Lorena Herrera

Lorena, currently serving as a preschool teacher at Escuela Oficial Rural Mixta Rosario Sacubul. She holds a Master’s in Bilingual Intercultural Early Childhood Education and is currently studying Clinical Psychology. Lorena has worked as a teacher in a distant community during the pandemic and engaged in volunteer activities such as reading camps, reforestation, and disaster relief efforts.

As an ambassador for SERES and a member of various organizations like Save the Children and the Youth Community Seed, Lorena actively supports community initiatives. She emphasizes environmental awareness, solidarity, and elder care, serving as a delegate for her parish in the Northern Region of the Quiché Diocese.

Lorena’s interest in the ConnectED Fellows program stemmed from her passion for improving education and empowering children to become leaders in their communities. She believes that equipping children with tools and dreams can catalyze positive change in Guatemala, especially in underserved areas.

“I am a woman willing to make a change in my community by promoting education despite the difficulties of access to the community, as well as the physical risk that we run daily as women by traveling far to receive it. It gives me great satisfaction to be able to teach the little ones with vocation and love.”

Problem: Lorena’s school, along with its surrounding community, does not have water. Within the school, this absence presents significant challenges for maintaining hygiene standards and safe food handling practices. Moreover, the broader community’s lack of access to water forces students to travel long distances to bathe and wash clothes, leading to high rates of absenteeism.

Solution: Lorena is leading a project to provide water access to her school and its community. Through investigation and collaboration with key community leaders, Lorena discovered that although plumbing infrastructure exists, water supply depletion occurs before reaching the more distant communities. Despite the enormity of the task, Lorena’s project is underway, driven by her commitment to addressing this pressing need for sustainable water access in the region.