Guatemala
International Development Project
The overview.
In partnership with Fundación Junkabal
A qualification. A first independent income. The confidence to imagine a different future. With our partner Fundación Junkabal, women from low-income communities in Guatemala City train for real jobs in health care and beauty — and step into work that can change a family’s story.
Students of Junkabal’s Health Assistant program, supported by Reledev and Australian Aid.
The partners.
Fundación Junkabal is a long-established Guatemalan organisation devoted to the education and advancement of women from low-income communities in and around Guatemala City. It pairs technical training with human and personal development — helping women gain qualifications, confidence and a route to stable, dignified work.
In partnership with Reledev, Junkabal ties its nationally recognised courses closely to real employers. Its programs are built around scholarships for unemployed and low-income women, one-to-one mentoring, and formal agreements with hospitals, clinics and salons that give students genuine industry experience.
The project.
Hands-on beauty training at Junkabal’s Junkacentro facilities.
The project runs two employment-generating training streams for Guatemalan women. The first is a nationally certified, eleven-month Health Assistant course that qualifies women to support nurses and medical teams — combining classroom learning with 400 hours of technical training and 250 hours of supervised placement in hospitals, diagnostic centres and elderly-care homes.
The second, new this year, is an accelerated Beautician Technical Training program — hairstyling, manicure, pedicure and cosmetology — paired with weekly human-development and entrepreneurship workshops and active job-placement support. Both streams are wrapped in mentoring, safeguarding education and a job-intermediation service that connects graduates to employers and internships.
“This scholarship does more than fund my education; it sustains my dream of becoming the professional the health system and its patients need.”
Impact at a glance.
Results shown cover July 2025 – June 2026.
71
women trained in the new Beautician program (target 40)
19
women completed the certified Health Assistant course
6
health-sector agreements signed (target 5)
107
students given safeguarding training & consent
Voices from the project
“This scholarship has changed my life. It helped me believe in myself, pursue my goals, and move closer to a better future for myself, my son and my whole family.”
— Kimberly Dallana Figueroa Farelo, 2025
Kimberly dreamed of a career in health care, but as a mother, the cost of training threatened to put that dream out of reach. The scholarship — made possible with support from Reledev and the Australian Government — lifted that barrier. During the course she has studied patient care, hygiene and biosafety, medication administration and health promotion, and grown more responsible, organised and self-assured.
A years on…
“The course gave me the push I needed to start working towards having my own salon. Thank you for helping me overcome my fear and fight for my dreams.”
— Deyanira Elizabeth Alvarado Paz, 2024