Week 1 – Activity Post

The country I selected to write about for the duration of the course is Guatemala. Guatemala is a country directly below Mexico that connects Central America to South America. Its diverse culture and population are features that contributes to the country’s authenticity.

The authentic culture of the land and people are some of the excellent factors of this country. Guatemala is mainly known for its depth in Mayan culture and producing agriculture products. These features are also sources of income as Guatemala has seen 3% GDP growth rate in 2018. Despite growth, Guatemala still suffers downfalls such as, experiencing one of the highest inequality rates, with rampant levels of violence, poverty and malnutrition, especially in rural areas of the country. A World Bank study indicated that 52% of the Guatemalan residents in the country were indigenous.

Guatemala has a large population of 16.3 million with nutritional and disease-related health slowly improving as there has been a gradual decline in under-five (age 5) mortality in the country. Improvements to their drinking water, nutrition, and disease prevention are shown, but a quantity of their indigenous and rural residents still face those struggles.

Though Guatemala has a portion of their population in rural areas, and quite a majority in poverty, action can be taken to reduce this by taking economic strides towards investment and infrastructure. Increasing numbers of investment from the public may help majorly to reducing poverty, but lacking resources coming from the land will hinder this as well as lacking management. Improving access to affordable and accessible healthcare especially to the most vulnerable populations of Guatemala will reduce poverty and sickness, as well. Increase in education attendance would improve education to the residents on these measures with school attendance rates decreasing from primary to lower secondary by almost half (42%).

The Guatemalan people are a large, dedicated and diverse population made up of many faiths and languages. While populous, Guatemalans still are in need of equality. Indigenous women especially experience being forgotten in political and production matters.

Some interesting and pressing matters that I had learned in researching this unique country is that increased migration has caused mass settlement in Guatemala City. As agriculture makes up around 25% of their gross domestic product, their main crops are coffee, bananas, and sugar. As well as Spanish, there are 21 Mayan dialects and other Amerindian languages spoken in the country of Guatemala.

Project Concern International. “Guatemala: The Need & Overview,” https://www.pciglobal.org/guatemala/.

The World Bank. Guatemala Home: Context, Strategy. The World Bank, 04 April 2019, https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/guatemala/overview#1.

“UNICEF: Guatemala.” Guatemala (GTM) Demographics, Health & Infant Mortality – UNICEF Data, https://data.unicef.org/country/gtm/.

Watkins, Sarah. 10 Facts About Guatemala, 18 March 2013, http://www.cactusworldwide.com/blog/2013/03/18/10-facts-about-guatemala/.

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