Participate in the NISGUA Speakers Tour
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NISGUA SPEAKING TOURS

Each year NISGUA organizes tours to bring voices from Guatemalan social movements to the U.S.  The tours serve to amplify voices from the Guatemalan grassroots while providing spaces for exchange with U.S. community activists, religious communities, universities, and individuals.

Our speaking tours have three primary aims: to energize a U.S. base of activists in solidarity with particular struggles for truth and justice in Guatemala; to provide an international space for the concerns of Guatemalan social movements to be heard; and to raise financial and moral support for Guatemalan grassroots organizations. 

As Guatemalan organizers continue to struggle for justice in the face of the repression and criminalization of their work, creating spaces for international exchange is more important than ever. 

We invite you to become a part of this project. Why participate? Consider the benefits:

• Get the most up-to-date information on cutting edge issues in Guatemala.

• Help magnify the voices of Guatemalan partners on subjects that matter most to them.

• Establish direct, long lasting ties to Guatemalan social justice organizations.

• Provide needed financial support to Guatemalan organizations working on the most sensitive, important issues in Guatemala today – impunity, anti-corporate globalization, land and labor conflicts, etc.

• Take advantage of the speaker’s visit to meet with local and national government representatives and update them on the situation in Guatemala.

• Educate the broader U.S. public through local, regional, and national media work.

• Rejuvenate local activists. Get them involved in NISGUA’s national campaigns on Guatemala.

• Use the tour to challenge your organization’s capacity and skills. Do something your organization has never done before – organize a different type of public event, reach out to the media, meet with your Congressional representatives, organize a city council resolution, carry out a direct action. And rely on NISGUA’s national office for help and advice in carrying out any activity new to your group.

• Strengthen NISGUA’s national network of activist communities.

• Use the tour to help set your group’s organizing agenda for the following year.

• Help cultivate leadership skills in those Guatemalans participating in the tour, especially Guatemala women who have often not had much, if any, opportunity to develop these important abilities.

• Help Guatemalan partners strengthen their work by meeting with potential institutional funders.

To learn more about the 2010 Spring Tour, click here.