Rosemary founded JovenGO Guatemala to provide language training, leadership programming, and human rights education to Indigenous and Afro-descendent youth.
Utilising both in-person and online instructional methods, JovenGO encourages young people to undertake a project to benefit their community. In Guatemala, where there are over 20 Mayan languages, learning an Indigenous language has been shown to improve the feeling of connectedness to one's community and pride in cultural heritage.
At the Summit, Rosemary met delegates from Ecuador and El Salvador whom she later collaborated with on a project to provide tutoring opportunities for students applying to international scholarships. Inspired by their own One Young World experiences, they have given guidance to over 300 youth.
JovenGO Guatemala has provided 12,000 young people with lessons in languages including Qʼeqchiʼ and Kʼicheʼ. The organisation also offers classes in sign language and English. Other projects of JovenGO Guatemala, focused on information-sharing, have reached 18,000 youth and adolescents with guidance to reduce adolescent pregnancy, HIV transmission, and sexually transmitted infections.
