Fight Rising Malnutrition in Rural Guatemala

Dear Friends,

Healthy, Happy Babies! We have been working nonstop to transform the future, one baby at a time!

The reality that Guatemala has the highest level of childhood malnutrition in this hemisphere, 4^th in the world is shocking and horrifying. At this moment, so many babies do not have adequate nutrition to grow and thrive, leaving the children stunted, or short short in stature for their age. This translates into children who appear to be 5 but are actually 7 or 8 years old.

You can see our exciting malnutrition program at work by empowered women in our communities!

It is not the short stature specifically that we are worried about, it is the fact that the loss of these inches directly correlates to lower IQ, it means slower development and missing milestones as an infant and toddler, milestones that I look for in my own daughters ages 4 and 1. Malnourished children will be slower to walk, slower to talk and to read. They will have difficulty focusing in school resulting in a much lower life long income earning potential. These children will never reach the potential that so many of us take for granted in our own children.

But there is incredible Hope and Success! 

With your help and support, we at Maya Health Alliance - Wuqu' Kawoq, have created a mobile primary health care system that saves lives through excellence and quality.  Our nutrition program places baby and mom as critical actors to changing the future of Guatemala. Our Child Nutrition program provides universal nutritional and micronutrient supplementation to all children from 6 months of age onward and to all pregnant and lactating women. We also focus on educating child caregivers about breastfeeding, complementary foods, common childhood illnesses, hygiene and clean water through our community-based nutrition education classes. Additionally, the foundation for all of our nutrition programs is the provision of good primary care for children. Children with complex needs are immediately referred to our surgical or special needs programs.

We have helped over 2000 children this year and educated 500 mothers on Nutrition and Women's Health topics. I wanted to share these very exciting successes with you.

See our nutrition research here!

We are working to #EndMalnutrition and #GrowGuatemala to transform the future of Guatemala. Thank you for your continued support of our work.

With gratitude,
Anne Kraemer Diaz
Executive Director