USAToday.com featured CARE’s trip with Republican Reps. Susan Brooks, Ann Wagner and Carol Miller to Guatemala in an op-ed penned by the lawmakers. During the Learning Tour, they met one of Guatemala’s female farmers, Sandra Xiquin, who faced hardships prospering as a farmer, since she was turned down by banks for being a woman. CARE provided Xiquin with the tools, training and resources to be a successful farmer, and this has led her to be the president of the only female farming organization in Guatemala with over 500 women farmers and more than $6 million in exported produce to the United States each year. Most Guatemalan women do not share the same journey but are subject to some of the highest rates of femicide and violence in the world. “American foreign assistance is not a handout, it’s a hand up. By investing wisely in mothers like Sandra, we make the word more prosperous, self-sufficient and safe for the children they are raising.” Read the op-ed here.
