Impact

When you buy our products, come for a cacao tour or enjoy an overnight stay, you’re directly supporting a whole ecosystem of well-being in the Q’eqchi territory of Lanquín.

How? Our work begins with relationship. Over the last 7 years, Tuqtuquilal has cultivated relationships with members of the local Q’eqchi community. We have listened to stories of their lives and understood their needs. These conversations guide our initiatives and metrics for success.

Impact in Numbers

65 Families in the Ratzum Cacao Network

150+ Individuals who belong to the network

6 Full-time employees

65 women employed as toasters and peelers

123,000 lbs of cacao purchased from Red Ratzum since 2022

3 Core Pillars of Empowerment

Economic

The number one struggle the local community shares is not having enough opportunities to earn income.

For that we created the Red Ratzum Cacao - a collective of nearby 65 families to unite in cultivating agroforestry systems with cacao as the main cash crop. Our cacao clients help us to offer the farmers the security of a reliable source of income during harvest season.

We also provide regular workshops and trainings on regenerative agriculture techniques, like natural fertilizers from compost toilets, grafting, biochar, and more, so they can have stronger yields and healthier fruits. These farmers also come to us first when they have other crops available, like ginger, turmeric, black pepper, cardamom, vanilla, cinnamon, and allspice, or bioconstruction materials like local wood species, kala, and tanil.

We’ve organized and trained groups of women in Red Ratzum to toast and peel the cacao, offering ongoing employment to our network of families, which is currently the only local opportunity women have to earn an income. These groups offer more than just income: they also serve as women sharing circles where the social fabric between families is woven.

Health

Many people in this community suffer from chronic illness or emergency situations, and when they need medical support, they can’t afford it. This leads to a downward spiral of selling off ancestral lands to raise money for hospitalizations or taking out loans with steep interest rates, creating lifelong pressure to pay it off.

With a focus on regeneration, we must think of whole-systems solutions. These solutions must value original wisdom of the place, the people tending to and receiving abundance from their ancestral lands, and education about holistic health and cooperation towards a thriving future for all.

We’ve identified that education is a key component to preventing health issues. We offer nutrition workshops to educate people about the harm of processed foods, emphasize the importance of traditional Mayan herbs in cooking, and offer techniques like breathwork and meditation for calming the emotional body.

Bioconstruction & Permaculture

Tuqtuquilal serves as a demonstration site for locals and visitors to see examples of how to use natural materials and techniques to live in harmony with the land. The Tuqtuquilal property uses rainwater catchment systems, swales for slowing, spreading and sinking water, and compost toilets for creating ongoing fertilizer.

We have taught many locals how to build and harvest compost toilets for a natural fertilizer for their cacao forests as well. We also construct our cabins using found materials from the mountainsides, so to preserve the original building wisdom of the area and demonstrate the benefits of bioconstruction.

Ongoing Initiatives

Health and Wellness

We offer regular health and wellness workshops to the families in Red Ratzum. Past lessons have included:

  • Hygiene and basic sanitation

  • Identifying healthy and unhealthy foods

  • Cooking classes to incorporate medicinal herbs into common meals

  • Benefits of medicinal herbs

  • Breathwork

  • Stretching

  • Understanding the connection between emotional, physical, mental and spiritual bodies

We are always open to doctors, dentists, and health practioners who want to donate their time to share wisdom and important information with the community. If that’s you, reach out!

REGENERATIVE PRACTICES

We offer regular regenerative agriculture workshops to the families to introduce new techniques that will help their village and food forests thrive. Topics include:

  • Fruit tree grafting

  • Compost toilets and bio-fertilizers

  • Tree nursery care and plant exchange

  • Rainwater catchment systems

  • Bioconstruction

We are always open to collaborate with outside experts who want to come and offer a workshop or demonstration to the communities. Reach out!

WOMEN’S WORK

In a culture that is predominantly machismo, it’s important to give women extra support. We are organizing women’s only events to strengthen the social fabric between women and offer additional support for those dealing with health and fertility issues, birth trauma, and alcoholism and abuse in the home. Our dream is to build a physical structure, safe space for women to have a place to go to rest, connect, and heal together.

We are proud to be partnering with Heartsong Cacao on their mission to empower womb care and are open to more collaborators and supporters of women’s well-being.

sacred plant reforestation

The Lanquín region is home to many sacred plants that are recorded in the Mayan bible, the Popol Vuh, and still used by elders for ceremonies and healings. One of these plants, copal pom, is endangered and in need of protection and reforestation. Copal a tree that produces a sticky sap that is hand-harvested, typically stored in a banana leaf, and offered to the sacred fire in a ceremony support the prayers. Another sacred tree called Balam or pataxte. It a cousin to cacao and has incredible medicinal properties. It too, is very beloved and hard to find.

We are starting a nursery at Tuqtuquilal to safeguard these seeds, grow healthy plant starts, and regenerate the mountainsides at our property and surrounding lands to ensure pataxte, copal pom, and rare varieties of cacao are safeguarded for generations to come.

Make a Donation

If your heart is moved to support the Q’eqchi community’s thriving, we are accepting donations. 100% of donations will go directly to the initiatives listed on this page. Thank you so much for your partnership and generosity.