The facilitators of the Mesoamerican School of Leadership (EML by its Spanish initials) in the Guna Yala Comarca, Panamanian Caribbean coast, validated the EML leadership training process at the Assembly of the Guna General Congress that took place from May 18th to May 23rd.
The Guna Yala province is conformed by two maximum congresses, established in the fundamental law of Guna Yala: The Congress of Culture (Onmaggeddummad Namaggaled) and the Guna General Congress (Onmaggeddummad Sunmaggaled), which is the highest political-administrative organism of deliberation and decision of Gunayala.
The 49 communities of the Comarca of the Guna General Congress participate in the General Assemblies, which are held twice a year to present reports on the activities carried out by the different secretariats and to make future decisions.
On this occasion, Congress had not been able to be held for more than a year due to the pandemic, so space was used to analyze the achievements made despite the current situation, as well as possible actions for 2021.
Yanisbeth Gonzales and Alcibiades Rodríguez, facilitators of the MLE, participated in the different dialogues of the Assembly where they explained the process of the School. The facilitators recently conducted a diagnosis on the youth in the Gunayala Comarca, so they presented the results of this work and answered questions from the delegates of the communities.
One of the main objectives of the process is to strengthen youth leadership and capacity building in community-based organizations and indigenous organizations, which according to the facilitators is closely linked to Guna Yala’s strategic plan.
Gonzales also emphasizes that the implementation of the MLE program allows for greater participation of young people in decision-making spaces, as well as greater involvement of young women in various activities carried out in the comarca, where their voices and recommendations are favorably taken into account. Emphasizes the relevance of the young voice to continue the struggle of the Gunadule people.
The coordinating team of the General Congress of the Guna Youth, led by the Argar Euclides Sanchez (Mandi Ubgigandub) of Sector 1, Argar Inakeliquiña Arosemena (Uggubseni), Kawidi Palacios (Aswemullu) of Sector 3, Secretary Iniquilipi Chiari (Usdub), Undersecretary Kandra Ehrman (Gardi Dubbir) and Advisor Yanisbeth Gonzalez (Assudub).
200 young people are part of the School
To date, the Mesoamerican Leadership School has more than 120 young people from different community forestry organizations in Petén (Guatemala), and 80 young Miskitos (Honduras).
The School has trained 400 young leaders in grassroots processes and organized three international events. Its objective is to continue expanding in the Mesoamerican region and thus position the voice of indigenous youth in different spaces and levels of advocacy.
According to the director of the Mesoamerican School, Marcial López, one of the main goals of the current work with young people is to develop the local proactive capacity to address climate change and strengthen the governance of forest management and the defense of biodiversity.
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