Guatemala declared a national calamity due to lack of food, improper nutrition

2009-09-09 22:07:43 (GMT) (Caymanmama.com - Food World News News)

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World Food Programme (WFP) is the food aid branch of the United Nations

Miami, Florida (CaymanMama.com) — As world hunger and malnutrition continues its siege against the poor and impoverished, Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom has declared his country to be in a state of national calamity as the majority of the scenic country’s citizens lack food or proper nutrition.

Addressing the nation during a nationally televised address Tuesday evening, Colom said his dire declaration should make Guatemala more accessible to food for the thousands of families that are doing without.

“This will help us access resources from the international community that are generously offered for this type of situation and to mobilize national resources more rapidly,” he said.

The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) reports that the small Central American country of Guatemala has the fourth highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world, as well as the highest rate in both Latin America and the Caribbean.

Colom attributed Guatemala’s food strife to the country’s annual drought, global warming and the widespread effects of the global economic crisis. He also pointed the finger of fault toward the Central American nation’s “history of unfairness that has made Guatemala live since long ago with high and shameful poverty levels, extreme poverty and undernutrition.”



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