The @GuateSinHambre twitter page was opened on October 5 to bring awareness to the 6000 people who have died in Guatemala from causes associated with malnutrition last year. Also, to the 18 people that die every day, including children and the elderly.

In one night, @GuateSinHambre gained over 300 followers and is aiming for thousands more in order to present this issue to the presidential candidates in Guatemala. This movement is trying to gain support, not only from people who reside in Guatemala but also support from people around the world, using every media outlet possible to spread the news.

The project was created on the initiative of Luis Enrique Monterroso, head of the Right to Food Department of the Human Rights Office in Guatemala, Jose Luis Vivero, chief of the Central America Mission Against Hunger and pharmacy and nutrition students at Galileo University, who want to do something to help their country.

#GuateSinHambre will be the official twitter hashtag for an upcoming event taking place on October 16, 2011, in Obelisco, Guatemala City, in hopes that it will become a trending topic. During this time, people won’t be eating during the daytime and at six o’clock, participants will gather to mourn the 6575 people who died last year from malnutrition, by fasting and lighting a candle in their memories.

The event will showcase Guatemala’s unity as a country, and how it is time for a change, particularly through the eyes of the young people that inhabit the country. The goal of the event is to pressure two presidential candidates that are running for a second election, to include an agricultural strategy in their plan to reshape the country.

It will show what a significant issue this is, and that it needs to be dealt with immediately. The citizens of Guatemala are coming together with the intention of no longer keeping quiet about the major issues in the country. They are sharing their voices in unison, fighting against injustice.

Another goal of GuateSinHambre is to organize a watch group with which to keep an eye on the 33000 villages in Guatemala, and to gather information from them. The sponsored families will be responsible for maintaining their “centinela site”. These families will also receive an introduction to how the system works, which will take up to two days.

A watch group will record information in an excel sheet on a monthly basis, to report to the human rights prosecutor and the ministry of Food and Nutrition security in case action is needed in a certain village.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/diskmix/

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