Covenant House Newsroom

March is Women's History Month, and Covenant House celebrates by amplifying women’s voices and reflections, celebrating female empowerment and leadership, and recognizing our leaders in the Covenant House community, volunteers, and our partner organizations. Women like Grace Bonilla, senior vice president of Covenant House Latin America, who has dedicated her career to empowering children and young families to reach the great promise of their lives.

On February 10, 2021, Marvin Yovany Gaspar Delagado was convicted for rape and aggravated assault and sentenced to 14 years in prison without parole in San Marcos, Guatemala.

He was convicted of sexually and psychologically abusing a 12-year-old girl.

La Alianza, our Covenant House program in Guatemala, participated as a plaintiff and provided legal support for the amazing, resilient young survivor of this horrific crime.

“Tragically, we see a lot of cases of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse of young girls,” says Grace Bonilla, senior vice president of Covenant House Latin America. “Too often, traffickers prey on the most vulnerable, and too often these criminals have no fear of any legal consequences.  

“The fact that there was a conviction in this case is the exception, not the rule,” says Grace.“ As incredible as it may seem in 2021, the system in Guatemala and throughout Latin America generally does not value women’s rights, and indigenous young girls are the most vulnerable to labor and sex trafficking.”

Grace says that another reason for the lack of convictions is fear.

“The fear of retribution from the gangs and the trafficking rings is real. And so the convictions we do get tend to be against the perpetrators but not against the larger system.”

Grace has dedicated her career to providing services to youth and families. Before leading our Covenant House efforts in Latin America, she served as the administrator for NYC’s Department of Social Services/HRA, where she ran the largest social services agency in the country, with three million clients.  

Most recently, Grace was the founding executive director for New York City’s Racial Inclusion and Diversity Task Force created as a response to COVID-19. Prior to that she was the president and chief executive officer of The Committee for Hispanic Children & Families, Inc., where she worked to advance the educational attainment and rights of family child care providers, worked with schools to close the education gap for children in schools that were under-resourced, and played a key role in NYC’s roll out of universal pre-kindergarten.

“I came to Covenant House because this is such a powerful human rights movement and we have an opportunity to make systemic change in the lives of young girls in Latin America, who are being denied the most basic human rights,” says Grace. “Each of the Latin American countries where Covenant House provides services has unique and extreme challenges where the root cause is poverty. Honduras is one of the most dangerous places for children in the region, and Guatemala has one of the highest murder rates for women and young girls in the world. 

“I have spent my career working on programs to fight poverty so that the next generation can have a chance at a life free from the food insecurity and lack of education that leads to the terror and abuse that so many of our young people in Latin America face every day,” says Grace. “Covenant House has not shied away from these seemingly insurmountable issues, and we truly are a beacon of hope in the region.

“A  young girl’s access to basic needs, an education, and freedom from violence is not altruistic,” says Grace. “It is essential to the security and progress of our entire society. The future of each young girl and family is tied to our own. Ensuring access to education for young women is critical to changing the paradigm that is making so many vulnerable to the current violence we are up against.

“What I love about the Covenant House community is that we foster the values of absolute respect and unconditional love,” says Grace. “That means respecting the agency that each of us has, seeing our humanity, and ensuring that, no matter your gender, we provide a sense of belonging. Covenant House is a place where women empower the next generation of women by providing them a place to heal, get justice, and have the agency to rewrite their future. I can’t think of a more important mission than this.”