Impact Spotlight
Installing solar panels in three Indigenous community radio stations in Guatemala
Training volunteer radio staff at each station in solar power basics and maintenance
Powering educational radio in Indigenous languages for 80,000 listeners across highland Guatemala
About
Across Guatemala’s highlands, Indigenous community radio stations are an important source of locally controlled news, education, emergency information, and cultural programming, often broadcasting in Indigenous languages to communities underserved by larger commercial media.
Cultural Survival is an Indigenous-led nonprofit that has supported Indigenous community media in Guatemala for decades, working with largely volunteer-run stations to strengthen local communication, language, and community self-determination. Through this work, Cultural Survival helps communities maintain media platforms that are locally owned, locally operated, and responsive to local priorities.
For these stations, reliable electricity is essential infrastructure. Solar power can reduce reliance on costly fuel and unstable grid access while giving communities greater control over the systems that keep their broadcasts on the air.
“Indigenous community radio stations in Guatemala have dreamed of powering their broadcasts through solar for over two decades. Through this project with Honnold, this dream will finally become a reality, moving three Indigenous communities towards energy autonomy in their local communications.”
HF Partnership
This partnership with the Honnold Foundation will help Cultural Survival fund a pilot project for three community radio stations in Guatemala to install solar panels and train community volunteers in the technical aspects and maintenance of solar power. Community radio is a primary method of communication for Indigenous communities in Guatemala: it is low-cost to develop and maintain, locally-controlled, broadcasts in Indigenous languages, and serves as a hub for local news, education, community organizing, emergency response, and cultural and language revitalization.
Cultural Survival works with a network of grassroots, volunteer-run Indigenous community radio stations across small towns and rural areas of Guatemala that operate on shoestring budgets, often relying on costly gasoline generators during power outages or in off-grid locations. Solar power has long been a dream of these stations, and beyond economic and environmental sustainability, it represents a step toward greater autonomy and self-determination for the Indigenous communities they serve.
In the News
