Fight Rising Malnutrition in Rural Guatemala

Around the world, people who speak indigenous languages have worse health outcomes.

This is especially true in Guatemala, where half of the population speaks one of 22 Mayan languages, but most health care is delivered in Spanish. We believe that everyone should have access to quality health care in their own language; this commitment is at the core of all that we do. That’s why our nutrition team members come from and speak the languages of the communities they serve.

During the pandemic, we have developed dozens of video, radio, and social media educational messages about Covid in the Mayan languages of K’iche, Tz’utujil, Kaqchikel, Mam, Q’eqchi, Q’anjob’al and Ixil. These messages, which cover everything from how to quarantine in close quarters to vaccine safety, reach millions of people daily.

At the same time, our team takes every opportunity to offer personalized information one-on-one, including during the hundreds of nutrition visits that we make each year. This video shows one of our community health workers speaking about Covid prevention in K’iche with Doña Apolonia, a jocote farmer who lives in the community of Paquip, Chimaltenango. Following the conversation, Doña Apolonia decided to start using a mask, and she shared her new understanding of Covid prevention with a friend using a K’iche handout.

With omnicron and other Covid variants still surging in Guatemala, providing reliable health information from trusted sources in Mayan languages is truly life-saving. Thank you for making this work possible!

Links:

• Visit our website.