AMERICA/GUATEMALA - Ensuring food and health care to mothers in the early months of pregnancy to prevent born babies to die of hunger

Guatemala City ( Agenzia Fides) - In Guatemala, according to official figures, a child under 5 years of age out of two suffer from chronic malnutrition because of the poverty in which 52% of the 15 million inhabitants of the country live. According to the Commission for Food Safety and Nutrition of the Government, 62 children have died since the beginning of the year and other 9700 minors fall within the general framework of severe malnutrition. To cope with the phenomenon, the Government has launched the so-called Ventana de los cien dìas program with the aim of ensuring food and health care to mothers in the early months of pregnancy, to prevent that the child is born undernourished and suffers serious consequences in first years of life. The communities most severely affected by hunger and poverty are those inhabited by indigenous people without basic services such as drinking water, health centers and schools. (AP) ( Agenzia Fides 29/08/2013 )