Seattle International Foundation (SIF) is pleased to announce the launch of the Central America and Mexico Youth Fund (CAMY Fund), a new fund providing grant support to projects led by local young adult leaders (aged 18-35) in Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Quintana Roo, Mexico.

CAMY Fund will address many challenges faced by young people in Central America and Mexico – particularly young women – such as high adolescent fertility rates, low secondary school completion, child marriage/early unions for girls, discriminatory gender attitudes and behaviors, and inadequate provision of reproductive health services and comprehensive sexuality education in schools. CAMY Fund will support young adult leaders in Central America and Mexico to implement innovative projects within their organizations that are designed to demonstrate measurable impacts on girls’ equality and/or adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). The fund seeks to invest more than $1 million over five years.

This fund is made possible by the generous support of The Summit Foundation (Summit) based in Washington D.C., and builds upon Summit’s ten-year investment in youth leadership development focused on adolescent SRHR in the region.

“We are pleased to partner with Summit to provide youth in Central America with the support they need to address these challenges and transform their communities,” said Mauricio Vivero, CEO of SIF.

“Summit has learned from our previous investments that young people have untapped potential to help their communities and nations, particularly on intractable issues like gender inequality that touch them directly. We hope this new initiative will seed projects that demonstrate impact and encourage scaling and adaptation,” said Kathy Hall, Senior Program Officer at The Summit Foundation.

This partnership demonstrates SIF and Summit’s commitment to investing in youth leadership throughout Central America and Mexico to create agents of change and break barriers to gender equality and opportunities for adolescent girls.

CAMY Fund grantmaking will begin in summer 2014.

The Seattle International Foundation (SIF) is working with corporations, foundations, governments and individuals to alleviate poverty in Central America. Since 2008, the Foundation has awarded more than $8 million to organizations working for social change throughout the region. For more information visit www.seaif.org.