Their name says it all: Jóvenes por el Cambio (JXC, Youth for Change). This group from San Marcos, a border area between Guatemala and Mexico, combines sports, education, and social impact to generate significant changes in the lives of local girls, adolescents, and women.
In San Marcos, life is very hard and even hopeless for girls, adolescents, and women, not only because of the poverty and malnutrition that directly impact them but also because of the violence and insecurity they experience. Moreover, they have historically been excluded from sports, social, educational, cultural, and political spaces due to machismo.
JXC emerged in 2015, fueled by their indignation and the urgent need to put a stop to the discrimination and exclusion. Today, the group is made up of a vibrant team of volunteers: 25 adolescent and young women, 12 men between 14 and 20 years old, and a team of girl leaders between 8 and 12 years old.
Realizing the dream of creating safe spaces for youth where girls, adolescents and women, including those in asylum-seeking and human mobility situations, can practice sports free of prejudice and stigma is one of their greatest achievements and incentives. “For us, boxing is a tool for social transformation. Through sports we create spaces for our enjoyment, for games, for participating, for leadership,” says Nancy Yomira Roblero Pérez, director of JXC.
Promoting boxing and self-defense for girls, adolescents, and women was a challenge that required perseverance, strategic vision, and intense awareness-raising work, both with community leaders and with the community itself. Today, they have not only strengthened their networking with organizations in San Marcos but also in Central America.
Through sports, as well as social, cultural, and technological spaces, JXC also contributes to the creation of healthy and anti-patriarchal masculinities. It develops processes and actions for human development, and it strengthens women’s power through feminist and self-defense. In addition, it promotes conversations and inclusive decision-making in key spaces within the department and at the national level.
JXC’s participation in various spaces is also driven by the change of the collective imaginary. They are living proof that sports have no gender and that all people (particularly girls, adolescents, and women) have the right to be free and can be strong, confident, and unafraid of making their voices heard.
In 2023, JXC worked with girls, adolescents, and young women from San Pedro Sacatepéquez—originally from areas with high levels of gender violence and migration—so they could strengthen their capacities through workshops focused on self-care and emotional health, feminist self-defense, life skills, sexual rights, and migration risks. The workshops included art, theater, and boxing as part of their methodology.
“Boxing has helped me decompress and overcome many problems. The workshops have helped me a lot, since I’ve been able to get out of my comfort zone. I’ve been able to overcome my limits or the limits that people tried to set on me. I like coming to train, although sometimes I feel frustrated for not being able to do something, but when I come to box, I forget about my problems. I de-stress and I can be myself. It has helped me a lot in school. Before, I kept to myself, submerged in my problems; boxing has helped me to be able to let loose”. Daniela Miranda, JXC member