Fight Rising Malnutrition in Rural Guatemala
About
Guatemala has one of highest rates of child malnutrition in the world. Covid, climate change, and global inflation are adding to the problem. Working with community health workers and moms, we combat child malnutrition in rural Maya communities during the critical early years with education, monitoring, and treatment. This saves lives and offers better futures for the children spared from malnutrition, which is linked with future health problems and diminished success in school and work.
Need
Indigenous Maya in rural Guatemala confront a variety of barriers to accessing health care, which especially impact children. More than 80% of children these rural communities are chronically malnourished or stunted. The COVID pandemic, inflation, and climate change have magnified these problems. This project supports our work partnering with families to treat and prevent stunting for children under 2.5 years of age in some of Guatemala's most vulnerable communities.
Long term impact
With early detection and treatment of stunting, children are given the chance to grow to their full potential. Treatment of stunting also positively impacts school performance and economic and work opportunities in adulthood. In communities where we work, we have seen reductions in malnutrition from 20-40%.
About the Organization
Led by indigenous health workers, Wuqu' Kawoq delivers comprehensive, high-quality, culturally competent care and research to transform health in rural Guatemala. Although almost half of all Guatemalans speak a Mayan language, most health care is delivered in Spanish. Many indigenous Maya people also confront discrimination, cost, and transportation barriers to accessing quality health care. The result is a range of substantial health disparities. For instance, while 46% of children in Guatemala suffer from chronic malnutrition, that rate exceeds 70% in many rural, indigenous communities. Founded in 2007, Wuqu' Kawoq (also known as Maya Health Alliance) is a community-based organization dedicated to breaking down barriers to health for all Guatemalans. We advance lasting changes in healthcare delivery across rural Guatemala so that high-quality care, health, and well-being are within reach for everyone. We serve 11,000 patients annually and are one of the only organizations in Guatemala providing comprehensive healthcare in indigenous Mayan languages. More than 90% of our staff are women, and 84% are indigenous. We are a recognized leader in the fields of rural health and implementation science and continuously evaluate our programs for opportunities to improve care and delivery. We also work for systems-level change in collaboration with a variety of government and nonprofit partners. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to achieve the best possible health, no matter where they were born or what language they speak.
EIN
GlobalGiving Categories:
- Physical Health
- Food Security
Total Goal
Remaining Goal
What is a Project?
Domestic and international programs and services housed within organizations, addressing specific needs of community groups.