National Coordinator of Widows of Guatemala (CONAVIGUA)
Guatemala City, Guatemala

The National Coordinator of Widows of Guatemala (CONAVIGUA) is a Global Ministries partner. CONAVIGUA was founded in 1988 as a response to the suffering of women in rural areas amid the internal armed conflict of Guatemala. The widows of CONAVIGUA were women whose husbands, sons, and daughters had been either killed or had disappeared during Guatemala’s civil war.

Due to all the atrocities created by the civil war, indigenous widows formed CONAVIGUA to help meet each other’s basic and urgent needs. CONAVIGUA also became dedicated to fight for respect and dignity towards the women of the rural areas that suffered from the conflict. The promotion of human rights, women’s rights, children, and adolescents’ rights and the rights of the indigenous population have also been a point of interest for CONAVIGUA. Since 1988 CONAVIGUA has contributed to the development of damaged towns and has been participating in politics on local, municipal, national, and international levels.

One of the goals of CONAVIGUA is to work to bring dignity to the victims of the arms struggle. CONAVIGUA has created the program entitled Dignity for the Victims of the Internal Armed Conflict. One of the projects of the program is to build monuments. These monuments will dignify and honor the memory of the victims that were massacred, tortured, sequestrated, and have disappeared. Four communities have been chosen to have a CONAVIGUA monument. The monuments will not just bring honor to the victims and their family members; it will remind the people of all the suffering the Maya population experienced during the arms conflict. CONAVIGUA believes that by bringing to light all the suffering that was created during the armed conflict it will prevent history from repeating itself.