Every girl deserves someone who believes in her before she believes in herself.

In Baja California Sur, that someone is often missing.

BCS has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in all of Mexico — and it's climbing. After-school programming for girls is nearly nonexistent. Mental health support is out of reach. For many young women here, the path forward feels narrow, fixed, and already decided.

We're here to change that.

Meet Sofia.

She's 14. Quiet. The kind of girl who has learned that staying small keeps her safe. She doesn't raise her hand in class. She doesn't take up space. Nobody has ever asked her what she wants to be.

Sofia is not one girl. She's twelve of them. And this summer, they're walking into a horse pen for the first time.

This is Leading the Herd.

Los Sagrados has spent years rescuing abandoned and neglected horses in Baja California Sur — giving them safety, healing, and a second chance. What we discovered along the way changed everything: these horses don't just heal. They teach.

A 1,000-pound animal doesn't respond to performance or pretending. It responds to presence. To breath. To honesty. When a girl who has learned to disappear walks into that pen and a horse mirrors her anxiety back to her — and then, with guidance, she learns to regulate it, to breathe, to lead — something shifts that no classroom can replicate.

That's the program. Twelve girls. Twelve weeks. Weekly after-school sessions and bi-weekly weekend intensives built around emotional resilience, self-confidence, mental health, and leadership — using rescued horses as the teachers.

Here's where we are.

We've raised $19,500 of our $27,500 goal. We need $8,000 more by June 1st to fully fund the pilot.

Every dollar goes directly to the girls and the program. Los Sagrados is 100% volunteer-operated and donor-funded.

Here's where your donation goes:

• $12,500 — program coordinators, horse trainers, counselors, guest speakers, and mentors

• $7,500 — program delivery, including a short documentary film

• $6,000 — safety helmets, boots, tack, art supplies, food, and more

• $1,500 — transportation, because access should never be a barrier

Every dollar goes directly to the girls and the program. We are 100% volunteer-operated and donor-funded.

A note from our founder, Noel Bhavani Cianci:

"Los Sagrados started because I believed every animal deserved a second chance. What I didn't expect was how deeply the horses would give that same gift back — to me, to our volunteers, and now to these girls. Leading the Herd is the most important thing we've ever done. These young women deserve a program that sees them, challenges them, and shows them what they're truly capable of."