Reposted from “Cloud Forest Communique October 2026”

In 2015, at 13 years of age, Sara Caz Si came to WALC fresh out of seventh grade. Sara’s home village, San Marcos Chamil, is located on the Caquipec mountain range only a few kilometers from the forests of Chicacnab. Few girls from her village ever manage to enter junior high school, but Sara did. She participated in WALC again in 2016 before entering her last year of junior high school.

Sara returned to WALC in 2023. At 21 years old and a university student, Sara wanted to reconnect with the WALC program not only for scholarship support but also to help her form her Life Project and purpose. She became a group leader in the WALC program, later a teacher, and finally an advanced WALC intern, being part of WALC for four consecutive years: 2023, '24, '25, and '26. 

In 2024, Sara was one of a five-member team for CCFC’s health survey. Together, these five team members interviewed more than 958 mothers in 30 remote, rural villages. In 2026, Sara accepted an invitation to be on the board of directors of CCFC’s Guatemala NGO, Comunidad Tz’unun. 

Sara finished her university degree in Criminology and Forensic Investigation, but her career goal was not to work for law enforcement. Sara wanted to use her university education to help foster sustainable development in rural Q’eqchi’ Maya communities. Today Sara works for the Ministry of Social Development, a part of Guatemala’s federal government, which seeks to foster food security and sustainable development in remote, rural communities. Sara’s current assignment is to visit families that have one or more family members suffering from malnutrition. 

Sara says that the support and education she received as part of the WALC program from the time she was 13 years old prepared her for her career in this important work. CCFC is proud of Sara; we are sure that Sara will continue to be an agent of positive change in rural Guatemala. 

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