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31 December 2019 - Story

Now we can bring food to our children

Florinda and her children in their village.

In a small village from San Bartolomé Jocotenango in Quiché, is located a clay house without electricity and little access to safe water. In this humble house lives Florinda, who is pregnant with her fifth child, she lives with her husband Diego and their other children.

Florinda explains that their needs have always been big because of her numerous family and the poverty situation that they live in. In response to what was said, her husband Diego traveled a lot last year to Guatemala City, searching for work so they could have resources for their food. Due of the increase in crime and lack of jobs in the city, he had to come back home and look for jobs in his community as a farmer, working in peanuts, beans and corn harvest.

However, on 2019 the harvests were lost due to the lack of rain during the crop growing season, leaving the families with fewer job opportunities. Florinda also helped her family working in peanut plantations, harvesting around 450 square meters, but because of the said drought, she hasn't been able to find work and the situation of their family has become more complicated. At times they don't have any income, so they have nothing to eat.

Sometimes I didn't give them anything to eat, we would search something to feed them, sometimes just salt, or a small slice of tomato, sometimes I find, sometimes I don't," Florinda says, referring to her children.

After searching in September for sources of income, there were very few results. Going days without access to the necessary food. In October 2019, they learned of the assistance that Save the Children's Quiché's Dry Corridor Emergency Response Project was providing, with the support of a cash transfer of USD 48.00 to face their needs.

Thanks to this Project, Florinda and her family can, at least for a short period, eat nutritious food again, which they didn't have access to before in any way.

Florinda has been a very active person, since she participated in the PRYSA project, she never ceased to participate in food demonstrations and community meetings. Despite her lack of studies, Florinda has learned to manage her budget, her own list of necessary foods and put into practice the recipes she learned. These practices bring well-being to her family and is knowledge that remains forever.