Lestel Maria Kelly de Perez is the co-founder of Transform Your Own Idea, an Afro-descendent women's group. Transform Your Own Idea fosters cultural wealth and ancestral identity through advocacy, dialogue, knowledge-sharing, and capacity-building. The organization gives women the opportunity to create their own businesses to support themselves and their communities. She currently works at FADCANIC as a municipal coordinator of the project focused on prevention of youth violence and drugs abuse. Lestel holds a Master's Degree in Communication from the Universidad de las Regiones Autónomas de la Costa Atlántica de Nicaragua.