In the small villages that dot the shores of Guatemala?s Lake Atitlan, there are few sources of income. The mostly indigenous population suffers from high levels of poverty, with women and children often stricken with poor health and chronic malnutrition as a result. In the lakeside village of San Pablo La Laguna in Solola, a women's advancement organization called Creciendo Bien (Growing Well) holds monthly workshops teaching women to improve their own lives and communities. This UNICEF partner instructs women on a variety of topics, but focuses mostly on health and nutrition. Creciendo Bien has trained a group of women as volunteers called "Mother Leaders" to educate their community about nutrition. In turn, each leader trains a group of 25 women who have signed up for the programme. "The trainings help us with real life," says the youngest of the Mother Leaders, 21-year-old Chonita. Leaders like Chonita visit families in the community and weigh their babies to ensure they are developing at a healthy rate. If there are problems with nutrition in a family, they try to remedy them. "The Creciendo Bien programme was created to educate women on how to prepare food," says the coordinator for all of Creciendo Bien's Mother Leaders, Dora Maria Yojcom. "For example: beans. It's a simple food here in Guatemala and it's nutritious for the child. In this way, we begin to educate people to change malnutrition into nutrition."

In the small villages that dot the shores of Guatemala?s Lake Atitlan, there are few sources of income. The mostly indigenous population suffers from high levels of poverty, with women and children often stricken with poor health and chronic malnutrition as a result. In the lakeside village of San Pablo La Laguna in Solola, a women's advancement organization called Creciendo Bien (Growing Well) holds monthly workshops teaching women to improve their own lives and communities. This UNICEF partner instructs women on a variety of topics, but focuses mostly on health and nutrition. Creciendo Bien has trained a group of women as volunteers called "Mother Leaders" to educate their community about nutrition. In turn, each leader trains a group of 25 women who have signed up for the programme. "The trainings help us with real life," says the youngest of the Mother Leaders, 21-year-old Chonita. Leaders like Chonita visit families in the community and weigh their babies to ensure they are developing at a healthy rate. If there are problems with nutrition in a family, they try to remedy them. "The Creciendo Bien programme was created to educate women on how to prepare food," says the coordinator for all of Creciendo Bien's Mother Leaders, Dora Maria Yojcom. "For example: beans. It's a simple food here in Guatemala and it's nutritious for the child. In this way, we begin to educate people to change malnutrition into nutrition."

In the small villages that dot the shores of Guatemala?s Lake Atitlan, there are few sources of income. The mostly indigenous population suffers from high levels of poverty, with women and children often stricken with poor health and chronic malnutrition as a result. In the lakeside village of San Pablo La Laguna in Solola, a women's advancement organization called Creciendo Bien (Growing Well) holds monthly workshops teaching women to improve their own lives and communities. This UNICEF partner instructs women on a variety of topics, but focuses mostly on health and nutrition. Creciendo Bien has trained a group of women as volunteers called "Mother Leaders" to educate their community about nutrition. In turn, each leader trains a group of 25 women who have signed up for the programme. "The trainings help us with real life," says the youngest of the Mother Leaders, 21-year-old Chonita. Leaders like Chonita visit families in the community and weigh their babies to ensure they are developing at a healthy rate. If there are problems with nutrition in a family, they try to remedy them. "The Creciendo Bien programme was created to educate women on how to prepare food," says the coordinator for all of Creciendo Bien's Mother Leaders, Dora Maria Yojcom. "For example: beans. It's a simple food here in Guatemala and it's nutritious for the child. In this way, we begin to educate people to change malnutrition into nutrition."