Guatemala

Extreme poverty, malnutrition and poor sanitation impact Guatemala

According to the U.S. Agency for International Development an estimated 58 percent of Guatemalans live in poverty. Infant and maternal mortality rates among these groups are alarmingly high. Chronic malnutrition in children under the age of five years ranks as the highest in the Western Hemisphere. Less than half of Guatemala's rural residents have access to running water, a quarter have electricity at home and less than 10 percent have modern sanitary facilities. Dental decay is also a serious problem for many Guatemalans because access to dental care is limited and in the rural areas, nonexistent.

Our work in Guatemala

In July 2008, Medical Teams International established a community health and nutrition project in partnership with Food for the Hungry. The project aims to advance the physical, social, emotional and spiritual health of families in the San Juan Chamelco municipality by improving:

• Household health practices and access to community health services
• Community water and sanitation services
• Food production and marketing practices
• Capacity of community and church leaders to better plan and implement development projects within their communities

This year, we will support community based maternal and child health programs in 22 communities in the municipality of San Juan Chamelco, Alta Verapaz. Additionally, Medical Teams International will send $500,000 of medical supplies, equipment and pharmaceuticals to help supply rural health posts throughout the department of Alta Verapaz. Through our programs, Medical Teams International will improve the health of more than 60,000 Guatemalans this year.

Additionally, Medical Teams International will send 27 volunteer teams to support our work in San Juan Chamelco and to support the work of our partners, Food for the Hungry, Agros and Mercy Corps. Teams will focus on health and dental education and treatment, and work projects. Volunteers participating on work teams will contribute to community health through the construction of indoor cook stoves, water sanitation systems, reforestation of micro-watersheds, construction of community health centers and construction of sanitary latrines.

Our partners in Guatemala

Medical Teams International-Guatemala was established in 2009 and is currently supporting community based maternal and child health programs aimed at reducing malnutrition of children under five, improving maternal health and reducing basic chronic childhood illnesses including diarrhea and acute respiratory illnesses. Medical Teams International-Guatemala is currently serving over 60,000 people in Alta Verapaz. 

Food for the Hungry began working in Guatemala in 1976. The organization operates innovative development programs in 2 regions and 32 communities, assisting families, leaders and churches in their struggle to overcome poverty.

Mercy Corps programs in Guatemala focus on strengthening the capacity of the indigenous Q'eqchi and Poq'omchi people to monitor their own populations’ health status, resolve land conflicts peacefully, and provide health services through local channels.

Agros International began its programs in Latin America in 1982. Agros has helped families in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Chiapas, Mexico build self-sustaining and thriving communities. Agros works to provide landless, rural, poor families access to agricultural land, long-term credit, and training, so families are able to start, develop and eventually own an economically sustainable village.

Please donate or volunteer to help save lives in Guatemala.