MARILY: "IT IS VERY SAD TO SEE THE SIGNIFICANT IMPACT THAT MALNUTRITION HAS ON CHILDREN'S DEVELOPMENT"
Guatemala is currently experiencing one of the worst droughts in the world. The drought caused by El Niño, together with losses caused by coffee rust, has led to a decrease in agricultural production, affecting the main source of income for families along Guatemala's Dry Corridor.
Most smallholder farmers have lost 75-100% of their crops; as a result, the food security of vulnerable populations has severely deteriorated and they are living at subsistence levels.
Marily, 23, is seven months pregnant and works as a nursing assistant in San Miguel, in the Chiquimula region. When Marily was diagnosed with a high-risk pregnancy, her employer (the government) did not grant her maternity leave until the day she gave birth. "After a caesarean section, you have maybe a month to recover."
She wakes up every morning at 5 a.m. and walks to work at dawn, carrying a small cooler loaded with vaccines along a winding road running up and downhill until she reaches the pick-up point. After a half-hour bumpy ride on a dirt road up the mountain, Marily and two other nurses arrive in San Miguel, heading for the health centre where they work. The centre in San Miguel is a simple shed where they provide daily care to the indigenous Maya Chortí population, who live in extreme poverty and would otherwise be unable to access basic medical care.
Marily does not cease striving to help those most in need. "It is very sad to see the significant impact that malnutrition has on the development of children and even on the development of my country, as this disease reduces the intellectual, learning and productive capacity of the new generations," explains Marily. In fact, 73 per cent of Guatemala's entire population has no health coverage and 53 per cent have insufficient income to cover their nutritional needs.
Action Against Hunger programmes in the Dry Corridor focus on providing food assistance to families in crisis situations, especially during the critical months known as the "hunger gap" or "hunger season", which runs from May to August. In addition, it seeks to strengthen key local actors in the area.
"That's why the collaboration between the government and Action Against Hunger is so important: together we coordinate actions to guide food and nutrition strategies in the most vulnerable sectors," says Marily.
Food assistance takes the form of cash transfers distributed in three payments throughout the lean season, depending on the size of each household. After each disbursement of funds, monitoring is carried out to assess the impact of the aid on food access and consumption indicators.
Similarly, in the Chiquimula region, a screening programme is being implemented to identify chronically malnourished children and under-fives with acute malnutrition. Detected cases are referred to the appropriate health centre, where continuous monitoring is carried out to ensure adequate follow-up.
