The sugar mills through Fundazúcar, its social arm, trained 1,450 women from 46 communities of Retalhuleu and Suchitepéquez as part of the Better Families program.

The program, which lasted 15 months, was carried out with women in communities in the municipalities of San Andrés Villa Seca, Retalhuleu, San Felipe, Champerico, San José La Maquina and Mazatenango.

Better Families is a model of self-management that promotes Food and Nutrition Security, self-esteem, self-management and leadership in women, as an agent of change for the well-being of the family and the community.

As part of the program, a nutritional analysis is performed on children under 5 years of age, who are heavy and measured, mothers are taught to monitor the growth of their children and to identify the necessary food to give them a balanced diet; they are also taught the proper handling of food to avoid health problems. The weight and height of 907 children were monitored in the 46 communities that were part of the program.

The objectives of the program are: to develop in women of the communities practices for the adequate selection, preparation and consumption of food. Educate mothers in preventive health with sustainable actions to improve the condition of the mothers and their children, also work with, family and community and strengthen community organization to ensure self-management processes and sustainability of food security.

After 15 months of training, these women successfully completed the process, which closes with the official graduation ceremony.

“Achieving this goal, for trained women means having preventive health, food and nutritional security practices that will change their lives, those of their families and communities, may have a better quality of life and better health indicators for their families, in addition to take care of yourself as women and make decisions as a couple, ” said Anita de Castillo, director of education at Fundazúcar.

Fundazúcar, as the social arm of the sugar mills of Guatemala, started the Better Families program in 1997 and since that date has trained more than 500 thousand women in whom it achieves behavior change at the individual, family and community level, which impacts positive way in reducing childhood chronic malnutrition.

The Foundation also carries out other municipal education, health and development programs that are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations Organization.