Our Development Model

Transforming the world starts with AMOR Villages, an adaptive, effective four-pillar Community Transformation Model built on over 15 years of experience working in partnership with dedicated communities and development experts to find solutions that work. AMOR Villages supports humane, sustainable community development in areas devastated by genocide where there is a high incidence of child exploitation for cheap labour and minimal opportunities for girls. We help rebuild lives and communities destroyed by war, poverty or exclusion, and stand up with them to be counted. In our ground-breaking model, we invest directly in communities and young people, building Mayan Education Centres that also serve as Community Transformation Hubs.

AMOR Villages achieves its aims in four vital ways:

1. Education & Training​
Our flagship education programme, Mayan Education, is helping thousands of indigenous children in Guatemala like Rosa who have never studied before access and complete a quality education and realise their dreams. We build Mayan Education Centres that also serve as Adult Skills Centres and Development Hubs. Children are given a humane education that frees them to realise their full potential, while parents develop their talents to support their families.

2. Human Rights and Leadership 
Our human rights and leadership programmes help young people and especially women have a voice in their lives and futures, supports human rights defenders and assists in the campaign for post-genocide reconstruction.

3. Health and Nutrition
While our goal is to “teach to fish”, we cannot stand by while so many children are dying. Through our SANA Guatemala and SANA America programmes, we train community health volunteers in traditional medicine, and provide maternal health and nutritional programmes for young children and other practical solutions such as smoke-free stoves, clean water projects and shelter to ensure that no child dies of hunger, unclean water or curable diseases.

4. UK Leadership Training
Finally, Global Ambassadors is a UK humane youth leadership development programme that opens pathways to success for talented young people from diverse and disenfranchised backgrounds. We equip them with the knowledge, networks, skills and confidence to fulfil their potential, find new opportunities and transform the world around them through social action. We also offer volunteering opportunities within our overseas programmes.

Poverty is a human-made disease that divides and kills, and those who suffer most are the children. Education and empowerment of young people and women is the best investment we can make for a world where everyone can realise their potential.

How it Works

Here’s how AMOR Villages is changing lives and transforming communities.

·       It’s holistic. Poverty is a human-made disease that divides and kills, and we know that it is a complex series of problems that require an interconnected solution. We work through four key development pillars—Education, Human Rights Empowerment, Humanitarian Assistance (Health, Nutrition, Homes, Clean Water and Livelihoods) and International Collaboration—which provide solutions that support and amplify each other.

·       It’s community-driven. Our partner communities take ownership of the programmes and projects that create lasting change. Working in tandem with local government, they devote time and resources to every new initiative, and help keep the project running when it’s finished.

·       It builds capacity. We help community members develop the skills, strategies and infrastructure to take charge of their future and sustain long-term change.

·       It connects communities. When you support AMOR Villages, you become part of a global family. We connect supporters and partners in the UK and North America with communities overseas to build relationships that inspire change worldwide. And through our social enterprise partner Ixiim, you can take volunteer trips to meet and work with your partner community.
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·       It’s sustainable. Our goal is to reach a point where our partner communities don’t need our help any more as quickly as possible. Instead, they have the training and tools to thrive for generations. In other words, we’re in the business of putting ourselves out of business.
 
“ In the Mayalands of Central America, AMOR works alongside the Mayan women, men and children who every day strive to free themselves from poverty, exploitation and disease. This effort is not charity. It is sustainability. It is love and generosity in action. It is AMOR Villages’ development model.”