In 2014, the Boris and Ināra Teterev Foundation began a two-year collaboration project with the organisation Global Fairness Initiative, implementing a programme in Central America for the benefit of the Mayan community in the Solola region of Guatemala.

Native communities throughout Central America have historically fallen victim to an institutional process of disenfranchisement. Mayan communities in Guatemala are largely comprised of unregistered farmers, 60% of whose means of subsistence are extremely limited. Statistics indicate that in Guatemala seven out of ten members of native communities live in poverty. Uneven land and inaccessible roads have long accentuated the disenfranchisement of local inhabitants.

The agro-industrial development programme is intended to benefit 300 small farmers in 34 Mayan communities in the Solola region. Its objective is to expand agricultural and business methods with a view to ensuring a better result, better quality and more competitive products, as well as to help to register a large number of the region’s small farmers. Under the auspices of the programme, several workshops, training sessions and round table gatherings will be held with the parties involved, in order to encourage the transition from informal and dependent farms to sustainable businesses capable of building strong and effective partnerships.