Guatemala
Overview
Información en Español
Save the Children in Guatemala
In 1999, three years after the signing of peace accords, Save the Children launched initiatives to help improve the lives of children and families in conflict-affected regions where little or no development had taken place for several decades. Today we work primarily in rural indigenous communities of the western highlands. Our programs focus on education, hunger and malnutrition, emergency preparedness and child and reproductive health. In October 2005, following Hurricane Stan, we addressed the needs of girls and boys in three of the hardest-hit municipalities in Guatemala—Santiago, San Lucas Toliman, and Patulul.
Challenges for Children
Guatemala has Latin America’s highest percentage (48.7 percent) of children under the age of 5 who suffer from chronic malnutrition. Of this group, 70 percent are located in the western highlands. Many of the indigenous Mayan children there, especially girls, do not complete more than a few years of primary school. Adolescents often marry at a young age and tend to have large families. Some children and their families are still struggling to recover from Hurricane Stan, which destroyed nearly 10,000 homes.
Numbers at a Glance
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68 percent of indigenous women in Guatemala are illiterate
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23 percent of the Guatemalan population is undernourished – more than the total population of Vermont, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.
Our Response:
Education
Save the Children works to increase access to quality early child development and pre-primary, primary and secondary education in 80 schools in the Departments of Quiche, Huehuetenango and Sololá. Children in these places are among the poorest and most marginalized in Guatemala. We use teaching methodologies that promote Mayan culture and offer teachers, school administrators and members of school boards the skills they need to strengthen their educational and organizational capacities. Save the Children also refurbishes and equips schools with educational materials and encourages parents to become more involved in their children’s education.
Hunger and Malnutrition
Save the Children is aiming to reduce hunger and malnutrition among 11,300 families over the next five years, with special emphasis on reaching pregnant and lactating women and children under age 3. The availability of food in the Department of Quiche is a constant concern of many families due to its post-war environment, isolation, social exclusion and lack of investment. We also address immediate food needs by distributing food aid, while stimulating community participation.
Health
Save the Children’s health programs in Guatemala focus on neonatal, maternal and adolescent reproductive health. Our Saving Newborn Lives program promotes the use of low-tech, low-cost health interventions to address a very high newborn mortality rate, including tetanus immunizations for pregnant women, clean delivery, exclusive breastfeeding and antibiotics for infections. Joven Saludable (Healthy Youth) is our health initiative in Quiche’s Ixil Region, where adolescents marry as young as 14 years of age and women may have up to eight children. The program educates youth on sexual and reproductive health and helps them develop life skills so that they can seek alternatives to early marriage and childbirth.
Emergency Preparedness
When Hurricane Stan struck Guatemala three years ago, Save the Children responded immediately by distributing food, medicine, blankets, toys and recreational equipment to children and families. We also provided health and hygiene kits to emergency shelters and families and established safe-play spaces and child-protection centers. Short-term goals that were met involved training teachers, parents and volunteers on children’s psychosocial issues, training health promoters on health and hygiene and improving livelihood opportunities for those affected by the hurricane. To meet children’s long-term health needs and well-being, we helped repair damaged homes and water systems.
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A portrait of friends, 10-year-old Felciana and 12-year-old Catarina on the mountainside where their families participate in the Save the Children Guatemala agriculture program. |
Plans for the Future
Save the Children will continue providing food to vulnerable children and families and strengthening our health programs for newborns, youth and adolescents. We are also planning to expand our education program to include fourth-graders and to promote intercultural bilingual education. Save the Children will also improve emergency preparedness and response measures to ensure that we are positioned to respond to future crises with timely food assistance, health and hygiene, education and psychosocial interventions.
A Success Story
In Laguneta Polajá, a rural village in the Department of Huehuetenango in the western highlands of Guatemala, Save the Children supports the local school to help increase the enrollment of children from indigenous communities in quality pre-primary, primary and secondary schools.
Six-year-old Catarina is a student at the local school and is guided by her teacher, whom she calls "Seño Margarita." With support from Save the Children, Margarita learned how to set up learning centers where small groups of children learn basic reading, writing and math. When Catarina first came to school, she was a "very timid girl" says Margarita. "She didn't want to participate and spoke very little." Catarina quickly became enthusiastic about participating in the learning centers and gained enough confidence to participate in the classroom.
Catarina has become a leader in her class and because of her ability to lead was elected Pre-Primary President and now is a positive role model for other girls in her group.
Catarina says “Here I feel very happy to be in school. My classroom is very pretty. My friends are always happy because there are a lot of games. We plan and learn together. The teacher takes us outside to work. We play games and run and talk with other children. I also paint and draw with my friends. I like to make music on the drums and marimbas. I like it when everyone participates and that’s why I like to help everyone else.”
