Fight Child Malnutrition in Rural Guatemala

Two years ago we expanded our School Nutrition project to a primary school in Chacayá, a nearby community that struggles with high rates of malnutrition and food insecurity. We could do this only thanks to your support. Since it began in 2006, the project has provided daily, hot lunches to hundreds of students in Santiago Atitlán, and we hoped that our support would serve as a starting point for a healthier community in Chacayá.

We soon began to see the unhealthy cooking conditions commonly found in rural communities appearing in the Chacayá school kitchen. Mothers who took turns cooking for students had to use inefficient wood-stoves in cramped spaces with poor ventilation. To make matters worse, they often brought their pre-school children into the kitchen to keep an eye on them. It was clear that mothers and children were being exposed to unhealthy amounts of smoke, risking serious respiratory illnesses.

But here’s the good news! Early this year, once we received enough support from donors like you, we were able to improve the efficiency and design of the cooking stove. To help us, a group of Guatemalan soon-to-be graduates from a local high school donated matching funds to renovate the school kitchen! 

Mothers, children, and teachers expect to have a fully renovated kitchen in just a few days! New stoves will produce less smoke and use smaller quantities of firewood. Mothers will have access to more space. And the air quality in the kitchen will be greatly improved.  

We want to take this opportunity to extend our sincere thanks for everything you do. Your contributions have produced a permanent increase in quality of life for mothers and students in Chacayá and enabled this little community to overcome a big hurdle in its path towards food security and improved health.