Sandra Portela

Sandra Portela is a Xinca woman human rights defender, community feminist, from the Caribbean of Guatemala. She is a visual artist, creative facilitator, ancestral healer focused on suicide prevention for the LGBTIQ+ community and victims of sexual violence, mentor for young and teenage women, social worker, and defender of the land and rivers as sacred places. Since a very young age, Sandra Portela has actively participated in the protection and development of her community, focusing on the promotion of community environmental education, as well as leading actions in favour of the environment and ecosystem.

The woman human rights defender was Regional Director of a program empowering women and girls, where she worked for 9 years on topics related to sexual and reproductive health, monitored community health establishments for women, developed health emergency plans and prevention workshops, and provided support to midwives, among others. She has also worked in the promotion of education in Q’eqchi’ and non-Q’eqchi’ communities, managing scholarships for the rural youth and women, and encouraging education with a gender and environmental perspective included. In addition, she has worked with regional groups in order to reduce emissions and prevent deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+), as well as addressing these issues and their relation with gender.

The woman human rights defender is currently the Director of Development Alternatives for Youth and Women ADEJUM Izabal (Alternativas de Desarrollo para las Juventudes y las Mujeres), multiverse collective for indigenous women, trans women and non-binary people, where she promotes environmental education with their school to protect the environment with art. Along with the ADEJUM, she obtained second place in a short film contest organized by UDEFEGUA in the non-professional category, with a film exploring the theme of care and protection of sources of life, using the Machacas river, located in Puerto Barrios, Izabal, as its setting. Later, ADEJUM developed the project #HablandoDesdeMiRuralidad with the aim of providing visibility to the biodiversity in the rural area through the use of photographs and videos captured by rural teenagers and young women.

In 2020, she started the community project Protecting our Life Sources (Protegiendo las Fuentes de Vida) with the mission of promoting environmental education with art. The project emphasises the protection and care of the rivers as beings that feel and are sacred, in particular the Machacas river, which provides water to 4 communities. As part of this project, Sandra worked as a coach and teacher for children and teenagers, sharing her knowledge about the care and protection of mother earth with the use of drawings and paintings. As a result of her constant work as a mentor and protector of the environment, in 2021 she was acknowledged as Protector of the Nature of the Land: Chajil Uwachulew by the Environment and Natural Resources Ministry of Guatemala.