Guatemala
Overview
Información en Español
Save the Children in Guatemala
Save the Children opened its offices in Guatemala in 1999, three years after the Peace Accords were signed, ending 36 years of a brutal civil war. Since that time, Save the Children has been helping poor populations to overcome the impact of that civil conflict through integrated programming in education, health, nutrition, asset growth and protection, livelihoods, disaster risk reduction, natural resource management and democracy and governance. By targeting its resources on development programming for rural, poor, and indigenous populations in three departments of the western highlands of Guatemala – Quiché, Huehuetenango, and Sololá - Save the Children is providing children and their families with the skills, knowledge, tools, and opportunities they need in order to lead more healthy, informed, and productive lives.
When disaster strikes, as happened with Hurricanes Mitch and Stan, Save the Children responds immediately to provide disaster affected children and their families with essential food and non-food items, safe spaces, medical attention, education and livelihood support services they need in order reestablish their lives quickly.
Challenges for Children
Guatemala has highest rate of chronic malnutrition in children under five in all of Latin America. While the national under five chronic malnutrition rate lies at approximately 49%, rates in Save the Children target areas reach as high as 78%.
These rates are alarming considering that chronic malnutrition is highest among indigenous populations, as is linked to stunted physical and mental development, contributes to poor educational outcomes, and limits income generation potential due to illness and decreased intellectual capacity. In rural Guatemala, many children (particularly girls) do not complete their basic education, speak only their native Mayan language, and grow up functionally illiterate. Adolescent females marry as young as 12 years of age and have an average of seven children. All of these factors serve to reinforce the vicious cycle of poverty unless investments are made in children at a very early age.
Numbers at a Glance
- The average woman in Guatemala gives birth to four children. For indigenous populations in Save the Children target areas, the average is almost 10.
- 68 percent of indigenous women in Guatemala are illiterate.
- 46 percent of the Guatemalan population is chronically malnourished. For children of indigenous families, the rate is almost 80 percent.
- 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.
Our Response:
Education
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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. |
Save the Children works alongside community and national stakeholders to increase access to quality early child development and bilingual, multicultural education across almost 80 communities in the Departments of Quiche, Huehuetenango and Sololá. Save the Children promotes early childhood development training for parents and activities for teachers, targeted school health and nutrition strategies for creating healthier learning environments, child sponsorship, youth financial literacy, and the promotion of learner-centered teaching methodologies that ease children's transitions to formal education while celebrating their cultural heritage and individual learning styles. Working at the preschool, primary school and secondary school levels, Save the Children works with parents, teachers, and community leaders to build their capacities to actively support their children's and student's educational achievement and to promote regular school attendance and completion. In 2008, Save the Children benefited an estimated 25,000 children and 15,000 parents, teachers, and community leaders, in largely coffee growing areas, with its education promotion activities in Guatemala.
Livelihoods
Save the Children is dedicated to ensuring children thrive in food secure and economically viable households. We target economically vulnerable households with improved access to financial services, market opportunities, the promotion of sustainable agricultural production practices, improved animal husbandry techniques, and the improved management of natural resources. Reinforcing these strategies is our work with community development committees and local and national government leaders to ensure that local development decisions are made in an open and transparent manner, providing all members of the community with a voice to present their opinions and ideas in public fora. In 2008, Save the Children reached an estimated 100,000 children and adults with its integrated livelihood programming in Guatemala.
Health and Nutrition
Save the Children's health programs in Guatemala focus on maternal and neonatal health and nutrition, sexual and reproductive health, and child survival strategies. We focus on improving rural household access to quality health and nutrition services and information, improving caregiver knowledge and skills in such areas as prenatal care, exclusive breastfeeding and appropriate complimentary feeding, and supporting the Ministry of Health in its management of common, yet deadly childhood illnesses (such as pneumonia, diarrhea, and malaria) at the rural community level. Save the Children also works with adolescents and adults of reproductive age to increase their capacity to make informed decisions about their bodies and their lives through sexual and reproductive health information and services. In 2008, Save the Children reached an estimated 110,000 children and adults with its integrated programming in health and nutrition in Guatemala.
Disaster Risk Reduction and Response
Save the Children is an immediate responder in times of emergency. Within 72 hours, Save the Children aims to provide life saving assistance to disaster affected populations in the form of food, water, medicine, and essential non-food items such as blankets, plastic for shelter, and chlorine tablets for water disinfection.
Our staff is trained how to protect children during emergencies, how to quickly organize and operate Child Friendly Spaces and temporary schools in emergencies, as well as emergency distribution with the goal of returning children and their families to normalcy as quickly and smoothly as possible. The Country Office has a variety of pre-positioned supplies and resources available to facilitate a quick response. As with its response to Hurricane Stan (2005), Save the Children worked with the most affected communities in the Lake Atitlán area of the Department of Sololá to recover their lives and to invest in the futures of their children.
Save the Children's Disaster Risk Reduction and Response strategy forms an integral part of its livelihood programming. As part of this strategy, Save the Children staff lead community members through a process whereby they assess their current and future risk of disaster, develop community emergency response action plans and implement mitigation measures for possible disaster scenarios. Save the Children collaborates with local and national stakeholders to strengthen community capacity and mobilize around collective decision making.
Plans for the Future
In Guatemala, Save the Children will continue to target the poorest of the indigenous communities focusing on improving rural access to high quality education, health, nutrition, and reproductive health services and information, the application of sustainable livelihood strategies, and the integration of child protection norms into community and government decision making. The Guatemala Country Office will continue to advance Save the Children’s Rewrite the Future agenda for increasing child access to education, Survive to Five campaign for increasing child survival rates, as well as replicating innovative program project models, including Community Case Management of Childhood Illnesses.
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.”
