What does poverty look like in Guatemala? Here are sobering statistics: 81% earn less than $2.00/day, 62% earn less than $1.00/day, 80% cook on the ground or use a wood burning stove, 52% live in a one room house, 61% have no schooling and 90% never finished the 6th grade. Furthermore, the educational statistics are even more alarming, according to the 2004 World Bank Report, Education and Poverty in Guatemala: 31.3% of the population 15 years and older are illiterate, 51.5% of indigenous women are illiterate, and 32.7% of indigenous men are illiterate. Guatemala has the highest female illiteracy in Latin America and only 42% of the 5.4 million people are enrolled in age-appropriate education.

According to the World Bank, ½ the world’s population (3 billion) live on less than $2.00/day and ¼ of the world’s population live on less than $1.00/day. In Guatemala, ½ the population lives in poverty and, of those, 80% live in chronic poverty and 20% live in transient poverty. A startling 76% of the indigenous live in poverty and a majority live in remote areas of the country. Clearly, these statistics are staggering; they represent men, women and children who suffer hunger, malnutrition, illiteracy, preventable health maladies, and vulnerability with food, clothing and shelter.