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: Traveling the roads of resilient children April 26, 2011
I recently went to visit the communities of Yalchactic I and Salvador Chizol, near the city of Cobán in Guatemala's mountainous Alta Verapaz region. A large portion of the access roads to these communities are in very bad shape.
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Guatemala: Reaching 500+ flooded-out families in Guatemala with aid June 7, 2010
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Guatemala: Tropical Storm Agatha: Our response in Guatemala unfolds June 4, 2010
This week's Tropical Storm Agatha has left 150,000 persons displaced throughout Guatemala as a result of flooding, damage and destruction of housing, roads and bridges, and mudslides and landslides.
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Guatemala: After the storm: Assessing post-Agatha needs in Guatemala June 1, 2010
Mercy Corps’ team in Guatemala is assessing the damage inflicted by Tropical Storm Agatha over the weekend.
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Guatemala: Travels in Alta Verapaz May 24, 2010
It's raining again in Coban, Guatemala. Driving out to visit some communities, we come upon the apparently eternal landslide bleeding from the rain the night before, and washing out the road with its rust-red mud and boulders.
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Guatemala: Part 2: Tilling the soil April 4, 2008
Training newly landed farmers and helping them sell to lucrative markets is the second step in Mercy Corps' approach to rural economic development.
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Guatemala: Earning Money and Respect April 3, 2008
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Guatemala: Part 1: Owning the land April 3, 2008
Conflicts over land erupted when worldwide prices for coffee plummeted in 2000. Many Guatemalan coffee plantations shut down and forced workers from their homes on the land — leading to violent confrontations between landlords and laid-off workers.
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Guatemala: Video: What Youth Can Do April 3, 2008
In the remote Guatemalan countryside, Mercy Corps is working with an impressive group of young people to educate their peers and their community about HIV/AIDS.
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Guatemala: A community abuzz April 3, 2008
Raising honeybees is all the buzz in this bucolic Guatemalan village, where a dozen women harvested $700 worth of honey in their first year.