Dianet

Dianet, expecting her first child, took careful notes during 1,000 Days nutrition lessons offered by Primeros Pasos. She learned the importance of keeping some of the vegetables growing on her family farm for her own diet rather than selling it all for export.

Dianet

Primeros Pasos, a once-abandoned mission clinic, was reopened by American and Guatemalan medical students to provide the only reliable health care in the Palajunoj Valley of the western highlands, where upwards of 70% of children are malnourished. Dianet and daughter Keytlin were regulars at the nutrition classes.

Dianet

In Guatemala, nutrition knowledge was often trumped by bad water and unsanitary conditions; intestinal illness is a large contributor to stunting. As she neared her second birthday, Keytlin lagged behind on the international growth chart, though she was more active and mentally sharper than most of the other children her age. She pestered her mom with questions about why she couldn’t go to school already.

Gabriela and Maria Estella

Gabriela (right) and Maria Estella eagerly joined the Primeros Pasos nutrition classes when they were pregnant. They learned that the health of their children depended on how well they ate during pregnancy.

Gabriela

Gabriela, who had no formal education, was proud to be in the class. She looked forward to the monthly measuring to see how much her son Jose, who was born more than a month premature, was growing.

Gabriela

For the first time, she leaned about vitamins and minerals and about hygiene and sanitation. She especially like the cooking classes, learning how to vary diets and mix in vegetables and fruits.

Gabriela

But she worried that she would be unable to act on this knowledge. It was rare that she could afford to buy vegetables, fruits and meats on her family’s limited income. “It’s frustrating,” she told the nutrition teacher. “We can’t buy enough food. You want to eat like you see other people eating.”

Maria Estella

Maria Estella, right with daughter Yesica Marisol, enjoyed the interactive learning, here filling up a ‘food bowl’ with friend Yolanda. She joined the class worried that Yesica Marisol was malnourished; she could see her daughter was smaller than other children. She wanted her second child to get off to a better start in life.

Maria Estella

Maria Estella’s second child, son Jorge, weighed more than eight pounds at birth, and he continued his robust growth. She was proud when neighbors came by her house to see her healthy son. She could see that his age-relevant development was more advanced than her older daughter Yesica Marisol.

Maria Estella

Maria Estella also was proud of the tidy condition of her house. For she learned that a dirty environment could undermine her efforts to provide her children with more nutritious food.

Maria Estella

When Jorge turned two, he was nearly the same size as his sister Yesica Marisol, who was almost four years old. Here they sit side-by-side on the stoop of their house.