25/06/2023
In the karst mountains of northern Guatemala, in the Department of Alta Verapaz , lies the small municipality of Lanquin. In the last two decades, a beautiful natural landscape called Semuc Champey has become an important tourist destination, which has brought growth and development to the local municipality. However, the majority of the native Kek’chì people in Lanquin are still extremely impoverished and provided with limited education and growth opportunities.
On the outskirts of the town of Lanquin, in the community of Chituplum we found two related families who have two small children participating in the Nutributter assistance program in Guatemala. Jose Fernando Col is a 26 month old boy who lives with his grandmother Matilde, his mother Cindia Esperanza Col (22 years old), his father Oscar Alejandro Sotz, his brother Bryan and his aunt Aura Fabiola Sotz. They live in a house with walls made of dry stalks of a hard grassy plant called caña brava. Even though their floor is made of dirt, the tin roof was provided to them by an NGO that works in the area. They do have electricity, but have no running water or plumbing. Their toilet is a pit latrine outhouse made of the same caña brava stalks as the main house. They fetch their water from a small stream that runs next to their house, but it dries out during the dry months; they suffer much water scarcity during this time. Oscar Alejandro, Jose Fernando`s father, is the provider for the house and works mostly as daily hand labor in the big coffee and cardamom plantations that surround the area. During cardamom and coffee harvesting season he can earn up to Q75.00 (roughly 10 US dollars) a day, three to four time a week. During the off-season, daily agricultural wages are approximately Q50.00 per day. This income is what keeps the family of six alive.
Their daily diet consists of corn and beans mostly, supplemented with herbs collected in the surrounding hills. Among these herbs are nightshade (hierba mora in spanish), chaya and amaranth. They may eat eggs once or twice a week and any kind of meat once every week or two, supplemented with vegetables such as potatoes and carrots that they buy once a week during market day.
Jose Fernando’s next door neighbor and cousin is 19 month old Damian Alonzo Sotz. Damian was diagnosed as suffering from chronic and also acute malnutrition in May of 2022 and was registered into the Nutributter program by the local health center. Thanks to the Nutributter supplementation , the care of the municipality`s food security and nutrition office (OMSAN), and the follow-up at the Health Center, Damian has recovered satisfactorily and is now gaining weight and growing consistently. His mother Gloria Ernestina Choc is very grateful for the assistance provided by the Nutributter program, which she assures has been key in the recovery of her little boy. Damian´s father, Elías Sotz, no longer works as agricultural hand labor. Instead, he is learning to be a mason and is currently employed as a mason assistant in the town of Lanquin. Gloria and Elías´s family also include 11 year old Diana who want to be a Doctor when she grows up. The living conditions of Gloria and Elias are practically identical to Jose Fernando´s household, they even fetch water from the same little stream. Their diets are basically the same, with the difference that Gloria has been taught by the local OMSAN how to make nutritious atoles such as “arroz en leche” mixed with INCAPARINA (a local nutritious food supplement). Gloria’s dream is to see her two children grow up to be good people but worries about them becoming sick and providing them with enough food, particularly after Damian became malnourished.
