Guatemala is a small but beautiful country that sits just south of Mexico. Guatemala City is the country’s capitol. The country is geographically mountainous and tropical and has the largest rain forest north of the Amazon. Guatemala has one of the most vivid and diverse cultures of Central America that is rooted to ancient Mayan culture, which continue to influence the country to this day. If you would like to learn more about Guatemala, we recommend watching Guatemala-Heart of the Mayan World on Netflix. 

Despite sitting on only 42,000 square miles, Guatemala has a population of about 16 million people. Over 360,000 children who live in Guatemala are orphans or have lost a parent. Fifty percent of children under the age of five suffer from stunted growth as a result of inadequate nutrition. The majority of children leave school after fifth grade to work; resulting in twenty five percent of the child population to be engaged in child labor.

The children of rural mountain communities suffer just as much as the orphans in the city. Although these children have parents, their families are poor and often subject to domestic violence. These children often do not even attend school. The infant mortality rates are high resulting in parents who continue to have children in the hope that some of them will survive to help support the family.