Education In Action

Comité Campesino del Altiplano (CCDA), a grassroots’ coalition working to protect the rights of farmers in Guatemala. Participants pay their own travel costs and donate their own time to work hand in hand with Mayan families to build homes, construct community gathering spaces, pick coffee beans, and other CCDA projects. Like most Mayan communities in the Highlands, families are forced to make a living on small plots of parched land, eroded by wind and exposed to extreme elements much of the year. These areas have long been marginalized, lacking basic infrastructure and services, and exposed to military incursions by the Guatemalan army in the seventies and eighties. Since the signing of the peace treaty, the CCDA has organized communities in 11 districts of the country, providing support on questions of land rights, credit, training and educational scholarships as well as the defense of Mayan culture and agricultural practices. The CCDA has also organized cooperatives that produce fairly-traded, organic coffee known as Café Justicia, which is sold across Canada in support of the Mayan Farming communities. OUR MISSION: Support the efforts of grassroots organizations to improve livelihoods of Mayan campesinos in Guatemala through initiatives based on social justice and fair trade. OUR VISION: Using education as a bridge to social change. Our vision is to work in solidarity with coffee producers through targeted field projects and sale of fair trade organic coffee in Canada. Education in Action is committed to learning through cultural immersion and community outreach in the spirit of partnership and respect for indigenous peoples.