A home for the women who make cacao in San Marcos La Laguna, Lake Atitlán.
In San Marcos La Laguna, on Lake Atitlán, 39 women process cacao in their homes. They roast, peel and grind between cooking, children and everything else a day asks of them. One woman told us she starts at 2:30 in the afternoon, stops at six to make dinner, then goes back to the cacao until eleven or midnight.
“Estoy muy cansada… pero ni modo, es muy bonito.”
I am very tired… but that’s how it is. It is very beautiful.
It is good work. In 2025 the collectives earned Q455,000, about US$59,700. But the income depends on cacao seed arriving, and some months it doesn’t. And there is no shared place to work, learn or rest.
La Casa del Cacao will be that place.
What we will build
A three-level centre on land that Give Back to the Source has already bought and owns.
Level 1 · Care. Childcare run by the women themselves, a safe play area, and two rooms for women, farmers and trainees who need somewhere to stay.
Level 2 · Cacao. A production floor built to sanitary licensing standards and run by Cacao Source. Licensing opens markets that the current rented rooms keep closed, and that means steadier work.
Level 3 · Culture and learning. Workshops, skills and leadership, Kaqchikel language and culture, and gatherings. One woman asked for a hammock. It’s in the plan.
The women named it before we did: “un lugar de oportunidades de mujeres.” A place of opportunities for women.
Where the money goes
US$250,000 builds the centre. The land, US$30,000, is already paid.
- Construction: $200,000
- Production and community equipment: $20,000
- Licensing, technical and legal: $5,000
- Contingency, about 10%: $25,000
Construction starts in Q2–Q3 2027, once funding is committed. The centre opens in 2028.
How we keep it honest
Give Back to the Source grew out of Cacao Source, so we want to be clear about how your gift is protected.
- The NGO owns the land and the building. Neither can be sold or transferred, including to Cacao Source.
- Cacao Source rents the production floor for Q5,000 a month and pays the centre’s utilities and running costs.
- The two organizations keep separate books. Donations never pay for production, and the business never draws on donated funds.
- A women’s advisory group from the collectives helps set who gets access to work, training and space.
- At each construction milestone, we report back with photos and numbers.
One woman asked us directly whether this centre would benefit the women or someone else. We keep that question in front of us. It’s why the women review what we heard, help set the access rules, and help govern the house.
Who we are
Give Back to the Source is a women-led Guatemalan NGO founded in 2022. We built an eco-artisan women’s centre in Chicacao, Suchitepéquez. With Instituto Puente, we’re building a school alongside the Q’eqchi’ community of Chirremox, Alta Verapaz. La Casa del Cacao is built with Cacao Source, a circular-economy cacao enterprise that works with hundreds of farmers and the women’s collectives of San Marcos.
Every gift to this page goes to La Casa del Cacao.