I’m a leading woman

Yomira Acajabón, youth leader

Yomira is from La Dignidad, Guatemala. She has been part of the SERES youth network since August 2020, starting with our virtual program and quickly making her way to our Annual Youth Summit. Yomira was directly affected by the eruption of Fuego in 2018 and that forced her and her family to relocate to this new community. She is a teacher, a friend and activist, with 5 years of working with educational institutions.

“I was living a very complicated situation due to the pandemic itself, I felt that I was not doing anything productive, besides my work, because everything was practically stalled, I am a person who likes to be busy and at home I could only experiment with cooking, but thanks to Steven's invitation I started my path with SERES, and my afternoons began to get busy with online workshops, leadership workshops, drugs prevention topics, among so many other things”. 

Since then I have participated in spaces with the different youth networks of Escuintla, in technical dialogue tables, discussing problems that affect the youth and what we can do to solve them. I have participated in workshops on women's rights and also in the elaboration of the first Public Youth Policy in the municipality of Escuintla together with other youth networks and the Municipality of Escuintla.

“The most recent thing in this beautiful path with SERES has been participating in the 11th. Youth Sustainability Summit on - Resilience and Transformative Leadership during the Pandemic-, a week that was full of intellectual, as well as emotional enrichment. I believe that in the midst of all the spaces with SERES we not only acquire knowledge but also heal, to a certain extent and perhaps without being intentional in this area, SERES has been that healing and liberation bridge for many feelings and emotions that as young people we have and do not express with such freedom. THANK YOU SERES!

The summit is a 4.5-day camp that draws together over 50 young changemakers from across Guatemala and El Salvador together with peer-mentors, partner community organizations and trainers for a hands-on, hearts-on networking and skills-building event. The Summit covers key components for personal discovery, to lead through voice and movement, technical tracks to strengthen their skills at managing and implementing their action plans, team building, communication, and financial management.