Carolina Guerrero-León * and Marcos Arana-Cedeño **(1)

Published by Contact, #186 (http://www.oikoumene.org/fileadmin/files/wcc-main/documents/p4/contact/con-186.pdf)

Mexico is a land of exceptional cultural and biological diversity, but just like many other Latin American countries, it is characterized by gaping social inequities. The place where these three dimensions converge to gain an even larger significance is Chiapas, one of the 32 states in the republic, located in the southeast
part of Mexico. This state, home to an abundance of natural resources, however confronts the highest infant mortality rate (2), with the greatest national percentage of the population living in food poverty (3), resulting
in one of the highest rates of malnutrition in the country. These great contradictions unchained in 1994 the uprising  of the Zapatista movement, which began as an armed initiative to defend the indigenous people’s rights and converted into a non-violent struggle that continues until today.

The extreme dispersion of the population, its cultural diversity, social polarization and the entrenched
inequities make it difficult for authorities and other organizations to intervene in an effort to improve the state of health and nutrition amongst the locals. In spite of the fact that there have been several programs and governmental strategies combating malnutrition over the last 30 years, it remains one of the more urgent health problems, now even further complicated by the emergence of other disorders such as obesity and Type II Diabetes. The relative ineffectiveness of these programs is mainly due to the fact that they focus little on local empowerment and lack cultural relevance. In fact, the majority of these efforts had centered on food assistance, and though they have contributed to increase food availability, they also created local
dependency and discouraged local food production.

In Chiapas, 10.3% of the children under five years of age are underweight and 27% suffer chronic
malnutrition, figures that represent roughly a double of the national values (4). These figures are even higher amongst the indigenous populations, where in some regions, rates stunting of  children under five
exceed 50%.(5)

Corn fields (milpas) and the vegetable patch gardens represented traditionally two spaces for food
production, which have not only been a principal means of sustenance but also centers of the daily activities of the indigenous habitants of Chiapas, where they recreate their culture and identity. Although these spaces remain crucial in everyday life of the indigenous communities, the fragmentation of the land, the environmental deterioration and changes in agrarian policies have caused these spaces to be increasingly insufficient in satisfying the needs of the population, a trend resulting in a progressive loss of food security.

Food security at the start of life

The idea of food security at the earliest stages of life refers to the critical period which spans from gestation to the first two years of age when an adequate nutrition is crucial for optimal growth and development. The Ecological and Health Center for Empowerment of Peasants (CCESC) developed and tested a model of prevention of malnutrition consisting of weekly follow ups  of mothers with children between six and nine months of age in selected  communities in the Chiapas Highlands (Figure 1)

This educational follow up is carried out through weekly consultas colectivas (6)  (focus groups), in which introduction of complementary foods is advocated from six months of age, emphasizing five priority subjects: exclusive breastfeeding, adequate complementary food, production in the vegetable patch garden,
hygiene and psychomotor development. Likewise, demonstrative preparations of purees produced with a mix of locally available seasonal foods to improve the biological availability of nutrients were carried out to encourage the consumption of locally available and traditional foods. The purpose was to reinforce the
benefits of exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months, and then trigger an effective introduction of complementary nutrition, prepared without salt or sugar additives and with local products at its basis, accompanied with stimulation.  

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of such a personalized follow-up, results  from the mothers and children who participated in the program for twelve subsequent weeks (attendance of 75% or more of the joint consultation) were compared with those mother-child pairs who attended a fewer number of meetings.
To all those, who did not participate in the joint consultation, visits were paid in their place of residence. The analysis showed that the educational follow up resulted in significant prevention against acute malnutrition and underweight at 18 months of age (7). However, this project also provided results that went beyond infant nutritional facts.

This educative process recognizes the need to implement a preventive system which gives appropriate attention to the seasonal needs of the population, encouraging the use of traditional seasonally available foods.  Such system does not only reinforce strengths and knowledge of the mothers regarding
production and preparation of foods, but also their decisions about how to use their own resources, empowered through the food production in vegetable patch. Therefore, the suggestions of family diet
provided in this process were respectful of  traditional knowledge, reinforcing use of products such as pozol and ts’uil itaj (8)  by young mothers whom have been substituting them with new types of  products that are high in energy density and low in nutritional value.

In addition to averting malnutrition in this critical period, this project seeks to foster “nutritional imprinting” which promotes early development of tastes and preferences favoring the flavors, colors, and textures of traditionally and locally produced foods, free of additional sugar and salt. This strategy  has great relevance
as an early measure against obesity and Type II Diabetes, one of the greatest health threats in the country.

The circumstances of this fieldwork were complicated due to a series of conditions that hampered women from participating in group activities. Among them, the prevalent community divisions, a heavy burden of household work and the mistrust or reluctance generated by other programs working in their communities, which had conditioned them to expect material benefits upon attending meetings.

In this project, the daily work was broached on the grounds of mutual needs and interests, paying close attention to the circumstances of mothers and the needs  stemming from the anthropometric follow-up of their children. In these activities, the exchange of experiences and knowledge were encouraged between the women, as they fostered the creation and reinforcement of mutual help networks between them, promoting empathetic relationships and solidarity to resolve everyday problems related to their nutrition and health, as well as that of their children.

The new phase of this project is directed toward its expansion to entire municipalities with work to be carried out  alongside legal and traditional authorities who have expressed their concerns about the high
prevalence of malnutrition. The project includes the development of educational materials, exclusively
designed for the cultural characteristics and the seasonal food availability in these regions.

We are grateful to the families, students and the professionals who have worked with us to achieve this joint learning experience. We want also to express our gratitude to Victoria Tai who translated this manuscript into English.

* Centro de Capacitación en Ecología y Salud para Campesinos (CCESC) - Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán (INCMNSZ). Chiapas, México.