Where We Work
Guatemala is a Central American nation with coastline on the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Guatemala shares borders with Mexico, Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras. Totonicapán is one of Guatemala's smallest and poorest departments and is located in Guatemala's mountainous Western Highlands.
Facts about Guatemala and the Department of Totonicapán
- Guatemala Population: 17 million, approximately 50% of whom are indigenous, including the Maya K'iche' peoples of Totonicapán
- Guatemala is a mountainous, sub-tropical nation with rich biodiversity and equally rich cultural heritage
- Spanish and 23 officially recognized indigenous languages are spoken in Guatemala - in many areas, Spanish remains a second language
- Chronic malnutrition affects the lives of seventy percent of indigenous people in Totonicapán, Guatemala
- Three-stone fires require indigenous women and children to gather huge amounts of wood daily (18,000 pounds per family per year), contributing to Guatemala’s deforestation level of two percent per year
- For further information, please consult the Needs Assessment