Irena’s Love for Guatemala: A Reforestation Story

Since Irena DeLave’s first encounter with Y’abal, she has been a heartfelt supporter of our mission. Irena, founder of the organization Love for Guatemala, had already visited the country twice before she visited Y’abal.  During that time, she volunteered in a local orphanage and took Spanish classes as her dream of helping Guatemala and its people began to take shape. In 2012, she, along with her 2yr old son, spent a lot of time in Xela -nickname for Quetzaltenango- where Yabal is located just down the road from the center of town. With an interest in weaving, fair trade, and helping local women , she felt quite lucky to find a place like Y’abal where she could collaborate and create meaningful projects for both her organization that supports organizations like Y’abal but also pours love back into even more Guatemalan communities.

Irena explains, “My hopes for the world are I think like for most people. To have a peaceful world without wars, without poverty. I feel strongly that everyone has a right to at least basic education, to safe drinking water, and a safe home.” With these values and hopes, Irena fueled her organization’s mission and has been able to accomplish a great deal, including buying woven textiles from different cooperatives throughout Guatemala. In total, with the sale of these products, Irena shares, “We planted 14, 200 non fruit trees and 1,490 fruit trees up to now in different communities throughout Guatemala. The chronicle of our reforestation you can find in the gallery on our website: www.loveforguatemala.com “  “From the sale of the legendary worry dolls (quitapenas), we help Mayan Ixil girls from the region of Nebaj to be able to attend schools. Local families can not afford uniforms and other expenses that are part of the cost of each child to enter the schools. LFG contributes up to 50 percent of the cost for each child to the family. We [have] sent between 110-130 children to school every year. We contribute to buy water filters in the remote Ixil region, where many families do not have access to clean water. [And] We have built several houses over the years in the Nebaj region for poor families.”

Irena shares when she originally visited Yabal, she met “lovely Melissa [one of Y’abal’s founders] who worked there at that time and we became very fast friends.” She immediately began to collaborate and started buying Y’abals products to take to her country, the Czech Republic. There, she would sell them and use the profits to fund her organization’s projects, including one that has benefitted the communities of Y’abal: reforestation.

Reforestation has especially been important in the communities where Y’abal collaborates with women weavers, since many members must use the wood for fires and cooking purposes, among other reasons. Thankfully, through the donations of trees and the helpful hands of community members and volunteers like Irena and her supporters, reforestation projects can be put to fruition.

Irena poses in front of Y’abal’s fabric stock during her trip to Quetzaltenango in April 2024.

Even during the pandemic, Irena continued her efforts to support women weaving communities throughout Guatemala, and she still purchased wholesale products from Y’abal, knowing it would be difficult to sell. “For every item sold, 2 trees are donated to reforestation efforts.”

Irena shares, “This year’s reforestation with Yabal was not our first one. We already reforested thousands of trees 2 times in the past in the communities and surrounding hills where Yabal women live and work. Unfortunately, our planned April reforestation could not happen as scheduled, due to extreme dryness. But, with the great Isabel’s [Yabal director] organization and patience, the reforestation happened in the community where we planned to reforest in June this year once the weather was more appropriate and it started to rain. I was very happy. 1000 trees were planted. Many children, mothers, and fathers joined. I hope to keep making this planet green till the end of my life.”

Pictures from the Reforestation Day in June 2024 where community members came together and planted 1000 trees that Irena’s organization donated.

Yabal truly appreciates the undying support of Irena who not only takes action but also shares about Y’abal and our mission through her sales and lectures and talks about Guatemala.

Thank you, Irena! Here’s to many more years of collaboration and reforestation to come!

~Y’abal