Guatemala's Food Crisis throughout 'Dry Corridor'
Since May, Guatemala's East Central Pacific departments—an area known as the Corredor Seco (dry corridor)—have experienced irregular rainfall and drought. The global economic crisis has also driven the cost of goods, such as fertilizer, to unobtainable levels. At least 90 children in the area have died of malnutrition and thousands of families run the risk of going hungry because of crop failure.
In response, President Álvaro Colon declared a state of calamity on September 9th. According to local reports, families in the departments of Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz, Chiquimula, El Progreso, Jalapa, Jutiapa, Santa Rosa and Zacapa have lost between 50 and 80 percent of their yearly bean and maize crops. Many attribute this year's erratic rainfall and excessively hot, dry conditions in Guatemala to an "El Niño" phenomenon intensified by global climate change.
Mir Pace is planning a response that will address the immediate hunger problems while preparing families to endure future drought. Working with local high school students, we hope to reach more than 8,000 families in the mountain communities of Tamahú, where there are hundreds of children at risk of dying from malnutrition.
In addition to distributing food to vulnerable children, pregnant women and new mothers, we will provide education on preventing malnutrition and common diseases. Central to this program will be the use of community health promoters who will visit families at home to help monitor the growth of children and to look for the signs of malnutrition and other childhood illness.
Mir Pace will also provide seeds, fertilizer, tools and training to help families grow gardens and raise livestock so that they have a constant and diverse source of food. Farmers in the region own only a small area on which to farm their own crops. Soil quality is poor and they are likely to face a lack of water in the future. Mir Pace will teach farming practices focused on conserving soil, protecting water resources and reforestation.
This current crisis highlights how poor farmers and their families are unable to grow sufficient food due to unsustainable land, the increased cost of goods, shifting weather patterns, and the deforestation of their land. In addition to providing critical food assistance in this time of need, we must also support farmers in recovering from the failed harvest and reducing their vulnerability in the future.
