Chronic malnutrition is one of the major problems in Guatemala. The malnutrition rate for 0-5 years old can be as high as 70% in some villages in the Nebaj area.

Miyuki, a Director with FH Canada, is pictured here with one of the families in the Nebaj area. Miyuki is only 5 ft tall, but the girl standing next to her is 8 years old. The gentleman on the left is our FH staff who visits this family regularly.

The mother shared that before the health and nutrition training provided to her village, her older children were always sick as toddlers. But with the training and basic sanitation practices, her 6 children are rarely ill now!

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"God wants us to have a quality life," concludes Juan Chavez, a leader in Villa Hortencia who has been instrumental in implementing training in his community.

Pictured here, Juan leads a meeting with community members and leaders.

In a country where 43% of children under the age of five are rated as 'chronically malnourished', Juan is working with FH to bring life-changing workshops on nutrition, family gardening, hygiene, and more to his neighbours.

Today we shout out to Juan and his home town of Villa Hortencia for taking a stand against poverty!

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A walk through Nabaj

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http://vimeo.com/9236459

The innovative Water Works project in Rio Azul (within the Nebaj community) is complete! The community celebrated this accomplishment with a parade with a local school band, local authorities, FH staff and families of Rio Azul. Country director Victor Cortez described this as “a procession of great joy and pride.”

School teachers, pastors and leaders of neighbourhood committees gave presents of acknowledgment to all community authorities who originally had the idea to initiate this project in September 2009 which now serves clean water to more than 400 families.

This is especially significant because of how the community members and local authorities worked together to make this happen. “I have not seen such unity in a community where the pastors from ten different denominations were celebrating a sort of service to God and actively participating in fulfilling physical needs in the community,” Mr. Cortez said. “It definitely touched me and showed me again that the community of Rio Azul can be the model for community transformation that FH is looking for.”

Friends Church, a church in Calgary, AB, has partnered with the community of Rio Azul. The church planned to raise $65,000 for the second phase of this project, but the project was able to be completed for less than 50% of the budgeted cost. “What is happening in Rio Azul is no coincidence, is the result of sincere and deep relationship that developed between memevrs of Friends Church, us in FH and the people of the community and look forward to further deepening mutual transformation in the coming months and years,” Mr. Cortez said.

The new system is working well and no problems have been identified yet. The community has a Water Committee that is ensuring the proper use and operation of the system and are in the process of determining if it is necessary to supplement the project with filters. The community purchased additional land around the spring tank to better protect the water source from animals.

Finally, FH staff are also conducting monthly monitoring to children under five years in relation to chronic malnutrition, these indices definitely now have to be better, because all families have access to water.

FH Canada Rio Azul water program
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