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Using Circles to Cope with 
the Eruption of Volcán de 
Fuego in Guatemala  
MIGUEL TELLO, FLOR GARCÍA 

ABSTRACT 

On June 3, 2018, the Volcán 
de Fuego (Fire Volcano) in 
Guatemala erupted, killing 
300 people and leaving close 
to 2,000 homeless and 
relocated to temporary 
shelters.  Lava flows buried 
the towns of Alotenango and 
San Miguel Los Lotes; El 
Rodeo was also highly 
impacted.  

The government, non-
governmental organizations 
(NGOs) and international 
response was focused on 
relocating villagers to safe 
locations and providing health 
care, medicines and food, as 
well as initiating a formal plan 
to move entire communities 
that would not be able to 
live in those high-risk areas 
again. 

However, the emergency response made no effort to listen to the people affected by 
the eruption or to provide them with a space where they could find emotional 
support and release some of the emotions around the trauma they suffered.  
Asociación para el Liderazgo en Guatemala (ALG), a local NGO that trains other 
NGO leaders in the country, offered an intervention that provided a space for both 
people displaced by the eruption and emergency response teams to find support in 
the use of restorative circles.  This article will examine ALG´s intervention and offer 
some lessons learned about providing circles to people affected by natural disaster, 
and how they can be helpful in coping with the aftermath of such a traumatic event. 

Authors 

MIGUEL TELLO 
The Strachan Foundation 
Executive Director 

International Institute for 
Restorative Practices 
Adjunct Professor 

FLOR GARCÍA 
Asociación de Liderazgo en 
Guatemala 
Executive Director 

International Institute for 
Restorative Practices 
Board Member 

Volcán de Fuego Eruption (2017) 

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RESUMEN 

El 3 de junio del 2018 el Volcán de Fuego en 
Guatemala hizo erupción matando a 300 personas 
y dejando a cerca de 2,000 personas sin casa y 
ubicados en refugios temporales.  El flujo de lava 
soterró a las comunidades de Alotenango y San 
Miguel Los Lotes.  El Rodeo también fue 
impactado. 

El gobierno, las ONGs y la respuesta internacional 
se enfocó en reubicar a los miembros de las 
comunidades a localidades seguras y proveerles 
atención médica, medicinas y comida.  También se 
enfocaron en crear un plan para reubicar a las 
comunidades que no podrían continuar viviendo 
en áreas de alto riesgo. 

Sin embargo, la respuesta de emergencia no hizo 
ningún esfuerzo por escuchar a las personas 

afectadas por la erupción ni proveerles un espacio 
donde pudieran encontrar apoyo emocional y 
expresar las emociones en torno al trauma que 
habían sufrido.  Asociación para el Liderazgo en 
Guatemala (ALG) una ONG local que capacita a 
líderes de ONG en el país, ofreció una 
intervención que ofreció un espacio tanto para 
personas desplazadas como para los equipos de 
respuesta de emergencia para que recibieran 
apoyo a través de círculos de diálogo. Este artículo 
examinará la intervención de ALG y ofrecerá 
algunas lecciones aprendidas acerca de ofrecer 
círculos para personas afectadas por un desastre 
natural y como esto puede ayudar a enfrentar las 
secuelas de un evento tan traumático. 

Keywords: circles, restorative practices, trauma, 
natural disasters, community empowerment 

ERUPTION OF THE VOLCÁN DE FUEGO 

On the morning of Sunday, June 3, 2018, the 
Volcán de Fuego (Fire Volcano) in Guatemala 
began its second eruptive phase of the year. A 
cloud came out of the crater and soon covered the 
sky with ash and volcanic material five 
centimeters in diameter that impacted hard as it 
fell. Noon turned dark as night, and rumbling 
could be heard miles away. The destructive 
pyroclastic flow of lava, hot ash and sand rapidly 
reached several communities, burning and 
burying everything in its path. Entire families 
were trapped, unable to get out; others cried and 
fled in desperation, running for help.  The 
eruption killed 300 people and left about 2,000 
homeless and relocated to temporary shelters.  
Lava flows buried the towns of Alotenango and 
San Miguel Los Lotes; El Rodeo was also highly 
impacted.  

Guatemala is a small country located in Central 
America, bordering Mexico and Belize to the 
North and Honduras and El Salvador to the 
South.  It has three major regions: the highlands, 
where two mountain chains cross Guatemala from 
west to east, the Pacific coast south of the 
mountains, and the Petén region north of the 
mountains.  The country has 37 volcanos, four of 
which are active: Volcán de Fuego, Santiaguito, 
Tacaná and Pacaya. 

EMERGENCY RESPONSE 

The government was highly disorganized and 
unprepared to respond to the crisis. When the 

Wholeness does not mean perfection; it 
means embracing brokenness as an 

integral part of life. 

—Parker J. Palmer, A Hidden Wholeness 

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administration of President Jimmy Morales took 
over the emergency response office in 2016, they 
removed the incumbent national emergency 
response coordinator and his technical team and 
appointed a new team. When the eruption 
occurred, the newly-appointed team did not have 
the capacity to develop a coherent plan. One 
concrete action that the government did take was 
to enable many temporary shelters in schools and 
churches in towns that were close by, but safe. 
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil 
society concentrated their efforts on providing 
food and clothing and offering entertainment for 
children. However, since there were no protocols, 
the number of people who came to help and 
brought sweets, piñatas, etc., was overwhelming.  
Some NGOs established teams to monitor and 
guarantee people's safety. International solidarity 
was manifested with funds, donations of supplies 
and medicines, and with specialized groups that 
came from Mexico and the United States to 
continue the search and rescue of survivors and 
recovery of bodies at the scene of the tragedy. The 
Pan American Health Organization guided the 
government with protocols and personalized 
advice for local officials. 

Guatemala is a high-risk country for all kinds of 
natural disasters. Multiple studies have warned 
about the vulnerability of the country and yet the 
state has taken few steps to mitigate the inherent 
risk.  Experts of the Instituto de Investigación y 
Proyección sobre Ambiente Natural y Sociedad at 
the Rafael Landivar University (Institute for the 
Research and Projection of the Natural 
Environment and Society) mention that every 
time there is a catastrophe the “lack of 
commitment and political will of the government” 
are evidenced (García & Mejía, 2018).  Brannum 
and Watts (2020) describe how the emergency 
response of the Volcan de Fuego eruption was 
carried out mostly by a group of volunteer firemen 
who receive little funding from the federal 
government although they are closely connected 
to the local government.  The authors also 
mention a deep-seated distrust of government 
mentioning that people who collected goods for 

distribution for the affected families would bring 
the goods to non-state actors because they 
believed the donations would actually get to the 
people in need.  

ASOCIACIÓN DE LIDERAZGO 
GUATEMALA (ALG) 

ALG is a non-profit organization that offers 
transformational processes to increase the 
positive impact of leaders in Central America. 

Circle centerpiece during circle for people displaced by 
the Volcán de Fuego eruption (2018). 

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They provide leadership training that includes 
management tools and experiences grounded in a 
deep review of personal purpose and emphasizes 
the importance of collaboration between leaders 
and organizations. ALG practices what it 
preaches: everything they do, whether it is a 
training, a more formal course, or a staff meeting 
always starts with a Circle of Trust, a methodology 
created by Parker Palmer that has been a common 
thread in ALG´s work since its founding in 2012. 
Later, when learning about the Restorative 
Practices movement and the International 
Institute for Restorative Practices [IIRP], it 
seemed to ALG like a natural fit to integrate other 
ways of implementing circles. 

IIRP provided ALG with a theoretical and 
methodological framework to emphasize 
Restorative Practices as an effective means for 
community building and conflict resolution for 
leaders. Now the staff is certified to offer IIRP 
basic trainings. The effect is expansive, as leaders 
soon begin to use the circles in their organizations 
and communities and in general gain a clearer 
understanding of what it means to act and lead 
from a restorative point of view.   

In addition to using restorative practices, ALG 
uses a series of social technologies that leverage 
small- and large-group dialogue and learning 
through facilitating exercises such as World Café 
and Open Space1.  Although these methodologies 
are different, they also are built on the 
“fundamental unifying hypothesis of restorative 
practices,” as articulated by Wachtel (2016), that 
“human beings are happier, more cooperative and 
productive, and more likely to make positive 
changes in their behavior when those in authority 

1 In a World Café exercise, a small group of participants 
initially sit at various tables with a facilitator at each table. 
The people gathered at the table are invited to contribute 
their thoughts to a particular topic or questions.  After ten 
minutes, participants are asked to move to the next table, 
where they will receive a summary of the previous group 
and add their own comments to the conversation. At the 
end of the exercise the facilitators summarize the findings 

do things with them, rather than to them or for 
them.”  

ALG and the authors of this article believe in 
empowering local leaders and communities to 
respond to their context.  We are conscious of the 
high level of inequality and discrimination that 
exists in Guatemalan society and are committed to 
building the capacity of leaders to be a voice for 
their own communities.  

CIRCLES 

The use of circles for managing conflict within 
groups is an ancient tradition of many indigenous 
communities around the world.  Since the advent 
of the Restorative Justice movement in the 1970s, 
circles have become part of the means of 
addressing harm and strengthening community in 
non-indigenous Western society as well. 
According to Pranis, “Circles have been used by 
small groups of non-indigenous people for over 30 
years.” (Pranis, 2014, p. 7) In her words: 

A Peacemaking Circle is a way of bringing 
people together in which: everyone is 
respected, everyone gets a chance to talk 
without interruption, participants explain 
themselves by telling their stories, 
everyone is equal – no person is more 
important than anyone else, spiritual and 
emotional aspects of individual experience 
are welcomed. (Pranis, 2014, p. 7) 

There are a wide variety of circles and 
applications.  Some of the most common types are 
listening circles, talking circles, support circles, 
and celebration circles. The type of circle that ALG 
used to address the concerns of community 

at each table. In an Open Space exercise, participants are 
asked to choose several topics to be discussed and choose a 
leader for the topic.  They are then asked to move to the 
topic they wish to address.  They may stay with a single 
topic or move to several topics. At the end of the 
discussion, leaders share the findings with the whole 
group.   

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members and emergency response staff members 
is called a responsive circle.   

In a circle, the participants are seated in a round 
formation so that everyone can see and hear each 
other clearly. The facilitator uses a talking piece 
that is passed to each person sequentially to 
indicate whose turn it is to speak; only the person 
holding the talking piece may speak, while 
everyone else listens. The facilitator´s roles are (a) 
to offer questions for the group to respond to, and 
(b) to maintain a safe and respectful environment
for all participants.

CIRCLES GIVE VOICE TO THE 
COMMUNITY 

Pranis, et al. (2003) describe the holistic nature of 
circles, in which they “…include all interests in 
order to find, workable, healing solutions,” (p. 63) 
and how they “…take a holistic approach by 
drawing on our whole being: physical, mental, 
emotional and spiritual” (p. 63).  This approach is 
indispensable for interventions that offer support 
to communities affected by a natural disaster.   

An academic approach to a natural disaster or 
other community harm can have a blind spot: It 
considers that it has the correct and best answer 
to whatever the situation is at hand.  This usually 
does not fit with the lived experience of 
community members. It also compartmentalizes 
responses to a physical or mental approach, 
leaving out the emotional and spiritual aspects of 
human beings.  Circles are powerful because they 
employ the holistic approach described by Pranis 
et al. (2003). 

In their work training leaders in Central America, 
ALG identifies and leverages the wisdom that is 
already present in communities. ALG employs 
circles as a way for this wisdom, and the diverse 
voices of a variety of community members, to 
emerge. This is especially important in 

2 The emerging social science of Restorative Practices is 
the larger discipline under which these practices are 

Guatemala, where the voices of women are often 
silent. 

WHY ALG CHOSE TO USE RESPONSIVE 
CIRCLES 

ALG quickly realized that the people that had lost 
their homes and loved ones during the eruption of 
the Volcán de Fuego had a variety of emotional 
needs and concerns.  ALG staff members chose to 
use responsive circles, where participants are 
asked to respond to questions brought by the 
facilitator.  These questions help the participants 
to reflect on what their experience has been and 
how it has affected them. It also helps circle 
participants to look for ways in which they can 
offer support to one another, or to find the 
support they need from others. 

RESTORATIVE PRACTICES AND 
TRAUMA 

There are many sources of trauma in people’s 
lives; it can be triggered by physical or 
psychological harm.  For many years, Restorative 
Justice has been implemented successfully to deal 
with situations where someone harms another 
person.  Circles and restorative conferences are 
two of the main ways in which harm is addressed 
in Restorative Justice and Restorative Practices2.  
However, whereas in Restorative Justice settings, 
circles would be used to address harm, responsive 
circles such as the ones used by ALG seek to 
leverage dialogue and learning.  

Trauma plays an important role in the reactions of 
people who have been affected by a natural 
disaster.  There is a substantial body of literature 

applied in many fields.  A subset of Restorative Practices 
in criminal justice is Restorative Justice.

An academic approach to a natural disaster 
or other community harm can have a blind 

spot: It considers that it has the correct and 
best answer to whatever the situation is at 

hand.  This usually does not fit with the lived 
experience of community members. 

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on the neuroscience of trauma and its long-term 
effects on people.  Levine (2015) and Siegel 
(2013) are among the authors who have written 
about the way in which the fight-or-flight 
response is activated in a traumatic event, and 
how the hippocampus and amygdala in the brain 
respond. Rundell et al. (2018) also make a 
connection between trauma and Restorative 
Practices in a study of trauma and refugees; they 
write:  

The authors suggest the use of restorative 
approaches as a way to address the trauma 
and harm experienced by refugees to release 
their traumatic memories and allow the joy 
of living.  Restorative approaches have the 
and others in a relationship. (Rundell et al., 
2018, p.  20, 21)  

Rundell et al. (2018) also cite Weingarten (2003) 
and her work around witnessing, a process that 
involves the person who has suffered trauma 
being able to articulate their experience and then 

receiving feedback from observers who are tasked 
with listening attentively and expressing how they 
empathize with that person.  The facilitator of a 
witnessing process then asks the person who has 
suffered trauma to respond to what the listeners 
have said.  The witnessing process is very helpful 
in being able to change the narrative that the 
person suffering from trauma has embodied. 
Weingarten (2003) posits four witnessing 
windows on a graph of levels of 
awareness/unawareness and levels of 
empowerment/disempowerment as shown in 
Figure 1. 

Rundell et al. (2018) explain how the ideal is to be 
in Window 1, where participants witness in a 
restorative way where they are both aware and 
empowered.  In Window 2, where witnesses are 
empowered but unaware, leads to “malpractice, 
abuse and/or bullying” (2018).  Window 3 is 
labeled neglectful-dismissive, where witnesses are 
disempowered and unaware “leads to 
helplessness,” a state often experienced by 

Figure 1 
Weingarten’s Witness Positions 

Reprinted from "Managing trauma: A restorative process" by Rundell, F. C., Sheety, A., & Negrea, V., 2018, In E. 
Sengupta & P. Blessinger (Eds.), Refugee education: Integration and acceptance of refugees 
in mainstream society (pp. 17-31). Emerald Publishing. doi: 10.1108/S2055-364120180000011004 

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refugees.  The fourth window of disempowerment 
and awareness takes place when “refugees arriving 
in a new country often become aware of the 
privileges around them, yet identify restrictions 
within themselves, as a result of language, 
cultural, discrepancies, or skill deficiencies” 
(Weingarten, 2003, as cited in Rundell et al., 
2018). 

As we will demonstrate, the work of ALG focused 
on offering survivors of the volcanic eruption a 
restorative witnessing that would empower the 
community and help them to be aware of the 
internal resources they have to address the 
traumas they experienced after the disaster. 

ALG INTERVENTIONS 

Facilitating a Circle at a Temporary 
Shelter 

When ALG heard the news about the eruption, 
they decided they had to do something to offer 
support to the people that had been displaced by 
the Volcán de Fuego eruption. What better than to 
offer circles where the participants could express 
how they had been affected and how they could 
offer support to one another? Flor García, 
Executive Director of ALG, describes her 
experience facilitating the first circle: 

In a forgotten street of Escuintla, behind 
the bus terminal, a dirty and improvised 
market emerges full of people and dogs in 
the midst of a suffocating heat. There we 
found the entrance to a school that had 
been converted into a temporary shelter.  
It had been a week since the eruption, and 
we had made a first and frustrating visit to 
another shelter some days ago.  This time 
it would be different, we were told, 
because the shelter coordinator would be 
there waiting for us, she will have 
prepared a space, and people would have 
been invited to participate.  When we got 
there, we heard that the coordinator was 
not there, and that no one was in charge. 
Dozens of people were milling in the patio, 

some sat lethargically inside the small 
classrooms full of mattresses with 
mountains of clothes and dirty dishes.  
Some parents were leaving hastily to take 
their children to a school still functioning 
nearby. (F. García, personal 
communication, April 2020) 

After identifying some of the community leaders 
at the shelter, García and her colleague, Yaneth 
Garces, were able to convene a circle with about 
15 people. After explaining the use of the talking 
piece and how the circle would function, the 
facilitators asked the participants to say their 
name and one thing they were grateful for. García 
describes what happened next: 

The powerful effect of seeing and listening 
to one another was immediate.  In the 
midst of the noise of the impoverished 
shelter, a space of silence was created. We 
saw people lean in, eyes slightly closed to 
hear better. We heard men and women 
speak about their gratitude for life, for 
food, the solidarity of a neighbor, for the 
priest who came to offer Mass, because 
although they lost their homes, they still 
had hope.   

Circle with community leaders (2018). 

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After that came the stories. “Did you ever 
experience a very difficult situation where 
it was hard to think that things could get 
better, but they finally did?” They spoke 
and listened, assenting with their heads, 
with tears in their eyes, speaking of other 
places, other times, acknowledging their 
own resilience and being nourished by 
others. Towards the end of the circle, 
participants expressed how they could 
offer support to one another and what 
they could do to make this time more 
agreeable. (F. García, personal 
communication, April 2020) 

When the facilitators returned to the shelter later 
on, all the people had been relocated to other 
shelters. 

Listening to Emergency Response 
Workers 

Sara Hurtarte and Anigail Quic, directors of 
SERES, an NGO working directly with the 
communities affected by the eruption, knew that 
their team was experiencing burnout after two 
weeks of non-stop intervention.  They contacted 
ALG to request support for their team. Lucy 
Estacuy, an ALG staff member, along with the 
executive director, facilitated a circle for the team 
using IIRP’s restorative question wallet cards. 
ALG staff describe their experience with the circle: 

We realized that what was most difficult 
for them was not the horrors of the zone 
where they were working each day, nor the 
stories from families dealing with grief. It 
was their own needs, missing their 
families, and the weight of the protective 
mask they had to put on day after day in 
order to continue helping. The circle was a 
space for the emergency workers to be 
heard without judgment, a space where 
their voice could be expressed. (F. García, 
personal communication, April 2020) 

ALG next met with various organizations, 
government agencies and representatives of the 
World Health Organization. A question ALG kept 

raising was “Where is the voice of those displaced 
by the eruption?” No one seemed to have an 
answer.  ALG became part of a committee to 
create a response plan that would focus on social-
emotional well-being. The experience was very 
frustrating for ALG, since the lengthy meetings 
resulted in an official document, but yielded no 
other tangible results.   

After eight months of attempting to bring 
Restorative Practices and circles to the people 
affected by the eruption through official channels, 
ALG decided to do what it does best: Work 
directly with the community. ALG contacted 
SERES, partnered with them, and together started 
offering Restorative Practices training to 
community leaders. The training took place under 
a tree in front of the shelters. According to García, 

Lucy Estacuy, Bekah Giacomantonio and I 
always started with a circle and the 
agreements for how we would share this 
time together, and then we would spend 
time sharing key ideas of Restorative 
Practices using elements of popular 
education.  

The participants often seemed absent; 
their facial expressions not easily 
interpreted, nor did they speak very much.  
Sometimes we went back home frustrated, 
wondering whether we had reached them.  
But, the following week, they would tell us 
how they had started to use affective 
statements to communicate with their 
families and neighbors, and then we would 
reaffirm that we always need to trust in 
the process. I was reminded of one of 
Parker Palmer’s quotes: “Know that it’s 
possible to leave the circle without 

Responses are needed that empower and 
give voice to those who have been directly 

affected. This is where circles can be so 
powerful, as shown by the experience of 
ALG.  People need to be able to tell their 

stories in a safe environment, connect with 
one another, and offer one another support. 

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COMMUNITY ENGAGED RESEARCH: PEACE & JUSTICE TELLO | USING CIRCLES TO COPE 

whatever it was that you needed when you 
arrived, and that the seeds planted here 
can keep growing in the days ahead.” 
(F. García, personal communication, April 
2020) 

For four weeks, ALG worked with the community 
leaders and trained them to facilitate circles.  They 
all thirsted for restoration, and ALG provided the 
basic elements for the community members to 
start listening to one another and to start healing 
from the terrible tragedy they had lived through. 

ALG staff interviewed several community leaders 
from Los Lotes, one of the most affected 
communities by the eruption, to listen to their 
experience of restorative practices after families 
had been settled in simple government housing.  
Ana María mentioned that “new interest in 
leadership emerged, greater courage, and thought 
the experience and learning (restorative practices) 
we had was very beneficial” (L. Estacuy, personal 
communication, November 23, 2020).  Steven 
Mijongos, a youth leader, mentioned that 
“working with youth has been easier than working 
with adults, with youth dialogue tends to be more 
focused on inquiry, they repress some emotion, 
but in general they speak from the self and express 
feelings allowing me to connect with them” (L. 
Estacuy, personal communication, November 23, 
2020).  Ana María also describes how circles have 
helped their community to deal with situations. 
She mentions that they were able to use circles to 
address a situation in Las Palmas where people 
were dumping garbage in a small river.  Ana María 
mentions: “We had a dialogue and I feel that it 
worked because the problem was addressed” (L. 
Estacuy, personal communication, November 23, 
2020). 

LESSONS LEARNED 

Listening to the emotional needs of 
people affected by tragedy 

In emergency responses such as the one offered to 
the people displaced by the eruption of the Volcán 
de Fuego, addressing the immediate physical 

needs of those affected is paramount.  However, 
once these immediate needs are met, it is equally 
important to address their emotional needs as 
well. Although the local universities and the 
Guatemalan Guild of Psychologists sought to 
address these needs by offering psychological 
counseling, this was not effective because sessions 
were offered on a single time basis with no follow 
up.  Similar patterns have been repeated in 
previous natural disasters.  An example of this is 
the mudslide that took place in El Cambray in the 
municipality of Santa Catarina Pinula on October 
1, 2015.  The mudslide buried more than two 
hundred houses and killed 280 people.  La Prensa 
Libre newspaper reported how volunteers tried to 
help children deal with trauma by bringing candy 
and piñatas.  The newspaper reported that the 
park of Santa Catarina Pinula became “a fleeting 
center of happiness” (Rojas & Gramajo, 2015). 

Responses are needed that empower and give 
voice to those who have been directly affected. 
This is where circles can be so powerful, as shown 
by the experience of ALG.  People need to be able 
to tell their stories in a safe environment, connect 
with one another, and offer one another support. 

The power of involving local community 
leaders 

Communities have strengths of their own, and 
these can be accessed through their leaders. One 
of the things that ALG learned was the importance 
of working with local leaders in order to reach the 
community. This has the effect of having a more 
direct contact with the community, rather than 
waiting for external actors to come in. As Wachtel 
(2016) writes, “doing things with people, instead 
of for them or to them” is crucial to their 
empowerment. It is also the most sustainable 
approach to change and healing. 

“Fixing” or “helping” can impede 
community empowerment and healing 

In her article, “Helping, Fixing or Serving?” 
Rachel Naomi Bremen (2017) writes:  

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Fixing and helping create a distance 
between people, but we cannot serve at a 
distance. We can only serve that to which 
we are profoundly connected.  Helping, 
fixing and serving represent three 
different ways of seeing life. When you 
help, you see life as weak. When you fix, 
you see life as broken. When you serve, 
you see life as a whole. Fixing and helping 
may be the work of the ego, and service 
the work of the soul. (Bremen, 2017, para. 
1) 

The government agencies, universities and many 
NGOs sought to “help” or “fix” the people 
displaced by the Volcán de Fuego.  They acted 
from a perspective of pity. ALG sought to serve the 
community of people displaced by the eruption. 
They realized that a humble stance is required for 
this approach, and that the community has its 
own internal resources that can be tapped when a 
facilitator is available to provide a safe space and 
help the community to articulate its own voice. 

Natural disasters have always been, and will 
continue to be, a part of human existence.  Before 
we became highly specialized and 
professionalized, when a community suffered a 
natural disaster, people would come together and 
find ways to address the situation.  This is not to 
say that addressing the physical needs of a 
community in the aftermath of a natural disaster 
is not important; however, it is equally essential to 
help a community find its voice and use the 
internal resources it has at its disposal. Circles can 
provide that space. 

Trusting in the circle process 

One of the things ALG found in working with the 
communities affected by the eruption of the 
Volcán de Fuego is that trauma could prevent 
them from expressing their feelings openly.  
However, trusting the circle process has been key. 
As previously described, ALG staff members had 
to let go of any expectations they had for the circle 
process. To their surprise, even though it 
sometimes felt like the participants were not fully 
engaged, they later demonstrated that the circle 
had influenced the way they related to one 
another.  This was especially visible by the way the 
community members continued to use circles on 
their own. 

CONCLUSIONS 

“Helping” or “fixing” approaches as responses to 
natural disasters are limiting.  They do not 
empower communities or attend to emotional and 
spiritual needs.  Circles, on the other hand, place 
the wisdom of the community front and center.  
This requires facilitators to adopt a humble 
stance, one where they are accompanying the 
process rather than being protagonists. This 
stance contributes to the empowerment and 
healing of communities affected by natural 
disaster.  

“Helping” or “fixing” approaches as 
responses to natural disasters are 

limiting.  They do not empower 
communities or attend to emotional and 

spiritual needs. 

ENGAGE! 16 VOL. 1, ISSUE 3



COMMUNITY ENGAGED RESEARCH: PEACE & JUSTICE TELLO | USING CIRCLES TO COPE 

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