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Mayan Families Canada works closely with local organizations to determine families who are in urgent need of food assistance. These families are given basic food items including baby formula, oil, corn, rice, milk, eggs, bread, meat and poultry.
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Further help is given through the gift of chickens. Protein deficiency is one of the greatest causes of malnutrition in Guatemala. Chickens provide families with a sustainable source of protein from the eggs and meat, and a supplemental income from selling extra eggs and chickens. Over time, families are able to improve their situation further by selling a chicken and purchasing two chicks to increase their flock.
Starting with low birth weight babies born into food deficient homes
These children remain undernourished throughout childhood
They are unable to develop full mental and physical capacities
They are stunted, wasted and inadequately skilled upon reaching adulthood
They are forced to do unskilled labour at the lowest possible wage rate
This results in a continued food shortage
And further pregnancies in malnutritioned mothers