FORM OR SHORTCODE HERE]