Poverty and malnutrition, a combination that is difficult to combat in Camotán

If God could grant María Carlota a wish, she would ask for a kitchen, like the ones she has seen on television, with four burners and a glass trunk to bake cookies. If possible, also food to get her going. A few kilos of chicken, cereals or vegetables. And if she thinks better of it, a good option would also be a cement room with a secure roof that won’t blow away in the wind like it did a while ago.

María Carlota’s needs are those of many in the Lantiquin village, in the municipality of Camotán, Guatemala. A region where nine out of 10 houses are in rural areas; where malnutrition has hit some 74 families of children under five years old, where the sun is abundant, but food is scarce. Where to get food is uncertain.

Cristofer Dariel is nine months old. But he weighs what a six-month-old baby. He has been diagnosed with acute malnutrition because instead of weighing 13 pounds (5.9 kg), he should weigh between 18 and 21 pounds (8 and 9.5 kg).

With a still, silent face, Cristofer rests in the arms of María Carlota, his mother, who hastily puts on a pair of socks for him when the temperature in Lantiquin is around 43 degrees Celsius. “He looks prettier like this,” she says with her head down and with a nervous laugh.

María Carlota is ashamed that the youngest of her six children is malnourished, and she blames herself because she believes that she has not managed to feed him enough. “When he got a fever I realized that he was finding little milk,” she says. She, too, has not managed to vary the baby’s diet: bean broth, and sometimes rice. Little or no fruit. No meat.

Cristofer listens to her. Her legs, like two canes, peek out of her shorts. She doesn’t laugh or cry. He slowly turns around and reaches for her mother’s breast. He clings as if he believes that is his only safe source of food.

Among the neighbors, María Carlota had once commented that malnutrition comes from nowhere, and goes away from nowhere, after seeing some cases of children who became malnourished in her village.

Talking about malnutrition among neighbors may not be common in Central America or elsewhere, but in Camotán, Chiquimula, it is commonplace, because according to the National Food and Nutrition Security Information System (SIINSAN), Chiquimula ranks ninth in child malnutritionwith a rate of 63 malnourished children per 10,000 in April 2024.

Camotán, along with other municipalities such as Zacapa, Jutiapa and Jalapa, belong to the dry corridor of Guatemala, characterized by droughts that mainly weaken corn and bean crops. One of the phenomena associated with the food insecurity that this region is experiencing.

Although Camotán has been in the news for years, the story remains the same: poverty and malnutrition; malnutrition and death. Newspapers, television channels and various groups of NGOs have gotten involved in the issue, but Camotán continues to ride a roulette wheel that sometimes keeps it with high rates of malnutrition, and other times a little less.

A source inside the remodeled Camotán health unit assures the Voice of America that so far in 2024, two children have died from malnutrition in Camotán. In 2023, there were also two.

—They always say “What is Salud doing for those children?” It is not the responsibility of Health. We see malnutrition from four pillars: access to food, consumption of food, the biological use of those foods and whether this is fulfilled or not, is not our responsibility. points out.

María Carlota stays at home taking care of Cristofer and her children, ages 3 and 10, while the elders provide food when there is an opportunity to cut coffee or work in the cornfields. Although she now knows that overcoming malnutrition is possible with a varied and nutritious diet, her possibilities are limited to what she can receive as help.

“They gave me a vitamin treatment to see if I gained weight, but this time when I took it again they told me it’s still the same. I don’t know why…” she says to the VOA.

When doctors in Camotán receive cases of child malnutrition, they prioritize children under two years of age. This is because after two years it becomes more difficult to reverse malnutrition, so it ends up becoming chronic malnutrition, that is, when there are already consequences, for example, short stature.

“If we do not manage to reverse malnutrition before the age of two, children are left with short stature, memory problems or poor school performance,” says one of the doctors who asked not to be identified because he requires authorization from the regional Health area.

Cristofer has had a fever, month after month, since he was three months old. María Carlota has gotten sick a couple of times too.

“Half of the girls and boys under 5 years of age in Guatemala suffer from chronic malnutrition. Only 52% of girls and boys from 6 to 23 months have sufficient and varied nutrition for their proper growth and development,” says UNICEF. in an article published in February 2024.

Despite the anti-malnutrition programs of the latest governments, Guatemala reports for April 2024 a 19% increase in cases of acute malnutrition compared to 2023. The Central American country currently has 9,144 children under five years of age with malnutrition problems, 63% are between six months and 2 years old.

Recently, the government of Bernardo Arévalo launched the Hand in Hand program, a strategy for the next four years with which it seeks to combat acute malnutrition, the first stage of the condition.

While aid arrives in Camotán, María Carlota receives 100 quetzales on May 22, the equivalent of 13 dollars. At least that day the plates of food for her and her children were not empty.

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