In Guatemala, poverty is a serious issue. Chronic malnutrition isn’t just a problem – it’s a way of life for many Guatemalans. Nearly half of the country’s population is chronically malnourished. For children of indigenous families, the rate is almost 80 percent. In fact, Guatemala has the highest rate of chronic malnutrition in children under 5 in all of Latin America. Pneumonia is the leading cause of death in children under 1 year of age and accounts for 50 percent of the deaths of children under 5. As if that weren’t enough, almost 70 percent of the female population is illiterate.

There are many problems facing the people of Guatemala but with the establishment of peace accords in the mid-1990s and the opening of Save the Children’s offices in Guatemala soon thereafter, there came a sliver of hope for countless children and families living in the highlands of this struggling Central American nation. Today, Save the Children’s programs in Guatemala are focused on developing programs for rural, poor, and indigenous populations in three departments of the western highlands of Guatemala – Quiché, Huehuetenango, and Sololá. Save the Children’s health and nutrition programs are making strides each day towards increasing the access of rural households to quality health and nutrition services and information. With the Ministry of Health, we have worked to help manage childhood illnesses such as malaria, diarrhea, and pneumonia – all a considerable danger to Guatemala’s vulnerable toddlers and newborns. We have health workers who visit women during pregnancy to maintain their health and who also visit all the newborns in the area to make sure they are healthy and breastfeeding well. Now that more children are surviving those risky first years, we are also helping them thrive through preschool classes that aid their transition from local, indigenous languages to Spanish in order to ready them for formal education.

Local Stats

1. 458

   Population of Xachmochán Village

2. 80

   Children under age 5

3. 6,700

   Total children throughout program area

4. 41

   Total health workers throughout program area

5. 28

   Babies born last month

6. 22

   Children treated for pneumonia last month

7. 79

   Children treated for diarrhea last month

8. 108

   Newborn/child household visits last month