SANTA LUCIA, Guatemala, 18 February 2009 Santa Sebastiana Aguilar Pacheco understands the pain of hunger all too well. The 45-year-old woman lives with her elderly mother, her 71-year-old husband and two children in a small house with a dirt floor. She earns her livelihood by raising rabbits and cleaning houses, taking home the equivalent of $1 per day.
"I tend to look for whatever food is cheapest because money is scarce," says Ms. Pacheco. "One day we might have a little bit of beans, the next day rice, another day turnips. Sometimes we'll have nothing but turnips for lunch. We don't have any meat. We raise rabbits but we need to sell them, we don't eat them."
UNICEF Representative in Guatemala Adriano González-Regueral notes that half of the country's children suffer from chronic malnutrition. The problem manifests itself in stunted growth and lowered IQ scores.
"One out of two is the average but in indigenous areas, chronic malnutrition can reach 80 per cent total of children under five years of age," he says.
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