Youth Advocate Programs (YAP), Inc. Guatemala sister agency Siembra Bien is raising awareness of its efforts to address the violence, extreme poverty, drug trafficking and unemployment that cause Guatemalan families to risk family separation and the lives of their children to seek asylum in the U.S. This week, the agency and families it serves shared stories with a German television crew. 

Like YAP, Siembra Bien [Sowing Well] provides holistic community-based intensive mentoring and family, school, business and community supports to reduce crime and family separation with the goal of keeping young people safely home in their communities. For example, using YAP’s innovative Street Soccer leadership training model, Siembra Bien has introduced mediation and peace-building to gang-affiliated and other vulnerable young people in Guatemala City’s notorious Zona 18. In 2018, 550 youth participated in Siembra Bien’s first Violence Prevention Festival. YAP provides ongoing program support to Siembra Bien and sends interns to assist the Guatemala agency’s small staff.

This spring, YAP’s four-week employee-led #YAPGuatemalaLove social media fundraising campaign raised just under $7,400 to support the Guatemala agency. Anyone wishing to support Siembra Bien can do so by going to visiting YAP's donation page.