El Hombre Sobre La Tierra (HST)

Rural Mayan communities across Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula face high rates of poverty and unemployment, and young women in particular struggle to achieve self-sufficiency amidst pressure to drop out of school and marry in their adolescence. In response to this situation, El Hombre Sobre la Tierra (HST) was established in 1997 to help Mayan communities (and Mayan women in particular) achieve greater self-sufficiency through adopting sustainable farming techniques, sparking micro-industries based on traditional crafts and community assets, and developing local production collectives to meet local demand for goods and services.

EMpower’s fourth grant to HST supports the organization to continue strengthening the business skills of successful young women entrepreneurs, while sparking further youth-led economic development via a comprehensive new livelihoods training program for in-school Mayan youth.