The Future for a Girl Like Kata

We've spent almost 2 weeks in San Marcos visiting other towns/ villages by boat and hiking around Lake Atitlan. Throughout our time here, I kept looking at the kids and wondering what their future holds. Take this little girl.

She could be one of hundreds of thousands that will be affected by malnutrition or poverty- or her parents could stop her education for the need to help her family- let's call her Kata.

                        

According to World Health, she is living in a country with one of the worst rates of chronic malnutrition in the world. The basic diet is beans, corn (in the form of tortillas) and coffee with little use of fruits, vegetables or meat. Food shortages aren't the main problem as many children are getting enough to eat, but their food lacks the necessary nutrients.

In theory, there is education for Kata: primary school six years, secondary school three years and high school two to three years, depending on technical training. In reality, Kata might not even attend school, but instead start working at a young age to sustain her family. Many don't see the long-term benefits of schooling, and many others simply get married. Many parents think girls should not attend school since they should be preparing for motherhood. More than half of all girls in rural Guatemala become brides by 18. Many begin having children when they are still children themselves. 

Kata lives in San Marcos- a very poor part of Guatemala- so her family is probably in the 14% of population living below $1.25 a day. For the country as a whole, the average wage is 11 quetsalles or about $2 an hour. The wealthiest 10 percent of Guatemalans earn 47.5 percent of national income, while less than 20 percent is allocated to the poorest 60 percent. Indigenous Guatemalans like Kata, who represent the majority of the country’s population, account for an estimated 80 percent of Guatemala’s poor. Roughly one-quarter of them live in conditions of extreme poverty.

For Kata, the future might not look good. But there are a lot of people through NGOs and individual contributors that are here to help. Romi, who owned the first guest house we stayed in Antigua, has dedicated her last 24 years in helping indigenous young women through scholarships. Dianne, another lady we met in Antigua, runs Sharing the Dream, an NGO helping Guatemaleans with sustainable projects to help themselves. Our Spanish teacher here in San Marcos- Andrew- has spent the last 3 years helping indigenous women (maybe even Kata's Mom) with learning skills to get a job. And we met two young women at lunch today- one from the States, another a local- who are teachers for a new non-profit school here in San Marcos that has individual and group sponsorships to educate the poor here. That said, when you look at kids like Kata, it makes you want to pause and hope she will have a good life.

We're leaving Guatemala tomorrow and will be in major travel mode for the next few days en route to Peru.