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Feeding a family, nourishing a community

Guatemala takes a step towards addressing malnutrition

July 19^th, 2017

Feeding a family, nourishing a community

A MOTHER'S WORRY

“These days, families have so many children. And there’s less land available every day. That means fewer crops, less food. I never know if what my children eat is enough or not.”

Marta Ixtós Ajú lives with her husband and children in rural Guatemala. The daily life of her community, the indigenous people of Maya Quiche, revolves around agriculture and trade. Despite this, 1 out of 2 children in the country suffers from malnutrition.

Growing up, she and her family lived through hard times, often going to bed hungry. Now she has children of her own, and she wants to break that cycle – to make sure her kids don’t experience the same suffering.

Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan, where Marta lives, is one of the municipalities in Guatemala with the highest rates of chronic malnutrition. Both population growth and climate change have made the region very food insecure. All along the upper part of the Nahaualate River Basin, rainfall is decreasing; at the same time, extreme climatic events are increasing in the frequency and intensity.

THIS WEEK'S MENU

Before, Marta and her family’s daily meals consisted of potatoes, corn and wild herbs (whenever she was able to gather them from a nearby mountain). These days, through an initiative of UNDP, she finally has a vegetable garden of her own. And the training she has been offered is helping her get the best out of it.

“I neither knew how to get the seeds, nor how to plant them. Now I do. When I received the seedlings, I was also taught how to plant them. Through a drawing, they showed me what my garden would look like.

As the plants grew, I fertilized them with animal manure. I took good care of it, pulling the weeds out, so that my vegetable garden would grow well. I controlled the insects using a natural insecticide, which they taught me how to prepare at home.”

The family has already gone through a harvest of broccoli and are looking forward to next week’s menu: cabbage and cauliflower. The children appreciate their meals a lot more these days, Marta says, because they see that it is the result of weeks of hard work.

Despite the newfound abundance on their table, the family remains at risk. Extreme weather can destroy months of work. “Our land has steep slopes. So when it rains too much, all the nutrients in the soil are washed away,” she explains. “I want to learn how to take care of my land – how to build ditches and barriers, so that I can protect my crop from the heavy rains.”

The initiative, executed by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, and implemented by UNDP with funding from the Adaptation Fund, is working to do just that. It works with farmers on the ground, teaching them how to not only increase their yield but also adapt their farming to better withstand the negative impacts of climate change.

Supporting communities located in the middle and upper parts of the Nahualate River basin, the programme also aims to bolster farmers’ work in upkeeping livestock farms and managing vegetable and medicinal gardens, improve the nutrition of themselves and their families, and create opportunities to strengthen food security of their communities.

To generate income for her family, Marta also works with traditional Guatemalan textiles. But now she is excited to start growing other types of vegetables and to produce more, so she can sell to other people and make a better living. With her earnings, she plans to buy clothes for her children and for herself. She might even be able to supplement her husband’s income and support their children’s education.

Marta also works with traditional Guatemalan textiles as a way to generate income for the sustenance of her family.

Traditional textiles can be for personal use as clothing or sold as decorative arts.

Marta uses the waist loom to produce the textile - a tradition that has been passed on through generations.

“I dream that in the future my children won’t have to struggle for food. I don’t want them to have to go through what we’ve had to go through to be able to have food.”