lunes, 10 de octubre de 2011

"Obama Initiative Targets Malnutrition in Guatemala"


October 10th, 2011

"Obama Initiative Targets Malnutrition in Guatemala"

**Proud to be a Healthy Homes Peace Corps Volunteer in El Quiche, Guatemala.** Click the tlink above to read the complete article. Following are certain quotes from the article and my experiences.

 "High in the mountains, a narrow and practically impassable mud trail leads to the dirt-floor shack where Isabella Hernandez is rhythmically patting tortillas, the main source of sustenance for her nine children."
        Practically impassable mud trails..La Primavera (the village I work in) only has 2 main dirt roads in which only maybe 5% of the houses can be accessed from. To get to houses we travel through the milpa (cornfields), other peoples' homes, over rocks in creeks that serve as bridges, and occasionally have to make our own paths to find houses. AKA, When I need to leave the central part of the village, I must always travel with one of the alcalde auxiliares (assistant mayors) since they know the land and I would clearly get lost and never return.

 "GHI is targeting Mayan women and children in the mostly indigenous Western Highlands, a mountainous area with a single maize harvest per year. The strategy’s cornerstone is reducing one of the highest rates of chronic malnutrition in the world. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, only Afghanistan and Yemen fare worse. Half of all Guatemalan children under 5 are stunted and in the Western Highlands, it's 7  out of 10."
        Healthy Homes Peace Corps Volunteers (the project I am in) are all located in the Western Highlands of Guatemala including El Quiche, Totonicipan, Huehuetenango, and Quetzeltenango. A major part of our work is to educate these rural families on the importance of nutrition including the different food groups, balanced nutrition, what exactly is malnutrition and how to recover from it. Some volunteers have cooking groups where they teach a lesson on nutrition then make a proper meal with them. Most meals in these areas include mainly carbohydrates such as tortillas, tomalitos, or rice with a handful of beans.  The mother of one of the girls in my girls' group invited me to lunch a few weeks ago.  We ate tomalitos (which is basically compressed corn grains) with about a handful of peas.  It was delicious and I was extremely appreciative for their hospitality, but I couldn't ignore the lasting hunger I left with. It deeply saddened me to realize this is a normal lunch for them as they quickly got up from the table ready to play a game of soccer.
        I also want to mention there are 7 children living in the household - ages 3, 5, 9, 11, 13, 14, and 16.  The mother sleeps in a full size bed with the 3 and 5 year old, the 3 girls (ages 9, 13, and 14) sleep together in one full size bed, and the two boys ages 11 and 16 each have a twin size bed. The father works in the capital and only returns once every 3 months.

 "It is ranked 13th among the nations with the greatest level of income inequality, according to the United Nations Development Program. A semi-feudal society, 2 percent of the population owns about 70 percent of productive land. "
        This is an incredible fact that can't be ignored. The difference in income is evident here. My municipality is only 15 minutes from the city of Santa Cruz, El Quiche and my aldea (village) that I work in is maybe 30 minutes away. I have described the living situations of La Primavera. Only 30 minutes away is the city where Dominos, Pollo Campero, hotels, a laundromat and a gym exist. One home I entered there has a washing machine, a television with cable and even a wii. Clearly far from the living conditions of their indigenous neighbors only 15 km up the highway.

 "They predominantly speak one of 24 Mayan languages. High illiteracy rates and traditional Mayan beliefs further complicate health efforts. "
        The language in our village is K'iche in which 99% of the population speaks. The mayor of our town is illiterate and truly struggles with Spanish.  Also, the doctor and assistance nurse in our health center do not speak K'iche; therefore, if the main assistance nurse who can speak K'iche is not in the health center, it is a struggle to give the correct medicine. Clearly for a country the size of Tennessee to have 24 languages it's inevitable it's going to have communication problems.

 "El Quiche is one of Guatemala’s poorest and most populous states, indelibly stained by the civil war. Of the indigenous civilians killed during the civil war, eighty-three percent of all identifiable victims were Mayans from this mountainous region. "

 "Faced with finite resources, protein and vegetable consumption is virtually non-existent among Mayan families. More than a fifth of all Guatemalan pregnant mothers have anemia, which is caused by a lack of iron and increases the risk of hemorrhage and the chances that infants will be born underweight and suffer cognitive impairment."
        Luckily, La Primavera does have a market on Sundays, however this is the only day available to buy meat. And, since refrigerators are extremely rare (I don’t even own a refri), they may only eat meat once a week, and even that is rare.

 "An extra dollar per month in a Guatemalan mother's hands achieves the same weight gain in a child as roughly 14 times more earned by the father, according to the Population Council, an international non-profit."

 "USAID is also teaching communities how to organize to demand potable water from local governments. In rural communities, access to safe drinking water is scarce."
        Our school does not have running water. Therefore, kids must carry a 2L bottle of water each day to school. Every morning on the side of the highway on my way to my aldea, I see little 7 year olds carrying apparently huge looking bottles (2L in their tiny hands appear large), to their schools as well.

 "Many health workers haven’t been paid in months and in some areas medical supplies simply stopped arriving."
        One nurse at our health center did not receive a paycheck for 3 months. Also, actually having certain types of medicine at our health center has been rare. Since I arrived 2 months ago we did not have pain medicine, anti-inflammatories, or antibiotics up until about 2 weeks ago.

 "One of the biggest sources of help to Hernandez have been Peace Corps volunteers, who built her a stove so she no longer cooks on open fire. "
        This is part of the Healthy Homes framework. In our second year, we hope to build infrastructure projects such as improved stoves, latrines, or cement floors.

**This entire article really hit home after reading it. Throughout all of our doubts, worries, sicknesses as PCVs, there is a higher reason we're here. Our colds, GI issues, bug bites, are all only temporary. But, hopefully the impact we can make on our communities will be forever.**