[Texas Pete]

Sad news from Guatemala. Drought and famine have led to wide-spread malnutrition and some deaths by starvation.

Talking points, sure to sadden everyone [translated from the Spanish]:

"according to official statistics, 25 children have died due to chronic malnutrition"

and

"En abril de 2009, Unicef publicó un informe en el que advertía que uno de cada dos niños guatemaltecos sufría de desnutrición crónica y que 80% de los niños y niñas indígenas menores de 5 años tiene serios problemas alimenticios."

[in april of 2009, Unicef published a report in which it stated that half of all Guatemalan children suffer from chronic malnutrition, and that 80% of indigenous children under 5 years of age suffer from severe malnutrition.]

A very brief BBC article (in English): BBC NEWS | Americas | Guatemala declares hunger crisis

Extensive BBC article (in Spanish): BBC Mundo - América Latina - Mueren de hambre en Guatemala

Front-page Siglo XXI article (in Spanish): Siglo XXI

[szumbiel]

This is absolutely sad beyond belief! I must say that real change will only happen if much work is done with family planning! Currently worldwide statistics show the poorest 20% of the population have at least 8 children. In Guatemala the populations has quadrupled in the past 50 years. 1/3 of women say they have no access to family planning methods. This just has to change. I know this is a hot topic, but I think we often see this issue through first world lenses.

The work in family planning is growing slowly in Guatemala. One fabulous organization is WINGS--Women's International Network for Guatemalan Solutions. WINGS

We can keep trying to feed starving children or we can teach families how to take control over family planning so we don't have so many children who are starving.

Okay...off my soapbox.

[sak9645]

Education is also important. If people aren't educated, they wind up with very low wage jobs, or unemployed. Then, they cannot support families.

Education is also important in influencing family size. It has been demonstrated that, once a person has access to education and jobs, he/she is more likely to limit family size voluntarily, so as to have a higher standard of living.

Unfortunately, Guatemala is too poor to create a system of free public education for all, and certainly too poor to create a system that gives financial incentives for families to send children to school instead of keeping them at home so they can go out and earn money.

The consequence of that is that Guatemala will have ever widening gaps between "haves" and "have nots", unless private organizations get involved in creating educational opportunities, especially for the indigenous peoples ("Indians"), who often are illiterate in their native language, who often don't even speak Spanish, and who have very limited job skills.

While most of the efforts to increase educational opportunities should focus on children, a great deal can be done by working with indigenous women, as well. Indigenous women need opportunities to become self supporting. In many parts of Latin America, indigenous women have been assisted by private organizations to form cooperatives, making and selling crafts and other products, and using the profits to better their lives and their communities.

When women are empowered to take control of their economic life, they also begin to demand the right to control their fertility. Right now, most indigenous women do not feel that they can stand up to men, to institutions such as churches, and so on, and demand the right to use contraception and limit family size.

Sharon