Emelin making secure for her Guatemalan hometown , One step forward in Helping society

When 15-year-old Emelin was invited to the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women, she spoke on behalf of Let Girls Lead, a nonprofit. The program allowed Emelin to secure education and health funding for girls in her Guatemalan hometown.

Emelin may seem like an average teenage girl, but she is more than meets the eye. At the gathering, she stood alongside U.N Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and humanitarian Melinda Gates as an advocate for the girls of her community, who struggle with a number of obstacles.
Emelin spoke about the girls in her area that are overcome with rising numbers of rape, early pregnancy, maternal loss, and lack of education or health care. Like Emelin, a majority of indigenous girls in the rural regions of her country are not being educated.

In 2012, Emelin and her friend Elba helped implement policies to address some of these issues by getting in touch with the Mayor of Concepción Chiquirichapa, Guatemala. In the following months, they met with many government officials, and even spoke on youth radio programs to get the word out about the movement.
After developing a detailed proposal to present to the mayor, they were initially met with laughter. That didn’t stop them though. They fought for what they believed was right, and eventually, people started to realize the power behind what these girls were trying to accomplish.

With local government behind them, the programs began to pick up steam. Before the end of their first year, the girls got funding approved to construct the Municipal Office of Childhood and Adolescence. It will provide support services for girls to access counseling, political engagement, and legal guidance for victims of rape, assault and domestic violence.

“It is important that we as adolescent girls are empowered to defend ourselves and not to be tokenized or utilized,” Emelin said in her speech. “So now as a leader in my community, I have decided to fight for my rights, because the rights of girls and women are human rights.”
With the help of the Adolescent Girls’ Advocacy & Leadership Initiative’s Juany Garcia Perez, Emelin was able to create positive change with community organization and public speaking. She was able to promote gender equality in Guatemala, but her message spanned globally.

“I want all leaders with decision-making power to act on behalf of girls around the world so they can have opportunities,” she said in her speech. “You have the responsibility to ensure girls’ happiness.”