Martha Lidia Oxí Chuy

The MAIA Impact School, of which Vilma Saloj is Director, and Martha Lidia is Co-Executive Director, is an educational organisation in Guatemala led by Indigenous women that supports Indigenous girls' access to quality secondary education. MAIA began in 2008 by providing Indigenous girls the opportunity to attend further education through scholarships. The MAIA team founded the Impact School in 2017 with an original cohort of 50 Girl Pioneers. The students of the Impact School are called Girl Pioneers because the majority of them are the first girls in their families to continue their studies beyond primary school. The MAIA model begins with Project Impulso, a year-long preparatory programme through which students reach a suitable academic level for middle school. The students then join the Impact School programme for grades 7-11, before participating in the organisation’s Launch Year programme after graduation. The Launch Year programme assists graduates in developing vocational skills, while also offering university preparation and workplace readiness training.

Martha Lidia attended the One Young World Summit in Belfast, 2023. In 2020, Vilma led the MAIA Impact School in receiving funding from One Young World’s COVID-19 Young Leaders Fund, designing a journalism programme for Girl Pioneers to continue advocating for their communities during the pandemic. It also disseminated health and safety information in Maya Kaqchikel, K’iche, and Tzutujil.

For the 2023 academic year, the MAIA Impact School had 253 Girl Pioneers enrolled and provided 1,238 hours of education. In 2021, MAIA celebrated the graduation of the first cohort of 40 Girl Pioneers from high school, while 51 and 36 girls took part in Project Impulso in 2022 and 2023 respectively. The MAIA Impact School goes beyond providing education to Girl Pioneers, and it also engages with around 2,100 family members in the year through socio-emotional education and 1,456 home visits. It provides students with two meals a day, amounting to 10,680 meals, and offers mental health and digital skills training to 118 and 126 Girl Pioneers respectively.

“To see Lidia waving the Guatemalan flag wearing her Maya Kaqchikel traditional clothes on a global stage at the One Young World Summit was something that we could not have accomplished without the platform that One Young World offers. At MAIA, we say that we are Pioneers, so to have Lidia present giving visibility to Indigenous women was a confirmation for us and our Girl Pioneers that we can achieve our goals and can be present at these stages.” - Vilma Saloj