Mental Health Guatemala Project #55663

Help Us Keep 500 Guatemalan Children Healthy!

by El Patojismo

Project Report | Oct 1, 2024
Nutritional Program

By Malu Romero | Teacher

One of our most difficult challenges is to overcome the serious epidemic of malnutrition in Guatemala. According to the World Food Program, almost one half of the population cannot afford basic food. The incidence of stunting (impaired development due to malnutrition) in children under 5 is the highest in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Climate emergencies over the last 3 years have made the situation more dire. With an extended dry season, the production of basic foods has been severely impacted as has the price of these food items for our families.

This is why our nutritional program at our school is so vital. We must continue to educate parents regarding basic nutritional goals in their homes, for their children. We also must supplement all children with healthy snacks and lunches at school. Then they will be alert and ready to learn!

We have been working diligently this school year to improve all aspects of our nutritional program.

At the beginning of every school year we evaluate the weight and height of each student to know their individual needs. We also create menus that provide nutritional support, with more importance to the cases we find with low weight.

One of the most important things for the program is to be able to create an adequate space for each child to have a healthy, nutritious diet from early on and to be able to perform during their educational process during the morning. In the afternoon we deliver a balanced lunch with protein, side dish, tortilla and healthy drink.

This allows us to ensure a guaranteed second meal since in many cases in their homes they can only have 1 or 2 meals due to the number in their families. At the end of the year we carry out a final evaluation and in most cases we manage to increase the weight of the children who have needed support during the year.

We hope, with your help, we can make our Nutritional Program even better in 2025.

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Jun 6, 2024
We continue working for a healthier community!

By Malu Romero | Teacher

We continue working for a healthier community!

FEBRUARY - JUNE 2024

We are able to operate very successfully thanks to your loyal support.

From February, 2024 to today, our school has provided over 7,930 free nutritious meals to our educational community. With the advice and direction of a volunteer nutritionist, our meals are more balanced and healthy. Those children that are underweight are receiving extra food.

We all know a hungry or sick child cannot learn. All our students have access to free medical care in our doctor’s clinic. Dr. Valle has been attending 90 preventive treatments for our students and their families. These patients have ongoing monitoring with the doctor.

We provided informative meetings with the doctor for the children, accompanied by their parents, once a month identifying issues of greatest need. These workshops are essential to keep the parents informed and involved in the health and wellness of their children.

We have attended more than 400 patients in the psychological clinic, our team psychologist has seven interns working with her to accommodate the needs of our students. The psychology team are also working to provide workshops for parents in both schools.

Every day we continue our sports classes with different disciplines and exercises to keep the body moving. Our students participate in soccer, bicycling, basketball, boxing and swimming. Our extensive extra-curricular program includes chess club, debate, computer programming and coding, music, marimba, cooking classes, art classes and barista training. When our students participate in these activities they find their passions and are far more likely to stay in our program and succeed, no matter their challenges.

THE PROGRAMS WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO GIVE OUR STUDENTS WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN THE SAME WITHOUT THE INCREDIBLE SUPPORT WE HAVE RECEIVED FROM OUR DONORS. WE THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS.

MUCHAS GRACIAS!

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Feb 12, 2024
We thank you for your support the last months

By Malu Romero | Teacher

We thank you for your support and donations during the last few months.

Your assistance makes our success possible. Our students returned from vacation in January ( vacations here in Guatemala are from November to mid-January, similar to summer vacation in U.S.A).

To truly understand our children's health needs, we measure their height and weight to assess their needs. Malnutrition is all too common in Guatemala, which can result in children being both underweight and overweight. Some families in our community are suffering economic problems which results in consuming too many carbohydrates, with a diet of mostly beans, rice, and tortillas.

In the Kindergarten group, we discovered that improvements have been made. In January 23, the majority of our new students were underweight. By January 24, the situation has improved, with only 16 students still being underweight. In 1st to 6th grades. we managed to reduce by 28% the number of children that are overweight.

In the elementary school, we have been focusing on food and nutrition, as a hungry child cannot learn. This year we have the support again of a certified nutritionist to evaluate the menus that the students eat every day. After the first results of measuring their height and weight, we met with the kitchen managers, who give us vital support, Dr. Valle our school doctor, and the health/wellness managers so that together we can provide nutritional health to each child, but especially to underweight students. During the year we do this analysis 3 times (January, June and October) to evaluate the success of the process.

For the underweight children, we are providing an extra lunch which they can take home. For those that are overweight, we adjust their portions here in the school, but more importantly, we meet with parents to ensure they understand the importance of balance in the children’s diet.

To ensure we are cooking in the best way possible we installed a new ceramic floor in the kitchen which is more sanitary than the cement floor that we had and we also purchased essential supplies for the kitchen.

We are very proud of our accomplishments in the health and wellness program and we promise to continue to work hard this year for even better results.

Muchas Gracias from the team at El Patojismo, Jocotenango, Guatemala.

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