Information on Calhuitz Village

Overview of Calhuitz Village

Calhuitz, meaning “in between the mountains”, is a remote village in the mountains of Northern Guatemala, located in the district of San Sebastian Coatán in the Department of Huehuetenango. It is approximately 10+ hours from the capital, Guatemala City. The language spoken in the area is Chuj, which is a Mayan language. Breathless views and incredibly strong-willed people are the first sentiments uttered by former Global HEED Interns when asked to describe the area.

Map of Guatemala (on left) & Map of Huehuetenango San Sebastian Coatan (on right)

Map of San Sebastian Coatan (Calhuitz is circled in red) … Image Credit: Curamericas Guatemala

Calhuitz at a Glance

According to the 2010 census prepared by the staff of the Casa Materna, the 26 aldeas or villages under the jurisdiction of the Casa Materna (out of 34 aldeas in the San Sebastian Coatán district) have a population of at 10,000 people, while Calhuitz has approximately 1,200 habitants. For both the 26 aldeas and the Calhuitz population, children under 5 years of age represent a 14%, while women of reproductive age represent 27% of the population.

From our formative research and based off of interviews provided to the health workers of the Casa Materna, it was found that the municipality developed a water system (around 2008) that provided most residents of the village with running water at their homes (but not potable water). Electricity became available to residents of Calhuitz around 2006. The average cost is 50-75Q ($7-10USD) per month. It was also observed that the air is often smoky because the residents burn their trash and use wood burning stoves for cooking. Most of these stoves do have a chimney leading to the outside of the cooking area, but the most destitute families cannot afford to build this chimney and allow the smoke to build up inside of their homes.

The prevalent profession of the population is subsistence farming. The majority of the residents are women and children, since many men go off to other parts of the country or abroad to find work to send money back to their families. Many residents raise crops using slash and burn techniques and keep animals such as chickens and pigs for consumption; horses or donkeys to carry heavy loads; and dogs for protection.

Because of its geographical location and the conditions of the roads, it is hard for people to leave the community to obtain medical care (the nearest hospital 5 hours away from Calhuitz). There is one doctor serving Calhuitz and the 34 surrounding aldeas whose name is Dr. Mario Valdez. He has been working in the region for two decades. Through his guidance and the help of the hard-working staff at the Casa Materna, we have been able to take Summer Interns to Calhuitz and allow them to work hand-in-hand on various outreach programs with the community.