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The following article is from a July 28, 2010 article published by IPS. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
 GUATEMALA CITY, Jul 28, 2010 (IPS) – “Three-quarters of the fields are still under water. Maize, plantains, okra and pasture are all lost,” José Asencio told IPS at the village of Santa Ana Mixtán in southern Guatemala, the area worst affected by tropical storm Agatha.
The villagers have been working for food in order to survive. “We’ve been shoring up the banks of the Coyolate and Mascalate rivers, and the mayor has been giving us food rations, although we haven’t received any for the past two weeks because supplies have run out,” he said.
Asencio said that food shortages and unemployment, caused by the extreme weather and the floods, have worsened the plight of the 373 families in the village…
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The following excerpt is from a June 9, 2010 article published by The Guatemala Times. Click here to read the article in its entirety.
MESOAMERICAN FOOD SECURITY EARLY WARNING SYSTEM. On May 29, a low pressure system that was stationary  off the coast of southern Guatemala became the first tropical storm of the East Pacific hurricane season. Tropical Storm Agatha produced high winds and torrential rains, though the storm weakened as it moved inland, dissipating by the morning of May 30. Nevertheless, the storm system produced up to 600 mm of rainfall over six days (May 25 to 30), particularly in the department of Suchitepéquez and along the border with El Salvador.
Most of the country received significant amounts of rainfall, nearly 200 percent above the May average, causing flooding, landslides, and infrastructure damage. Preliminary government reports, which are changing daily, estimate that the storm has caused 156 deaths, affected more than 135,000 people, and displaced 76,000 people. There are concerns about the impact of the storm on food security in affected areas, given the potentially significant loss of the maize harvest expected to begin in August, as well as associated labor opportunities. Such losses would have the most impact on the western highlands, where the harvest is not expected until November…
Click here to read the rest of the article, here to read more about the food crisis, or here to read more about Tropical Storm Agatha.
The following excerpt is from a May 19, 2010 article published by the Guatemalan Times. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
The Andalusian Agency for Cooperation and the Ministry of Agriculture of Guatemala are starting a joint venture of rural development that promotes food security and reduction of child malnutrition in Chiquimula and Baja Verapaz, and will benefit 11, 661 families. The Minister of Agriculture of Guatemala, Alfonso de León, y Javier Serrano, the coordinator of the Andalusian Agency for International Development Cooperation (AACID) in Guatemala signed yesterday the official documents. The program will combat child malnutrition and food insecurity and will benefit 11, 661 families in Baja Verapaz and Chiquimula, two of the departments most affected by the extensive drought of 2009…
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The following excerpt is from an May 6, 2010 article published by Relief Web. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
In the southern highlands of Guatemala people are hungry. Recent prolonged droughts and a drop in remittances due to the worldwide financial crisis have left many families unable to grown or buy food. Guatemala, which has one of the world’s worst rates of chronic malnutrition for children under five (an estimated 47%), is facing a worsening food crisis.
To combat this problem, MADRE and Muixil have expanded Farming for the Future, a food security and microenterprise project for Indigenous Ixil women in El Quiché…
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The following excerpt is from an April 9, 2010 article published by the UN News Centre. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
9 April 2010 –
More than a month after the United Nations and its aid partners appealed for $34 million to respond to the food crisis in Guatemala, less than 10 per cent of that amount has been received, prompting UN officials to express concern today over the plight of the estimated 680,000 people in need.Guatemala has been hit by a prolonged drought, one of the worst in the country in three decades, resulting in severe food shortages that have exacerbated the country’s chronic malnutrition problem, Elisabeth Byrs, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) told reporters in Geneva.
An estimated 43 per cent of Guatemalan children below the age of five suffer from chronic malnutrition, one of the worst rates in the world.
But so far only $2.9 million has been received in the appeal, according to OCHA.
The rise in acute malnutrition, including clinical cases of kwashiorkor and marasmus, has hit the so-called ‘dry corridor’ in the east and centre of Guatemala particularly hard…
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The following excerpt is from an April 8, 2010 article published by Relief Web. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
Sustained drought, soaring food prices and a sharp drop in money from relatives working abroad have left many thousands of Guatemalan families struggling to feed themselves. The Ramos family are among those hit hard. Their baby girl is starting to show the effects of malnutrition.
GUATEMALA CITY – The Ramos family, who live in the village of Tecuiz San Agustín Acasaguastlán, are struggling on the edge of survival with no work and not enough to eat. Lázaro, 32, and his wife Maria Luisa, 28, have seven children, one of them a newborn baby girl.
“I have not been able to find any job as a day labourer for some time. We don’t have any money and can’t buy any food,” said Lázaro, whose village is in the ‘dry corridor’ in Guatemala’s eastern-central region.
Even if Lázaro could afford seeds, the drought caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon has also made it impossible for him to plant crops to feed his family.
Hunger in Guatemala…
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The following is an article that has been excerpted from AgriLife News on march 31, 2010. To read the full article, please click here.
By Paul Schattenberg
CHIMALTENANGO, GUATEMALA – For the past year, farmers in and around the city of Chimaltenango have been benefiting from a U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded Guatemalan Food for Progress project spearheaded by the Texas A&M System’s Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture, said project administrators.
The institute, named after Dr. Norman Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution and distinguished professor at Texas A&M from 1984 until his death last year at 95, participates in and provides leadership for numerous agriculture and agribusiness improvement projects worldwide.
“The Agriculture in Guatemala: Technology Transfer, Education and Commercialization project, known as AGTEC, is helping Guatemalan farmers improve their lives by using new agricultural technology and practices taught through hands-on demonstrations and technical assistance,” said Johanna Roman, the institute’s coordinator for Latin American programs.
To finish reading the article, please click here
To learn about the ongoing food crisis in Guatemala, please click here.
The following excerpt is from a March 29, 2010 announcement by Relief Web. To read the entire report from USAid, please click here.
 The dry corridor, particularly in the eastern region, is receiving several kinds of food security assistance through different sources. Close coordination is essential to avoid duplication of efforts and to ensure wide coverage.
Food security in the west is at risk of deterioration, since most households have no food reserves, and after March they will not have many sources of employment through which to obtain income, and hence food through purchase.
Weather forecasts show a possible irregularity in the onset of the rainy season, which could endanger the first planting, especially in the dry corridor.
Click here to read the full report, or here to read more about the Food Crisis.
The following excerpt is from a March 5, 2010 article published by the UN News Centre. Click here to read the article in its entirety.
5 March 2010 – The United Nations, together with the Guatemalan Government and aid partners, today launched a $34 million appeal to counter food shortages affecting 2.7 million people living in the Central American country’s so-called ‘dry corridor,’ which even before last year’s drought had one of the highest rates of chronic malnutrition in the world.The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said today’s appeal will complement national relief efforts and provide support for food, health, nutrition, agriculture and early recovery, as well as water, sanitation and hygiene projects for six months for some 680,000 people living in departments in the eastern section of the country, including the dry corridor – Jutiapa, Santa Rosa, Zacapa, Chiquimula, El Progreso and Baja Verapaz – and the neighbouring Izabal and Quiché.
Global acute malnutrition among children under the age of five in the dry corridor and the two neighbouring provinces is at 11 per cent, and at 13 per cent among women of child-bearing age. Both figures are above the emergency threshold of 10 per cent.
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The following excerpt is from a March 3, 2010 article published by Relief Web. To read the article in its entirety, click here.
Siriaco Mejia is an optimist. His friend Gloria Gonzalez says he is always smiling, even when he is in trouble. He just has a positive outlook.
But even Mejia was unable to put a favorable spin on his situation at harvest time in late 2009: after he’d planted his corn and beans in his field high above the languid Chixoy River, now flowing at a very low level, his crops had failed, owing to lack of rain. Most years he can grow 22 quintales (about 2,200 pounds) of corn. This year, Mejia says he got about a tenth of that.
“We could see the corn cobs, but when we opened them up, many were totally empty,” Mejia says, standing in his field. “We got almost nothing this year.”
…
This food shortage is occurring in a country of luxurious green that exports millions in sugar cane, pineapples, bananas, and coffee. Despite this abundance, poor Guatemalans, who are mostly indigenous Maya people, regularly face chronic food shortages. There is plenty of food in stores, but poor people can’t afford it.
Since the Spanish colonization of Central America, indigenous Maya people have been systematically moved off the most productive farmlands to arid areas and steep hillsides. In Mejia’s case, his community and several others were originally in the Chixoy River valley but were involuntarily relocated in the 1980s to make way for a hydroelectric dam. Most of the flattest, best land is used to grow export crops like coffee and sugar cane and, more recently, biofuel crops…
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Here is an article on recent support of Guatemala by the European Union (EU) to the tune of 33.8 million Euros.
“Guatemala City. The EU new initiative supports the five strategic objectives of the Strategic Plan for Food Security and Nutrition (PESAN, Plan Estratégico de Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional) from 2009-2012 and will benefit the entire Guatemalan population, with particular attention to the most vulnerable rural population. The donation of the European Union for this program amounts to 33.8 million Euros (about 400 million quetzals).”
What I appreciate most about this EU effort is its focus on preventing future food crises rather than simply alleviating current problems in the form of food subsidies. The ultimate goal, of course, is sustainable food safety and nutrition in Guatemala, which is key to a larger public health initiative.
Please click here for the article.
The following excerpt is from a January 26, 2010 article published by The Latin American Herald Tribune. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
GUATEMALA CITY – The Guatemalan government will invest some 1.7 billion quetzales ($203 million) in 2001 [sic] to guarantee the country’s food security, officials said on Tuesday.
Several regions of Guatemala, especially the “dry corridor” in the east, were seriously affected in 2009 by a prolonged drought that caused the deaths of at least 54 children and affected 54,000 poor families.
The “Guatemala sin Hambre” (Guatemala Without Hunger) program, according to the secretary for Food and Nutritional Security, Lily Caravantes, will be directed by the Social Cohesion Council, presided over by first lady Sandra Torres de Colom.
Click here to read the rest of this article, or here to read more about the 2009/10 Food Crisis.
To link to the website (in Spanish) of Guatemala sin hambre, click here.
The following excerpt is from an August 27th, 2009 article published by the Economist. This article does a great job of highlighting some public health issues facing the nation. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
It is hardly one of Latin America’s poorest countries, but according to Unicef almost half of Guatemala’s children are chronically malnourished—the sixth-worst performance in the world. In parts of rural Guatemala, where the population is overwhelmingly of Mayan descent, the incidence of child malnutrition reaches 80%. A diet of little more than tortillas does permanent damage.
This chronic problem has become acute. Higher world prices for food have coincided with a recession-induced fall in money sent back from Guatemalans working in the United States (remittances equal 12% of Guatemala’s GDP). Drought in eastern Guatemala has made things worse still. Many families can scarcely afford beans, an important source of protein, and must sell eggs from their hens rather than feed them to their children.
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The following excerpt is from a January 10 article published by ECOWorld. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
BRUSSELS, Jan. 8 (UPI) — A drought-stricken section of Guatemala will receive almost $2 million in emergency humanitarian aid from the European Commission, officials say.
The EC’s Humanitarian Aid department has set aside the money to ensure some 20,000 residents have enough food, water and seeds.
The drought, caused by El Nino, has left parched a corridor of Guatemala bordering El Salvador and Honduras, an EC release said Friday.
Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read more articles about the 2009/10 Food Crisis.
The following excerpt is from a January 6, 2010 article published by UN Dispatch. To view the article in its entirety, please click here.
In an interview with Guatemala’s Prensa Libre (Spanish), Irma Palma, the acting director of the World Food Programme field office, says that the WFP will be forced to send out a flash appeal in hopes of remedying a desperate food shortage in eastern Guatemala. A recent study completed for the UN Humanitarian Network concluded that 77 percent of families in effected areas would run out of food supplies in January or February. CERF funds that helped deliver 2,947 tons of food aid ran out in December.
Guatemala suffered its worst drought in 30 years last year, but, as Palma points out, lack of water is but one aspect of the problem. Food prices have increased while remittances dropped 20 percent in 2009, which can be directly linked to the economic situation in the U.S. Neighboring countries have faced similar issues, but Guatemala has the most dire shortage in the region.
Click here to read the rest of the article, or here to read more about the 2009/10 Food Crisis.
The following excerpt is from a December 23, 2009 article published by Reuters AlertNet. To view the article in its entirety, please click here.
23 Dec 2009 21:40:00 GMT
Source: Action Against Hunger – USA
Susannah Masur
CHIQUIMULA, GUATEMALA Surveys carried out by Action Against Hunger / ACF International along the Guatemalan border with Honduras show widespread food insecurity and high levels of malnutrition in a region buffeted by the global recession and poor rainfalls. The global humanitarian group has intervened on an emergency and long-term basis, treating children with severe acute malnutrition and implementing nutrition, food security, and water and sanitation programs in the area.
The global humanitarian group announced today that 7.7 percent of children in the Corredor Seco region of Guatemala are acutely malnourished; another 2.4 percent have severe acute malnutrition, the more life-threatening form of the condition…
Click here to read the rest of this article, or here to read more about the 2009/2010 food crisis.
The following excerpt is from a November 26, 2009 article from the Miami Herald. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
The U.S. has begun delivering food to Guatemalans suffering through a long drought.
By EZRA FIESER
Special to The Miami Herald
EL MOJON CHIQUIMULA, Guatemala — Nine-year-old Lide Ramirez and her little brother sat on an 18-pound bag of rice on a recent sunny morning, thinking that for the first time in months they would eat dinner.
“We usually have just some beans with a tortilla,” Lide said, guarding the bag of U.S.-donated white rice as if it were filled with gold. “On Sundays, we get to eat breakfast, too. But usually it’s just once at lunch.”
The rice was part of the U.S. government’s first distribution of food to families struggling through the country’s worst drought in three decades.
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By: Danilo Valladares
The following excerpt is from an article published on November 4, 2009 by Inter Press Service. To view the article in its entirety, please click here.
GUATEMALA CITY, Nov 4 (IPS) – Juan Manuel Ardón’s bones jut out and his hair is dull and thin: signs of severe malnutrition. He is so weak that he can hardly walk or talk, and the doctors say his weight and stature are those of a six-year-old, rather than 15-year-old, boy.
Juan Manuel is being cared for at the Nutritional Centre in the town of Jocotán, in the eastern Guatemalan province of Chiquimula, where he drags himself down the corridor like an old man in a little boy’s shriveled body.
But other little ones in this impoverished Central American country haven’t even made it to Juan Manuel’s age. At least 54 children have died of malnutrition so far this year in Guatemala, according to the General Directorate of Epidemiology, while 2.5 million people out of a total population of 13 million are facing a food crisis, according to United Nations figures.
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The following excerpt is from an October 15, 2009 article published by Alert Net. To view the article in its entirety, please click here.
Written by: Anastasia Moloney
BOGOTA (AlertNet) – Child malnutrition is costing Latin American governments billions of dollars every year and is slowing down economic growth in the region, United Nations’ research shows.
Economic losses due to long-term child malnutrition amounts to an average of up to three percent of a country’s gross domestic product (GDP), according to U.N. studies focusing on more than 10 Latin American countries since 2007. ”There’s a clear relationship between child malnutrition economic loss, productivity and competitiveness,” said Alejandro Chicheri, WFP’s information officer for Latin America.
While the human cost of child malnutrition, such as physical and mental damage in children, has been well-documented, analysts are only just beginning to calculate the economic toll.
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“Hunger is a social and moral issue but it’s also an economic issue too,” said Chicheri. “Targeting malnutrition makes economic sense.” Getting Latin American governments to reposition chronic malnutrition as part of their long-term economic development plans is vital, and it may be the silver bullet that they need to break the hunger and poverty cycle, Chicheri said.
Click here to read the rest of the article, here to read more about the 2009 Food Crisis, or here to read more about Economics & Guatemala.
The following excerpt is from an October 14, 2009 article published by Reuters. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
BENTONVILLE, Ark., Oct. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — The Walmart Foundation announced today a donation of $350,000 in disaster relief for people impacted by recent droughts in Guatemala, flooding in southern India and natural disasters in Southeast Asia.
“At Walmart, we are dedicated to providing support for communities around the world, especially when they need us the most,” said Margaret McKenna, president, Walmart Foundation. “Given the scale and devastating impact of these occurrences, we want to do our part to help in these tough times.”
…
In Guatemala, a $100,000 donation to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) will go toward purchasing and distributing therapeutic foods to fight acute malnutrition in the impacted areas. The donation will provide 95 tons of Vitacereal(TM), which provides essential micronutrients that are lacking in rural indigenous diets but play an important role in growth and protection against disease. The funds will support 31,000 beneficiaries to reduce chronic malnutrition in the most affected areas of the country.
“The WFP thanks Walmart for this contribution to the Vitacereal program in Guatemala, which is in critical need of funding and supplies,” said Willem Van Milink, WFP representative in Guatemala. “With this contribution, Walmart is ensuring nutritional assistance specifically for pregnant women as well as young children. This will help with their development as well as break the intergenerational cycle of hunger and poverty.”
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The following excerpt is from an October 7, 2009 article published by Relief Web to read the article in its entirety, please click here.
OAS, PADF Respond to Government’s Plea for Food
Washington, D.C. Oct. 5, 2009 – Four cargo containers with desperately needed food will be sent to Guatemala’s drought-stricken regions to help stave off malnutrition and starvation due to the worst drought in this country in 30 years, the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) announced.
“This grave situation becomes even more compelling because young children are the first victims of malnutrition,” says Assistant Secretary General of the OAS Ambassador Albert Ramdin. “We knew we needed to act right away. The OAS contribution of $20,000 will enable PADF to mobilize more than $250,000 in relief for the drought victims.”
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The following excerpt is from an October 4, 2009 article published by The Miami Herald. To view the article in its entirety, please click here.
BY TRENTON DANIEL
JALAPA, Guatemala — Some children check in. Others don’t get to.
Those who make it to the Nicolasa Cruz hospital do so because a parent cobbled together enough money. Others leave because the cash ran out. And others avoid the general hospital altogether because their parents can’t afford the pennies it takes to travel here.
These tales are part of the larger national discussion that has emerged in Guatemala after 14 children died in July of malnutrition and related causes. The worst drought in 30 years in Guatemala’s dry corridor, where the city and department of Jalapa are located, killed almost 80 percent of the country’s crops and depleted the food supply of subsistence farmers. President Alvaro Colom announced a “public calamity.”
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The following excerpt is from an October 1, 2009 article from the Latin American Herald Tribune. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
GUATEMALA CITY – Some 208,723 tons of white corn have been lost this year in Guatemala as a result of a prolonged drought, the Agriculture Ministry said Wednesday.
A report by the ministry said the value of the lost grain is estimated at 146.1 million quetzales ($17.5 million).
It said most of the crop failures occurred in the so-called “dry corridor,” made up of the provinces of Jalapa, Jutiapa, El Progreso, Zacapa, Chiquimula and Baja Verapaz….
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The following excerpt is from a September 30, 2009 article published by the BBC. To view the article in its entirety, please click here.
By Alberto Najar
BBC Mundo
The political crisis in Honduras is having a crippling effect on trade in Central America, with Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica losing millions of dollars of trade every day…
The ongoing political deadlock in Honduras has come at a high price for Guatemalan businesses.
Javier Zepeda, president of the country’s Chamber of Industry, says: “When the border is closed, our trade with Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama is affected, because we can only go via El Salvador.”
…It is yet another blow for Guatemala, where a state of disaster was declared two weeks ago because of a drought which has caused chronic malnutrition among the population.
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The following excerpt is from a September 29, 2009 article published in the Miami Herald. To read the article in its entirety, please click here.
A record-breaking drought in Guatemala — coupled with higher food prices and a drop in remittances — is raising concerns that malnutrition could be spreading in the Central American nation.
BY TRENTON DANIEL
DEVISADERO, Guatemala — Victoria Lopez cradles her 2-year-old granddaughter Jennifer, whose chubby cheeks, bloated legs and stunted growth make her look much younger than healthy children her age.
“She just sits there — she doesn’t move,” Lopez, 39, said as she rocked the toddler in her arms. “She’s two and not even walking yet.”
Jennifer’s condition is not unique among children in the hills of Guatemala’s so-called dry corridor along the Pacific. The country’s worst drought in 30 years has destroyed 80 percent of the region’s crops and claimed the lives of more than a dozen children so far this year.
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GUATEMALA CITY, Jul 28, 2010 (IPS) – “Three-quarters of the fields are still under water. Maize, plantains, okra and pasture are all lost,” José Asencio told IPS at the village of Santa Ana Mixtán in southern Guatemala, the area worst affected by tropical storm Agatha.
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