Guatemala
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Photo: Jamie Grant for Mercy Corps
Our strategy
Lift indigenous Guatemalans out of poverty by providing access to land, better food and healthcare.
The context
About 80 percent of the population lives in poverty, partly because fertile land — the most important means of production in this agricultural economy — is concentrated in the hands of a few. Land reform since the end of its 36-year civil war in 1996 has advanced in fits and starts. The country also struggles with government corruption, high crime rates, crippled infrastructure and high rates of malnutrition.
Our work
- Conflict & Governance: Training communities to mediate land disputes that block rural development
- Agriculture & Food: Distributing food and providing nutrition education to mothers with young children; helping small farmer diversify crops, improve quality and increase revenues
- Health: Launching a network of pharmacies in previously unserved remote villages
All stories about Guatemala
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Guatemala: Fresher food, better nutrition, happier families July 28, 2011
In the northern highlands of Guatemala, the signs and symptoms of malnutrition are a common sight: stunted growth, underweight bodies and visible fatigue.
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Guatemala: Rural micropharmacies offer medicine for all July 28, 2011
Sustainable Community Health Stores is a new way of addressing the rural healthcare problem. It helps local families start small businesses while providing much-needed medicines in underserved communities.
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Guatemala: “No quiere su tacita de café?” July 14, 2011
Today, in the very early morning after I finished my daily run here in Guatemala for the final time, I took a journey to visit some of the sites where I'd built friendship bridges over my year of work here.
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Guatemala: "Broadcasting" important health and nutrition news in rural Guatemala July 1, 2011
Each time I showed up to small and faraway communities where the heat was unbearable, where there was no electricity to turn on a light bulb, where there was no wind to ease the heat in the air — and where the field workers were parking their motorcycles and placing their gear on the dried grass
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Guatemala: Molding more than corn — molding nutrition June 26, 2011
One of Guatemala's main staple foods is corn — in fact, Guatemalans sometimes even refer to themselves as “corn people.” One of the traditional ways to consume corn here is in the form of tortillas.
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Guatemala: Mercy Corps Guatemala program featured in USAID Frontlines magazine June 23, 2011
USAID's Frontlines magazine recently showcased Mercy Corps Guatemala’s Innovative Market Alliance for Rural Entrepreneurs (IMARE) programme through the personal story of Delma Gomez, one of
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Guatemala: Farmers find new markets June 22, 2011
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Guatemala: Guess who's cooking tonight in Guatemala? June 1, 2011
“Bienvenidos. "Loq ` le k`ulumnik. Welcome” to PROCOMIDA's final male recipe competition!
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Guatemala: The different sparks of a cooking recipe April 29, 2011
Part of the health and nutrition strengthening strategies used by Mercy Corps' PROCOMIDA programme with Guatemalan communities consists of recipe demonstrations to beneficiary mothers.
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Guatemala: PROCOMIDA meeting in an Alta Verapaz village April 26, 2011
Women and their children attend a workshop put on by Mercy Corps' PROCOMIDA programme, which helps improve the nutritional status and health of women and children in some of Guatemala's poorest areas.