La desnutrición infantil trunca el futuro de la Guatemala rural

He's about to turn two, and the thinness of

his arms reveals a worrying state

of health. Let's just say they're

at

risk. Guatemala is the country with the

highest rate of chronic child malnutrition in Latin America, according to Action

Against Hunger, and here in the

department of Huehuetenango is where

the largest number of hungry children are found.

Food insecurity in

these arid lands has worsened due to

climate change, leaving

many families destitute. There's

nothing we can do for him; I do

n't know what will become of my son. I've

always been

very sad about my baby.

When one dies,

malnutrition brings other consequences. With an

empty stomach, students don't

have enough cognitive development

to facilitate learning.

When I read with them, they can barely

read words because of the lack of

food in their homes. Here, when

the school year starts, many

children enroll late because their

parents take them to

work on farms to have

something to eat.

To break out of this cycle, the

Henry Football Foundation is committed to the

nutritional education of mothers. It's

true that

having a fertile garden and

knowing how to use it can make a

difference for the children in the

community. We see families where

both heads of household have

very low levels of education. This

limits their ability to get good

jobs and affects the children because they don't

receive the food they

need. According to the United Nations, at the

current rate, Guatemala would need 100

years to eradicate

chronic child malnutrition.