Amigos de Santa Cruz has been awarded a grant from the Seattle International Foundation for $15,000.

It is part of the 2012 Small Grants program sponsored by SIF to support and strengthen the international nonprofit sector in the Puget Sound area and Washington State. The funds will be used to support the CECAP vocational education center in Santa Cruz la Laguna, Guatemala focusing on indigenous women’s skills training and economic empowerment.

This is the third year that Amigos has been a recipient of the SIF Small Grants Program. Amigos de Santa Cruz is a 501c3 organization started by two Lopez Island women, Nancy Bingham and Patricia Torpie, in 1998.

The mission of Amigos is to provide support for education, better health, a cleaner environment and economic development projects for the indigenous people of Santa Cruz la Laguna, where Bingham and Torpie live part-time. For more information, visit www.amigosdesantacruz.org.