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Chronic malnutrition stalks many poor children in Ecuador

Single mother Katherine Gualotuna holds her four-month-old daughter Arleth outside a one-bedroom shack where they live with Gualotuna's parents in Zámbiza, a rural town northeast of Quito, Ecuador, Monday, Nov. 15, 2022. Gualotuna, who depends on monthly government financial aid to buy food for her baby considered vulnerable to malnutrition, is working on her thesis needed to graduate as a technologist in industrial mechanics. She said her greatest desire is to have “money to get out of here and build a little house.” (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa) Children play during recess at a government-run daycare where they are fed one meal at lunch time in Catzuqui de Velasco, a rural area without reliable basic services like water and sewage, on the outskirts of Quito, Ecuador, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022. Child malnutrition is chronic among Ecuador's 18 million inhabitants, hitting hardest in rural areas and among the country's Indigenous, according to Erwin Ronquillo, secretary of the government program Ecuador Grows Without Malnutrition. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa) An Indigenous woman soothes her daughter before giving her a flu shot in Cotopaxi, Ecuador, Friday 2, 2022. Child malnutrition is chronic among Ecuador's 18 million inhabitants, hitting hardest in rural areas and among the country's Indigenous, according to Erwin Ronquillo, secretary of the government program Ecuador Grows Without Malnutrition. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa) Children's clothes dry in the sun in the Cotopaxi province of Ecuador, Friday 2, Dec. 2022. Child malnutrition is chronic among Ecuador's 18 million inhabitants, hitting hardest in rural areas and among the country's Indigenous, according to Erwin Ronquillo, secretary of the government program Ecuador Grows Without Malnutrition. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa) Marina, who did not want to give her last name, is given vitamins for her child from a Health Ministry worker who is going house to house in the Cotopaxi province of Ecuador, Friday, Dec. 2, 2022. Child malnutrition is chronic among Ecuador's 18 million inhabitants, hitting hardest in rural areas and among the country's Indigenous, according to Erwin Ronquillo, secretary of the government program Ecuador Grows Without Malnutrition. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa) Indigenous children herd sheep in the Cotopaxi province of Ecuador, Friday, Dec. 2, 2022. Child malnutrition is chronic among Ecuador's 18 million inhabitants, hitting hardest in rural areas and among the country's Indigenous, according to Erwin Ronquillo, secretary of the government program Ecuador Grows Without Malnutrition. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa) Children play soccer in the Catzuqui de Velasco, a rural area without reliable basic services like water and sewage, on the outskirts of Quito, Ecuador, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022. Child malnutrition is chronic among Ecuador's 18 million inhabitants, hitting hardest in rural areas and among the country's Indigenous, according to Erwin Ronquillo, secretary of the government program Ecuador Grows Without Malnutrition. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa) Children play during recess at a government-run daycare where they are fed one meal at lunch time in Catzuqui de Velasco, a rural area without reliable basic services like water and sewage, on the outskirts of Quito, Ecuador, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022. Child malnutrition is chronic among Ecuador's 18 million inhabitants, hitting hardest in rural areas and among the country's Indigenous, according to Erwin Ronquillo, secretary of the government program Ecuador Grows Without Malnutrition. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa) Single mother Tania Herrera holds her 20-day-old daughter Sara Milena as she breastfeeds her in the one-room shack where they live with her parents in Quito, Ecuador, Monday, Nov. 15, 2022. Herrara's parents are the breadwinners and earn $5 to $7 a day to feed five adults and support the new arrival. That income is stretched in hopes of feeding the adults twice a day: coffee with bread, when there is any, in the morning and a plate of rice at night, or maybe not. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
Chronic malnutrition stalks many poor children in Ecuador