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Malnutrition in the Dry Corridor of Guatemala
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A community's struggle for survival
19th May 2010
Dona Victoria Garcia at her home, high in the mountains above Suchiquer village. Poverty, lack of access to health care and economic marginalisation have contributed some of the highest chronic malnutrition rates worldwide.
Suchiquer is a small farming village close to the border between Guatemala and Honduras. ACF works with people such as Dona Victoria to address the impact of increasingly unpredictable weather patterns on small farming communities.
Two thirds of arable land is devoted to export cropping while subsistence farmers share just a fifth of existing farmland, often on the least productive soil, to make a living.
Subsistence farmers have no choice but to find cash labor in the lower plains, far away from their families. Working conditions for day labourers are often demanding, whilst resultant income levels are limited.
Dona Pula Gutierrez Amador’s daughter Norma weighed just 6.7kg at 18 months old, the normal weight of a three month old baby in the UK. Norma was admitted to the Nutrition Recovery Centre in Jocotan where she is receiving treatment and 24 hour care.
Women weave mats from straw to earn an income. However, the returns are very small, providing a family with just one to two kilos of beans or rice per week.
“This is not the first time my children go hungry,” says Dona Pula. “Times are particularly difficult from May to August because we have no money and food is too expensive. Often, all I can give to my children is a tortilla with salt.”
Providing farmers with cash during these difficult months is crucial. Action Against Hunger provides seasonal paid work to vulnerable families who help improve the infrastructure of the village, with roads and irrigation.
Copyright ACF, courtesy S. Hauenstein Swan
Dona Victoria Garcia is smiling shyly when we arrive at her home. Located remotely, high up in the mountains above Suchiquer village, she lives with her husband, two sisters and nephews.
Suchiquer is a small farming village close to the border between Guatemala and Honduras. Action Against Hunger works with people such as Dona Victoria in this isolated region to address the impact of increasingly unpredictable weather patterns on small farming communities.
Dona Victoria knows the dangers of hunger only too well. Last May, she gave birth to her son, just before the planting season began. After a long and difficult labor in tropical conditions, she had very little strength left. As a result, she was not able to breastfeed and without access to vital nutrients her baby died before being officially named, only two months after he was born.
Malnutrition: A disease with many causes
Guatemala has one of the most unjust systems of land ownership in the world. According to research undertaken by the Ministry of Agriculture in 1998 only 15 percent of the population owned 70 percent of the country’s farmland. As a result small farmers are pushed higher into the mountains, where it is difficult to cultivate crops due to the dry and rocky land.
A recent study carried out by Action Against Hunger | ACF International found a chronic malnutrition rate of 60.5% and severe growth stunting of 26.4% in the Dry Mountain area.
These rates are amongst the highest worldwide. Action Against Hunger is supporting communities and small farmers to reinforce their agricultural capacities reverse their economic disadvantages.
The hunger season
The most severe time of year for Dona Victoria and her is between May and August. This is the hunger season. During these months food prices are extremely high and merchants cease trading in the village because people cannot afford to buy their goods. As a result villagers have to walk for two hours or more to the city of Jocotan, where they pay double the normal price for maize.
Dona Victoria states that “We usually have very little to eat during these months. Hunger settles into all homes in our village.”
Times have also been extremely difficult for another family in the Suchiquer community - Dona Pula Gutierrez Amador and her daughter Norma. At eighteen months old, Norma weighs just 6.7kg, the normal weight of a three month old baby in the UK. Luckily, Norma was admitted to the Nutrition Recovery Centre in Jocotan where she is receiving treatment and 24 hour care until her health is restored.
“This is not the first time my children will go hungry,” says Dona Pula. “Times are particularly difficult from May to August because we have no money and food is too expensive. Often, all I can give to my children is a tortilla with salt.”
Last year’s dry season was particular difficult and the corn prices rose dramatically. An Action Against Hunger survey found that harvests in 2010 were reduced by 60 percent.
Action Against Hunger’s nutritionists are working with the Ministry of Health to provide life-saving help to treat malnourished children and train community volunteers on detecting, treating and preventing malnutrition.
Supporting farmers, saving lives
Providing farmers with cash during these difficult months is crucial. Action Against Hunger provides seasonal paid work to vulnerable families, offering small farming communities some stability.
Action Against Hunger has also come up with a unique method to help give farmers a voice. In Sitios Centinela, village committees have been set up to monitor malnutrition and hunger to allow experts to understand the needs of local communities, raise the alarm when communities are overstretched and give policy makers the evidence to put support mechanisms in place. These committees, spread all over the south east of Guatemala, enables communities, the government and NGOs to join forces to stop premature child death from malnutrition.
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