Nutrition for Prosperity
Chronic child malnutrition is one of the main problems in Guatemala, which according to the Secretary of Nutritional Food Security (SESAN due to its acronym in Spanish), affects 49.8% of children under 5 years of age all across the country. This directly affects the human and economic development of the country.
The chronic malnutrition rates are higher in the Guatemalan highlands, among them, the Huehuetenango territorial division. This is why seven communities of the Chiantla municipality were chosen to implement the “Nutrition for Prosperity” project, where chronic malnutrition reaches 74% of children under 5 years of age. The project has run since May 2022 in alliance with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), through its implementing associate “Partner to the Americas”.
The objective of “Nutrition for Prosperity” is to contribute to the reduction of chronic malnutrition in children under the age of 5, as well as in pregnant mothers in the communities being helped. At the same time, the program seeks for the supported families to gain resources from the excess of goat milk produced at home, and therefore promote small entrepreneurships.
“Nutrition for Prosperity” has four axis:
1) Training of people in the supported homes, particularly women, community leaders, farmers, and health promoters.
2) Provision of goats, chickens, crops, and compost heaps, as well as other small farming assets, with the objective of ensuring the availability of food in homes.
3) Provision of improved stoves and sheep folds for beneficiary homes, which will result in better practices of health, hygiene, consumption of clean water and food in the home; and in better handling and raising of domestic animals.
4) Development and construction of a Caprine Center, which will seek to improve caprine genetics in Huehuetenango, with the goal of reducing chronic malnutrition through the consumption of goat milk. At the same time, it will help promote small entrepreneurships in the region.
The seven communities that are part of the project are: Chochal, Potreros, Los Hernández, Cinco Arrollos, Los Gregorios, Los Mecates, and Ixcamal, all located in the middle basin of the Chiantla Municipality, the source of the Selegua River.
