On June 17, the Peace Brigades International-Guatemala Project hosted a webinar discussing the situation of chronic malnutrition in Guatemala.

To watch the 80-minute webinar in Spanish, please click here.

PBI-Guatemala communications coordinator Silvia Weber facilitated the conversation with Norma Sancir and Lesbia Artola.

Norma Sancir is a communicator who was formerly with the Nuevo Día Ch’orti’ Indigenous Association (CCCND) in Chiquimula and Lesbia Artola is a member of the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) in Cobán, Alta Verapaz.

The Guardian has reported: “More than 60% of the population of Guatemala lives in poverty, and the country has one of the highest rates of childhood malnutrition in the world.”

ABC adds: “Impoverished rural indigenous communities with some of the world’s highest chronic malnutrition rates have been hit particularly hard by coronavirus restrictions, say grassroots NGOs.”

And on the same day as the PBI-Guatemala webinar, Action Against Hunger highlighted: “The COVID-19 pandemic has affected food security for hundreds of thousands of Guatemala’s most vulnerable people.”

It adds: “Right now, 1.2 million people are currently in need of emergency food aid – an increase of 570,000 from the beginning of the year – as a result of the loss of livelihoods related to the pandemic. More than 15,000 cases of acute malnutrition among children were reported at the end of May 2020, exceeding the total number of cases reported for all of 2019.”

PBI-Guatemala has accompanied the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) of the Verapaces since July 2018 and the ‘New Day’ Ch’orti’ Campesino Central Coordinator (CCCND) since 2009.

For additional context, please see PBI-Guatemala accompanies Nuevo Dia talk on a landmark court ruling on the right to food (November 2019).