Migration is a costly business

Maria Salome Keyach [Marcella Haddad]

Neglected rural areas of Guatemala face high levels of poverty. Many people migrate to find work but often fall into debt, which has to be paid off by their families back home

Maria Salome Keyach is 76 years old and has seen the impact of poverty in the rural area of Santa Maria de Chiquimula first-hand.

Two of her brothers now work in the US along with her younger sister’s husband. All three send money home to support their families.

But trying to migrate is a costly business, and risky too, as many are forced to work illegally or in unsafe employment. It is easy to fall into debt, which can then hit the family at home hard.

Maria says: “Some people pay as much as 45,000 Quetzales (£3,000) for guides to get them there and safely across the border.

“They may borrow money from their families or from lenders at really high interest rates. If they don’t repay the lenders they may take the family’s house. Some die on the way in the Mexican desert. The guides are known as ‘coyotes’.”

Maria tells one story of a local boy who went to the US after his father died even though he had a business and a car at home.

“When he arrived he was ill. He’s in hospital now. His brothers and sisters spend all their money going there. The mother is working hard just so they have something to eat.”

Food for a healthy future

To help those struggling to make ends meet back home, the local health clinic run by CAFOD partner Santa Maria de Chiquimula Parish has opened a food store.

Maria works in the store and says: “I prepare the bags of food to be taken to the communities. 2lbs of beans, 5lbs of maize for the families depending on the month.

“All the communities that make up the health programme receive food from this store. It’s an exchange – they get the food for bringing their children every month to be weighed, measured and vaccinated.”

The parish also trains mothers to grow vegetables. All the women in the programme must also tend a vegetable plot to receive the food aid.

Maria also attends workshops organised for the parish's 40 health promoters, one or two from each of the outlying villages, who deliver the much-needed food supplements.

Topics range from basic cooking and nutrition to the health implications of mining companies coming to the area. The health promoters can then share what they have learned with women in their communities.

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