SVAKOM cares

Since the end of the 5th century, Valentines has been a date marked on the Gregorian calendar as a commemoration of the good works performed by Saint Valentine of Rome, which are deeply attached to the universal concept of love and affection.

Through the years, this date has become the one where is okay to show our romantic love.

But SVAKOM – thinks as many other people – do that love can be expressed in many ways and towards all people (self-love, for our relatives, our best friends, pets, etc.). That’s why, this year, we decided to take back the real meaning of this date.

Our love found its recipient in a small Guatemalan clinic in charge of weighing and feeding more than 200 chronically malnourished children. After having a videoconference with the representatives of the organization -which preferred to stay anonymous for security reasons- the SVAKOM staff got down to work and think about the best way to help the cause; we also learned that the timing couldn’t be better since the country was been hit with devastating natural disasters on top of the COVID crisis.

SVAKOM gained access to an interview with María Claudia Santizo, Nutrition Officer at UNICEF Guatemala and got more insights about the general situation and the best way to jump in and help.

“Chronic malnutrition in Guatemala is a worrying issue. It affects one in two children under the age of five. Despite the seriousness of the matter, it is an issue that goes unnoticed by the general population, even by the relatives of those who suffer from it.”

What is the general situation of children in Guatemala? What about malnutrition?

“Our main problem is chronic malnutrition. In Guatemala, 49.8% of children suffer from it; that is, 1 in 2. Ranking first in Latin America and sixth in the world in terms of child malnutrition…

School dropout is very high and is largely not only due to the lack of opportunities, but to the consequences of malnutrition itself: if the kids don’t have adequate nutrition in the first two years of life, they will have many difficulties: They will be smaller than the rest, their IQ will have an uneven development, may lose up to 40% of their potential neurons, they will have many attention problems, and they will most likely drop out of school. Reducing their future job opportunities in an already complicated environment”

A lot of information was shared and that gave us a better understanding of the current scenario and the needs of this beautiful Central American country, all the synergy created led SVAKOM to donate enough powdered formula to this clinic in order for them to produce over 75,000L of milk -the key source of combined nutrients and vitamins these children need to boost their health- for a period of between 6 and 8 months.

This is, without a doubt, the best Valentine's Day SVAKOM has ever had.

Press release provided by SVAKOM.