About Us | Q'eqchi Partners

The Q’eqchi' Partners, Inc. is a non-profit organization formed to improve the quality of life of the Maya Q’eqchi' people in Guatemala. Our purpose is to assist in the preservation of the Maya Q’eqchi' heritage, language, rights, and well-being. We support programs that are designed to help them develop the skills, competencies, and attitudes of self-reliance needed for them to develop sustainable solutions to overcome the centuries of extreme poverty they have endured.

The Q’eqchi' Partners, Inc. supports efforts that address health and education inequalities in the region: unacceptably high infant and maternal deaths; chronic malnutrition; more than two million children in rural areas unable to attend school; and lack of access to clean drinking water, decent housing, and sanitary facilities.

The country’s complex topography of roughly two-thirds mountains, its 24 languages, and a disenfranchised indigenous population significantly complicate efforts to expand health and education services.

Q’eqchi' Partners are a group of concerned Americans who became aware of the extreme deprivations of the Mayan villagers who live in the rural areas of Guatemala. We focus our activities in and around the town of El Estor, Izabal, Guatemala.

Members of the Q’eqchi' Partners have traveled to the area and connected with the villagers. We have worked hand-in-hand with motivated villagers on a variety of important projects. We have sponsored the education of Maya Q’eqchi’s children, raised funds, and provided medical supplies, and we continue to advocate for the human rights of the indigenous people.

Several tragic occurrences in Guatemala brought together these individuals who formed Q’eqchi' Partners: the devastation of the area as a result of Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and later Tropical Storms Eta and Iota in 2021; human rights violations of a sufficient magnitude came to the attention of the international community; and multiple death threats against individuals substantiated by the both the Organization of American States and the United Nations.

Since 2011, Q’eqchi' Partners has worked mostly through a Guatemalan non-profit organization based in El Estor called Partners for Development (Socios para el Desarrollo). Having a permanent physical presence in the area we seek to help allows for aid to reach the people we serve faster and more efficiently.