Central American youth as protagonists of social transformation
El Salvador
In 2021, she participated in a selection process for young Central American leaders who would have the role of co-facilitating a virtual workshop organized by the CaPAZ program in its first phase of execution. Alicia was selected as a representative of El Salvador, which is why she received training to learn methodological aspects of facilitating virtual workshops. One of the most important elements that Alicia highlights from the preparation phase was the participation of young people in the construction of the workshop agenda, validating each point of it with the rest of the young facilitators and proposing specific ideas to improve the methodology.
Previously, Alicia had facilitated other workshops with young people, but with this new experience she believes that the CaPAZ program provided her with inputs to facilitate workshops virtually and to be more systematic and orderly in the process of facilitating workshops with young people and adults alike.
In 2022, Alicia participated as a youth ambassador for CaPAZ at the Youth and Work Forum in Panama City, exposing the role of Salvadoran youth in the workplace.
It was a great experience to visualize how institutions work on the issue, and it is linked to the matter that I study and how the articulation between countries is managed. We were able to exchange with other young ambassadors from Guatemala and Honduras and we saw the things we have in common as well as the differences between countries."
Alicia Galeas, Youth Ambassador and Youth Council Member of the CaPAZ II Program. © Programa CaPAZ II / GIZ
In the Central American region, young people are exposed to contexts of vulnerability, and programs such as CaPAZ II with approaches such as mental health make us see a young person as a person who learns how to manage in the conflict environments around them.
The CaPAZ II program fosters cooperation between different allied institutions from the public sector, the private sector and civil society to strengthen the psychosocial resilience of children and youth in the Central American countries that make up the Central American Integration System (SICA).
CaPAZ II works in four fields of action: Strengthening psychosocial resilience, non-formal training of young people, alliances to generate green or digital jobs and youth participation. The CaPAZ II Youth Council is a space made up of 21 young people from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador who advise the program on the planning and execution of projects that promote the social and labor inclusion of young people in conditions of social vulnerability.