Amicus Foundation -- Mission Statement




The Maya were noted as well for elaborate and highly decorated ceremonial architecture, including temple-pyramids, palaces and observatories, all built without metal tools. They were also skilled farmers, clearing large sections of tropical rain forest and, where groundwater was scarce, building sizeable underground reservoirs for the storage of rainwater.

Amicus Foundation is a Canadian registered charity that supports the work of progressive human rights and social justice organizations in Guatemala. Through education and training workshops, we work with marginalized communities to enhance their own abilities and improve the quality of their lives.

Our Vision:

Amicus Foundation recognizes that we live within a political-economic system that increasingly marginalizes groups, communities, and indeed, large parts of entire countries. These communities have lost their ability to influence the social, political and economic institutions that affect their lives.

To counteract this process, we promote citizenship participation and peaceful, positive transformation of communities by conducting participatory educational activities such as workshops and training sessions. We believe that by working together to build social cohesion, cooperation and mutual support, these social transformations can be achieved.

Our partner organizations in Guatemala are responsible for the design and implementation of our projects. We believe in supporting the work of grassroots organizations through strengthening their organizational capacities and developing their own human resources through education and training.

The institutions and forces that cause the exclusion of communities are global in nature and are at work in both the underdeveloped nations of the South, and the developed nations of the North. We work to promote awareness of this context both in Canada and Guatemala.