Weaving a beautiful future

Guatemala is known for its majestic volcanoes and mountains and lush rainforests that make up a stunning natural landscape. It has a rich cultural heritage rooted in Mayan civilization, which is still reflected today in its languages, traditions and colorful textiles.

But Guatemala has its struggles as well. According to the World Bank, 57.3% of Guatemalans were living in poverty in 2024, with an average income of $6.85 per day. Frequent natural disasters and climate threats contribute to high levels of vulnerability among the population.

Living in the midst of this juxtaposition of beauty and struggle are young people like Jackeline. At age 23, Jackeline is fortunate to be an Unbound sponsored youth for the past 14 years, and part of the scholarship program for eight years in two separate stages. Like Guatemala itself, her childhood and young adulthood is a story of beauty amid struggles.

Although her family battles with financial insecurity, Jackeline has grown up witnessing beauty. Her mother, Nencia, is known for her weaving and embroidery talents — creating textiles alive with color, pattern and depth. Jackeline’s father, Erik, works at a carpentry shop. Despite the family’s talents and hard work, they needed additional support to empower Jackeline and her 19-year-old brother, William — also sponsored for 13 years — to pursue their education and dreams. Educational expenses are managed through a combination of family income from Erik’s carpentry work and the creation and sale of handcrafted textiles, sponsorship contributions and Jackeline’s scholarship.

The first in her family to attend university, Jackeline is in her fourth year studying psychology. She spends her mornings embroidering, knitting and weaving to help support her family and her education. While her hands are skilled from years of doing needlecrafts, her heart is set on helping others heal, especially in communities where mental health is rarely understood but services are deeply needed.

Jackeline has noticed that the stigma associated with mental health struggles is slowly ebbing. But even with an increase in free mental health centers in and around Jackeline’s community, access to care can be difficult as increasing numbers of young people wrestle with a variety of challenges. Because of her exposure to psychology, Jackeline has been able to use her learnings to observe an increase in anxiety and stress in children and young people, and she has also noticed how her studies have helped her to better manage stress.

“I know that children now are not the same as those who were born before,” Jackeline said. “[Studying psychology] has helped me a lot with how I react, or the type of behavior that I generate.”

Jackeline attends the Universidad Rural de Guatemala (Rural University of Guatemala). There is a campus close to her home, but she has also traveled to attend classes in Guatemala City. She is fortunate that most of her classes have been available online, making things easier for her.

Devoting time and talents to service

Community service is a requirement of the Unbound Scholarship Program in Jackeline's area. In addition to her studies and her beautiful work with needle and thread, Jackeline has been supporting other sponsored children in her community by mentoring them in subjects they may be struggling to understand.

"We help [sponsored children] with areas that they struggle with," Jackeline said. "The goal is to help them improve their school grades, because one of the objectives of the [Unbound program] is for children to study and succeed by doing it, and we are the ones working with them to help them."

She also devotes time to support the local Unbound mothers group by helping coordinate activities, and she assists sponsored elders in her community with writing letters and taking photographs to correspond with their sponsors.

Helping her community’s mothers group has shown Jackeline that while some of the women are more active than others, they all want to participate and help their community thrive. She has learned how difficult it can be for women to dedicate themselves to raising their children while also working and creating textiles to earn the money needed to keep their families going.

“When young people begin their community service, they observe the job opportunities they may have in the future,” said Santos Azucena Chioc Yutan, Unbound Guatemala staff member. “They also discover new skills and how they can start contributing with kindness, empathy, organization and teamwork to their community. This helps them become more sociable and empathetic, allowing them to reflect on the realities of other families.”

Jackeline has been part of the Unbound program long enough to have personally witnessed the organization’s evolution from giving sponsored friends goods to empowering families to decide how their monthly benefits in the form of direct cash transfers should be invested.

“I think having freedom is good,” Jackeline said. “One objective is education or having health. It is even having that opportunity to develop in our community, to participate, to make decisions. I like [this method] more than before.”

Jackeline is also taking a course to learn how to make floral arrangements, another skill she wants to develop to potentially begin a business later. Watching how her church group handles many floral arrangements inspired her to dig deeper. She signed up for the additional course and knows it could one day become an entrepreneurial venture, in addition to a career providing psychology services.

“[Education] helps us work,” Jackeline explained. “We learn about everything, not only what will be useful to us, not only what we like. Learning helps us. It opens doors for us, too.”

She hopes in the future to be able to give back to her parents for their efforts on her behalf so they can one day retire. She also aspires to serve people in need in her community, perhaps by opening a mental health clinic. Jackeline knows that Unbound and her sponsor of 14 years, Ann from Georgia, have played a large role in helping her to get the education she needs, wants and deserves.

“Honestly, it fills me with so much happiness,” Jackeline said. “For all the love that’s conveyed and the sense of importance that grows from me toward her and from her toward me and because of all the effort that she does for me despite the distance.”

Unbound regional reporters Oscar Tuch and Henry Flores provided information and photos for this story.