Guatemala hunger crisis

Cargo containers full of vital food supplies are due to arrive in Guatemala next week to ease the affects of the country’s worst drought in 30 years. This week the central American country's president announced a “state of calamity” with severe food shortages already affecting thousands. Bad weather has had a devastating effect on Guatemala’s food supplies. The current drought has caused 54,000 families to lose their crops of corn and beans. And with 60-80 per cent of the next harvest forecast to fail, it could mean shortages for another 400,000 people by the end of the year. The first container of aid from the US, packed with fortified rice and soy protein meal packages is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday. Three of the four containers are filled with fortified rice and soy protein meal packages. Each of the three containers holds 270,864 servings of dehydrated fortified rice meals. The fourth container has 48,500 pounds of corn.

Altogether more than 2.5 million Guatemalans have been affected by the drop in food reserves, while the United Nations predicts the situation will worsen during the next few months. The crisis has cast Guatemala’s longstanding gap between rich and poor into the spotlight. According to the World Bank, Guatemala has one of the most unequal income distributions in the world. The wealthiest 10% of the population receives almost one-half of all income; the top 20% receives two-thirds of all income. As a result, about 32% of the population lives on less than $2 a day and 13.5% on less than $1 a day. Before the drought came, more than half the country’s population was already living in poverty. Children and the poorest have been the first victims of the food shortage. Children succumb to malnutrition sooner than adults and many families were already struggling to pay rising food prices. Already some families can no longer afford to buy food.

Guatemala has the highest incidence of malnutrition in Latin America. The deaths of half a million children between 1960 and 2000 were related to malnutrition. Today just under half of children under the age of five still suffer chronic malnutrition. This year, 462 deaths from malnutrition-related causes in poor areas of Guatemala were reported by the country’s Health Ministry between January and August. Many Guatemalans rely on family working abroad mostly in the US. But just as with other poor nations, the global financial crisis takes its toll as these family members are now sending less money home.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children