Responding to community needs through Avenida Communidad in Guatemala City

Inspired by the demonstrations that took place in Guatemala in 2015, Instituto 25A established a programme called Avenida Communidad in Guatemala City to foster a stronger sense of community belonging and respond to community information needs in specific sectors of the city.  

Community has been central to all elements of their work, with technology used as a tool to facilitate community as well as in-person interactions, with projects including community radio programming and a mural project bringing together elders and youth in the community.

Sandra Xoquic, of I25A, says:

The horizon that we have as an institute … is this search to affirm the confidence of the sense of community from the neighborhood among the neighbors, through tools like theater and muralism, with the use of popular education methodology, generating critical reflection of the living conditions in the areas where we live. 

Our community research processes have also given us data on how the population moves within the city, who they are, what they do, and what their needs are.

We want people to feel fulfilled living in their territory. The I25A seeks, together with people, to understand that our daily lives are conditioned by political decisions and this impacts our lives through, for example, public services such as security, transportation, education and health.

On the role that technology plays in their work, Sandra says: 

Now that technology has been added, we use WhatsApp, but previously, when there was an assembly, we called it Cabildo Abierto, we summoned people and we went door to door … [for] community building as well. 

For me it is very much part of organizing. Within the organization there is someone who takes care of the water, there is someone who takes care of the territorial protection, there is someone who also watches over the road. We are all in constant communication. I know my neighbor and so on. It is recognised that there is, for example, a leadership, because we also do community service through the Indigenous Mayor’s Office; that is, we recognise our local authorities and we know what their function is within our community. 

We are very immersed in the community; nothing is disconnected in our day-to-day political work. This experience has helped us so that the residents of the city of Guatemala can organize themselves in their neighborhoods.