The Guatemalan health workers funded by ABBA’s ‘Chiquitita’

Psychologist Lesly Emilia Paau Soto do Catu said that in the rural Guatemalan region of Alta Verapaz, where she works with girls who’ve been sexually abused, she is dealing with a particularly stubborn machismo culture. 

Among the Q’eqchi, an Indigenous Maya people, it’s often accepted that males are breadwinners and can behave however they want, she said, while females get judged and blamed more. 

In fact, mothers and grandmothers here often describe their own daughters and granddaughters with words like “worthless” if they get raped, and some have accused girls of being “stupid for letting it happen,” she said. 

“A father can blame a mother for not watching out for their daughter, then the mother starts to blame the daughter,” she said, adding, “It’s a chain of blame, and it’s all based on the ‘machismo’ that’s so strong here.”

Recently, in a therapy session with a girl who got pregnant after she was sexually assaulted by a family member, she spoke to her about managing her emotions. It’s one way that Paau, and the local nongovernmental organization she works for — the Association of Friends of Development of Peace, or ADP — is trying to change the community’s mindset.

Their efforts are thanks to an unlikely source: ABBA, whose music can be heard in just about any mall or cafe throughout the capital, Guatemala City.  

In 1979, the Swedish pop group gave the rights to their famous song, “Chiquitita,” to UNICEF, the United Nations’ children’s aid agency.

Chiquitita means “little girl” in Spanish, and since 2014, all of the song’s proceeds have gone to projects in Guatemala where the problem of sexual violence is especially acute. According to Guatemala’s government, in 2023, an average of 17 cases of sexual abuse a day were reported in the country, and just over half of sexual abuse cases here are against children. 

ADP is one of four Guatemalan NGOs getting “Chiquitita” funds through a UNICEF project called, “Knock-knock, Change is at Your Door,” which began in 2019 to support abuse survivors in some of Guatemala’s poorest and hardest-to-reach regions.

ADP also runs clinics and classes about safety and confidence-building and works with a Christian radio station in Senahu, broadcasting in Q’eqchi and Spanish, about reporting abuse. They use FM radio because many villages around here don’t have internet, TV or cellphone service.

Marcos Cahuec Chamán, a community promoter with ADP, regularly visits an area settlement of around 30 households with no electricity or water, let alone a cellphone signal, to teach a workshop about sex education to a group of 13 children.

One of the topics he covers is why the kids shouldn’t touch someone if it’s unwanted.

“These kids need to know their rights from an early age. The first line of defense is open communication,” he said.

Cahuec Chamán said that he preaches the importance of education here, because some parents are too preoccupied with farmwork to send their kids to school. And the local school only has one teacher and doesn’t give proper sex education, so his visits help fill that gap.

Petrona Yat de Chamam, a mother of a child in the group, said that when she was young, no one taught her about puberty. She said that she hopes the children will remember these lessons about respect and safety.

Manuel Rodríguez Pumarol, head of UNICEF in Guatemala, said that since ABBA’s “Chiquitita” rights money was directed to his office in 2014, around $2.4 million has come in from the song.

ABBA has had a major impact in the country, he said: “Their kindness is changing the life of thousands of children here in Guatemala. This has been a game changer, and all this is thanks to ABBA.”

ABBA seemed pleased with how the money was being spent, too.

In 2022, the band’s Bjorn Ulvaeus told the BBC, “Never in my wildest dreams could I have expected it would be so long-lasting and bring in so much money. It’s the best legacy anyone could wish for.”